After almost exactly a month in California, I packed up my things and spent some time out of state for two weeks, to ultimately end up in Colorado. My little blue car, that was freshly purchased, and I had a road trip to complete. If you know me, you know that I am a great sleeper. So road tripping 2,000 miles did not seem like the best idea to do alone. Neither did Lawrence (you’ll probably be hearing a lot about him).So by the time I got to Las Vegas, I was joined by my road trip buddy. But first, I of course had some car problems. It was definitely my fault for not getting the car checked out before doing the long drive but last minute me didn’t end up having time for that. Lawrence had called me to tell me he was at the airport waiting for his flight from Denver to Vegas. I decided to tell him that the temperature gage had been on hot the entire drive. I didn’t think too much of it because I hadn’t been totally sure if the gage was broken and had always read wrong but he was definitely concerned. He had me pull over and call a mechanic. I reluctantly complied, knowing that if the car blew up, that was the end of our road trip. 2 hours and $200 later, I was filled up on coolant and oil…ugh.
I was a little later to the airport than expected (by 2ish hours) but was happy to have someone else driving with me from there on out. It had been four months since we had seen each other in Komodo, but we were already back to adventuring. We drove a couple more hours got to Zion around 3am and set up camp for the night. The next morning we entered a lottery to go see one of the beautiful rock structures called The Wave but sadly did not get 2 of the 10 tickets that were handed out daily. So we headed on in to the park.
Wow. Zion is absolutely breathtaking. There was some traffic but with views like that you can’t be mad. The red color beaming from the rocks was incredible. Since we were off to a later start, we decided to go try to get a campsite so we could spend more time in the park. And of course a nap was in order because that was all we really did the night before.
After our nap we checked out the park. You must take a shuttle up to the different parts of the park, in order to keep traffic from backing up. It was a good idea but was also didn’t allow for as much freedom, which we didn’t like. The first hike we did up to Emerald pools was cut short by a landslide that had happened earlier in the year. Beautiful nonetheless but we decided to make our way up to the end to check out the Narrows. It felt so nice to be in the mountains and camping again so I was a happy girl. Deer were all over this park and they didn’t seem to be bothered by people. Lawrence’s backpack was almost sacrificed to the curious animals. We thought about hiking the Narrows the next morning so we wanted to check it out before. After walking through the water, at 39 degrees with no proper foot ware, we opted out of the 9 mile hike the next morning to save our poor toes. We headed back just as the sun set, ready for some grub. On the menu were Trader Joe’s gnocchi and my family’s homemade pasta sauce…DELICIOUS!
We had another late morning, with no rush to get anywhere but to enjoy our time on the roads trip. We decided to head to Antelope Canyon in Utah because I really wanted to see the slot canyons. Little did we know, you have to pay $70 and you must take a tour to see them. Instead, we paid $10 and went to Horseshoe Bend where we waited a few hours too many for the sunset. We also decided to come back the next morning for sunrise as well. We found free camping on BLM land and set up our tent in a little desert. It was almost a full moon so you could perfectly see the mountains outlined among us. Stunning. Though it was cold as shit so I didn’t spend too much time outside of the tent that night. California baby isn’t used to the cold.
The next morning we were up before the sun, and on our way to catch it. But first we would be stopped for speeding (it wasn’t me!) and going 30 miles over the limit. You can ask Lawrence about that.
Sunrise was cool but the best part is that there were barely any people there. We enjoyed our homemade chai and oatmeal up on the rock overlooking the bend as the sun came up.
Since we were starting our morning meal with scenic views, we thought the Grand Canyon would be the most fitting place for lunch. I had never thought much about the Grand Canyon and just thought it was kind of overrated. Man was I wrong. It is so gorgeous and I would love to go back and hike into it and/or go white water rafting down the Colorado River through the canyon. It’s crazy to look at a structure that is thousands of years old and how much it would have changed. Truly a beautiful sight.
We made our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico that night for the Hot Air Balloon Festival. But first we spent a day with Lawrence’s uncle up in the mountains to breathe the fresh clean air, climb on some rocks, and see the golden Aspens before they lost their leaves. The green and the gold, the mountains, and the people I was with, couldn’t have made me happier. It was a wonderful day spent!
We covered 6 states in 6 days but our adventure wasn’t quite over yet. Just after we reached the border of Colorado, we went to the Great Sand Dunes. There we packed our backpacks and headed to the backcountry to camp for the night. Now it only took about an hour and a half from the car until we set up camp but we went up 1000 feet in pure sand. At times, if we were gentle enough (so we all know how that worked for me), we could walk normal-ish on the sand. Then other times we were shin deep trying not to crawl our way up to the top.
It was weird seeing tons of sand but without an ocean directly behind it. There were two more camps set up a little farther but you couldn’t see them from our spot. We watched the sun fade behind the billions of granules and we immediately got in the tent. That night got down below freezing so we bundled up in our sleeping bags and watched the full moon rise over the mountain peaks.
The next morning, we packed up our things, slid down the mountain, and headed up to Longmont where I would be spending the next two weeks. There I would hang out and become a part of the family, replacing Lawrence since he was always working. I got to go volunteer at his little brothers’ school, hang out with the cats and dog, and just chill…like I never have before. I’ve never not had a job or a million things to do so as much as it felt like I was being lazy and doing absolutely nothing, it was great! Especially because I knew once I left Colorado, I would be going nonstop for a little while.
The first weekend, we went up to Aspen area to visit our Maui friend, Nora. She was working up there teaching science to Kinder-4th graders. She showed us around the cute little sleepy town Carbondale, we went and hot-tubbed under the stars in the snowy air, went on a hike, saw a moose, and fed some chickens. It was a pretty great 24 hours.
Throughout the rest of my time there I got to meet new friends, see some old (not old but not-so-new) friends, and experienced my very first actively falling snow!
It was a great time and well spent with some quality people. I will be back to Colorado one day but now it’s off to a different country for some more adventures!
The Travelling Cookie 