California to Texas

Since our last post, we have done some of the following:

-cliff jumped into naturally turquoise blue waters
-driven 1500+ miles
-stayed with some very good friends from earlier days of our lives
-seen swarms of bats arise from a cave

 In sum we have been having a blast.  Our first stop was the Grand Canyon, but not your typical South Rim/North Rim experience.  No, we headed for the Supai Indian reservation, a town eight miles into the canyon on a piece of paradise.  This region could seriously be the modern Garden of Eden; nestled between rich red canyon walls, surrounded by lush green vegetation, lays some of the most beautiful waterfalls and creeks Kindra and I ever set eye on. 

We camped a few miles past the town, and walking to the site I encountered Havasu Falls, the place of my heart.  For the past two years I have had up in my office a picture of this glorious waterfall, and it daily inspired me to continue resting and enjoying in the midst of chaos and work.  It represents to me the peace of God, the restful and flowing presence of love, a place where I am safe.  Kindra and I set up our tent and headed back to the falls to go swimming.

Havasu Falls

Despite the tribe's obvious policies prohibiting diving and jumping into water, we couldn't resist making a splash into the numerous turquoise pools at the base of Havasu Falls.  We laughed, we swam, we even tried swimming towards the powerful falls itself, only to be pushed around by a forceful current.  We were in paradise. 

After a warm night's sleep (it was in the balmy 50s compared to our camping in the 20s only a few weeks earlier), we set off on an adventure for Beaver Falls, a three mile trek across creeks, chain ladders and various waterfalls.  Forgetting our water shoes, Kindra soaked her tennis shoes in the creek while I went barefoot most of the way.  The start of the trail took us down a chain laden cliff side to Mooney Falls, and then we trekked through turquoise pools and along a wispy red dirt trail until our eventual arrival at the tranquil Beaver Falls. 

Way to Mooney Falls!

Creek crossing

Just past there our real adventure began, as we rock climbed a precarious perch over a small waterfall.  Following this strenuous and exhilarating climb, where several times I thought for sure I would fall into the water, we found a perfect spot for 20 foot cliff jumps, and had some fun making a splash. 

Site of our precarious climbing and cliff jumping.

This whole journey into the canyon was memorable, and a highlight of the whole trip thus far for me.  Kindra and I made friends with a few travelers while camping, one from Arizona and one from Nebraska.  They treated us to wine and freeze dried eggs, and we had some good laughs with them.  After a grueling ten mile hike out of the canyon, we stayed with our friends the Kepners in Flagstaff, and the following day the Dagens in El Paso.  Both families were incredibly hospitable and fun to catch up with.

Us with Jeremiah and Lori Kepner in Flagstaff.

Craig and Heidi Dagen with their daughter Lydia in El Paso.

Months ago, Kindra told me she had never seen Carlsbad Caverns, and so following El Paso we explored this National Park, full of stalactites and stalagmites.  That evening, we went to a 'bat show,' where thousands of bats flew out of the Cavern at sunset in fantastic swirling, darting style.  As if the night couldn't get better, our campsite head for that evening supplied us with free firewood.  It was a cold night, in the 30s, so a warm fire hit the spot.  We awoke in the morning to the paw prints of raccoons saturating our car :)

We are now in Austin, TX, my namesake, and are thankful to be staying with the one of Kindra's bridesmaids, Caroline.  In the this week we will be in Houston, Dallas, Arlington, Arkansas and Kansas.  The adventure continues!

For more pictures of Grand Canyon: https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/HavasupaiGrandCanyon#

Highlights Part II and Reflections

Alas, I am back, sitting here in the fine apartment of Amanda and Tim Gross, after dancing and living it up at the Lounsbury wedding that Kindra was in this afternoon (the whole reason for our return from Canada).  But let me continue the travel tales from our Canadian return via Yellowstone....

We spent our last day in Yellowstone traversing cliff sides, gorgeous waterfalls, lakes, and geysers.  Lower Yellowstone falls was spectacular, full of energy and color.  We made a friend who we ran into at four separate viewpoints along the canyon surrounding the falls, which was great.  A windy drive took us past a veryyyy large lake and to Old Faithful, which faithfully gave a performance for us at sunset.  Post sunset, on our drive back to our RV packed campground, we past yet another bison crossing.  We pulled over and watched these gorgeous beasts tiptoe across the highway, to the chagrin of other drivers.  As we sat in our car awestruck, a bison actually sniffed our license plate and then tronced right by Kindra as she had the car door halfway open!  It was both shocking exhilarating.  Disaster averted, we continued our journey, enamored by the beauty of these large animals.

Early Thursday, we saw a few more geysers, and drove for Utah.  We spent three hours fixing a busted headlight at an Autozone in Logan, Utah (special thanks to the staff there; soooo helpful).  Tired yet feeling resilient, we drove over night for Pasadena, braving thunderstorms and lack of sleep.  Thus finished our first journey in this saga.

Reflecting on the last month and a half, I feel that Kindra and I have become way more a cohesive team.  Farming together, driving together, troubleshooting a wet tent together; it bonded us all the more.  I felt a deeper sense of trust in my wife come alive, and this is huge because I have a lot of mistrust and belief that 'I am the best person to do something and can't allow someone else to do it' rooted in me.  I was able to let go of the smallish things (ie showers, unscheduled break downs and stops, cold weather, aching joints) and accept every mishap as a valuable piece of the journey.  And I began to thrive.  A deep happiness, a peace, descended from living simply and wildly in nature, with little societal, friend or family pressure to say 'no, you can't do this' or 'that's unacceptable' or 'you'll never be wanted for being like that.'  We became hippies, vagabonds, free spirits, open to new ideas and friendships, ready to embrace simplicity and spontaneity.  Being in nature, in God's gorgeous creation, was one of the most soothing gratifying parts of the trip.  Constant jaw dropping views and fresh air and hikes, all of them lifted us up into a place of wonder and joy.  We were kids again. 

Tomorrow we leave for a three day backpacking trip on a Supai Indian reservation in the Grand Canyon.  I hope our second leg of the journey is as brilliantly inspiring for us as the first.  I hope to learn more of the spirit of Love, of being a warm and welcoming person with others (we will have a lot of stops with friends).  So until our next post, blessings to you who read!

Two Week Highlights Part I

Wow, has it really been a week since our last post?  Time is flying as we are back to California from our Round I North American trip, and preparing to leave for another month, this time covering Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.  That is quite a mouthful there.

But let's rewind to our previous adventure, where we left off in Alberta, Canada.  Shortly after a dash through Banff National Park (not nearly as impressive at Mt. Robson Provincal Park), we crossed the U.S. border and headed south for Glacier National Park.  We camped in a snow covered, fogged in campground with lows in the 20s...brrrrrr.  Hot tea and a gazillion layers of clothes kept us warm, and the next day we explored pristine bit of the Rockies that is incredibly beautiful.

We drove along the 'Highway to the Sun,' soaking in views of vast snow capped mountains and a beautiful lake.  Feeling active, we hit the trails for waterfalls, and saw three incredible ones along a six mile or so hike.  I tested fate in climbing wet rocks near the waterfalls, and finally paid the price by slipping into the third waterfall and getting my feet and shoes soaked.  We dried the shoes on our warm engine (which worked really well in a pinch) and spent another cold night in Glacier.  That morning we packed up and hit the road for Yellowstone National Park, making a stop at REI to make a well needed tent upgrade (Bruce at that Bozeman REI was awesome; we have always had extremely positive experiences with REI staff and products).  Passing by school children gaping at the huge stone arch marking our country's first national park, we dived into the adventures that Yellowstone had for us.

Initially we weren't too impressed.  On a hunt to see incredible wildlife, we spoke to the backcountry ranger and got all set up for an overnight hike/camp in 'America Sarangetti.'  While we did have three separate moose sightings, and a backcountry campground all to our selves (and our REI tent held up wonderfully to rain, not a drop of condensation inside), we left tired and emptied handed of the bear, wolf and bison up close experiences we were hoping for (I had the bear spray handy just in case).  One plus side of the hike was that Kindra taught me the words to Pocahontas' 'Colors of the Wind' and 'Just Around the Riverbend,' which singing also conveniently kept us from startling any bears hanging out near the trail.

Wildlife sightings went wayyyy up after that hike.  We were 'accosted' multiple times bison highway crossings, with the 600 pound wild beasts stepping withing incheso of our car at point.  We saw bucket loads of elk in Mammoth Hot Springs town, which was a real treat.  The town is so full of elk that signs are posted everywhere warning families toting cameras to not approach elk as they can get very aggressive unpredicably.

And one of my favs of the whole entire trip to date, we got to soak in a hot springs.  Boiling creek, not shown on any Yellowstone park maps, is a mixing point of thermal and cold waters, and makes for jacuzzi temp pools that are amazzzing, especially if you hadn't showered in 9 days like us.  We sat for hours, with big smiles and silky smooth skin.  So relaxing, we highly recommend it.

Off to a wedding rehearsal now for our friends Katrina and Toby, more to come on our journeys :)

Yellowstone

So I am writing to you from the Grand Teton National Park visitor center (which conveniently has WiFi) with a very brief update of our week.  What's happened: we bought a new (and much dryer) tent from REI which we love, we dabbled in Glacier Natl Park, then spent four nights soaking in all Yellowstone Natl Park has to offer.  Beautiful views, pleeennnty of wildlife and geysers/thermal activity galore.  Below is a link to lots of pics.  Enjoy!  (More to come...)

https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/GlacierYellowstoneParks#

Mt Robson and braving the cold

     Starbucks is such a great place for a blog post, especially when you've been at 5385 ft and camping in the Canadian wilderness for the past 4 days.

     Mt Robson has easily been the most beautiful place we've camped/seen/been to thus far in Canada, and is in contention for one of the most beautiful places in the world in our experience. We hiked in the 13 mile, very much steep uphill train in the rain, never what you hope for to start, but were blown away by the beauty of the place the next morning when we woke up to a winter wonderland. (It also helped that we ended up staying in the covered log shelter with other brave hikers and not our tent the whole trip.) After enjoying our sunny, snowy playground, the following 2 days proved to be as perfect as can be, puffy white clouds slowly drifting by, and the sun proudly blazing, illuminating everything in a magical way. We attempted hiking another long trail, Snowbird Pass, for a view of a massive icefield, but our limited shoes and gear made us turn around about 1 1/2 hrs from the finish, which was just fine by us as we later found out that there was 1 1/2 food snow for the last half mile or so. Our tennis shoes were grateful we spared them. The last night was a bit chilly, we woke up to the nearby creek being partly frozen over, and a thin ice layer over the land, but with the wonderful company of new international friends that we made while camping there, and Mt Robson beaming majestically overhead, we had nothing to complain about as we hiked the 13 miles out.

     It was truly a spectacular place, and we were sad to leave it. As we drove along towards Banff and stopped at Lake Louise, we have both come to the conclusion that Mt Robson, the largest peak in the Canadian Rockies, offers the best array of scenery and enjoyment to be had anywhere, with less people traffic. With the massive peak boasting 3 separate glaciers as its source, the Crayola box like turqoiuse lake, amazing waterfalls, and ranges of snow peaked mountains as far as you can see, it's hard to think of anything you'd like to see in the mountains that it doesn't have, if you're willing to brave the hike and camping.
    
     After Mt Robson, we camped overnight at an unknown site name along the famous Icefield route between Jasper and Banff national parks, truly a breathtaking drive with new sky scraping mountains at every turn, and discovered that our tent continues not to be waterproof. =( It collects condensation at the roof and walls and will fall on us throughout the night. Unless, of course, it's cold enough that the water actually freezes before it can fall off (i.e., last night). So we'll be experimenting tonight in Glacier National Park, USA, hoping that our new techniques will keep us warm and dry. =D

     So sad to leave Canada in a few hours, but feeling full of sweet memories and experiences that will stay with us as we continue our adventures. 

Here are a few of our trip pictures, but this is a link to the album with so much more amazing pictures! oh boy
https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/MtRobsonBackpacking

Waking up to the snow

View of Lake Robson as we hiked towards Toboggan Falls

On our hike up to Snowbird Pass

Robson Glacier, from Snowbirds Pass

Sun just peeking behind the mountain

One foot in Alberta, one foot in British Columbia

Emperor Falls, with Mt Robson at the top and a mini snow area to the right from the mist of the waterfall

Oh yeah, and we saw a moose/caribou/elk thing on the side of the road =)