Monument valley

Today it was time to leave page, and thus our lovely AirBnB. We checked out at 10AM and left to Monument valley.

Once there, we saw an amazing desert with huge rock formations. That is monument valley. Such an amazing and surrealistic place! We went for a off road trip in our own cars. It was really cool! It was a bumpy dirt road! Really fun to do! And really beautiful. Our roundtrip took us about two hours, as we also went off our cars to walk for a bit from time to time.

After a round trip through monument valley, we went off to our next destination, which is Chinle. We arrived at night (again, surprising), in a super large rainstorm, just in time to get a burger from the restaurant. We played some card games and then went to bed in the Thunderbird Lodge. The rooms are huge! As are the beds! Goodnight and till tomorrow! Cheers!

Peace in Page

Today, we wanted to visit the antelope canyon. However, tours were all entirely booked. So instead we took today as a rest day. The AirBnB we got was a really really nice one. It was a clean, spacious, three bed two bath bungalow, with a welcome package and all. It was a comfortable place, with a large sofa, large beds and a spacious kitchen. In the morning, we all did our own thing. We had a really nice and extensive breakfast, with bagels, cinnamon rolls, croissants and yogurts.

In the afternoon, we went to visit the world famous horseshoe bend. I must say, it is a really awesome piece of nature! A small thing that I find very disturbing, is that admiring the places in a normal way is just not enough for a lot of people. Lots of people feel the need to walk up to edges, step on loose rocks, enter forbidden areas, etc. They ruin nature by this. And they scare other people, while they should fear life themselves. Having said that, the place was truly beautiful!

We also went to see lake Powell. Unfortunately, the weather was not that great during the day.

After our activities, we went to a local supermarket and bought dinner. We had a bbq in the garden of our place when the weather cleared up. We really enjoyed our day rest here. We all now have new energy for our new adventures. See you tomorrow! Cheers!

Grand canyon!

Today we set our alarms at 6.30 to leave early for the Grand Canyon. It was a one and a half hour drive (which I slept through entirely). We drove in to the park, feeling all nervous, since we were all so excited to see this miracle of nature. We parked our car at the visitors centre, and took the shuttle bus to the bright angels trail. We had not seen the canyon yet.

We got off the bus, walked upwards a little and, there she was, the Grand Canyon, truly a miracle. Everybody stopped talking and held their breaths for just a second to take it in. We could not believe the landscape we observed. And to top it off, a condor passed us! It was right in front of us!!!

After gasping there for a few minutes, we walked down the Bright Angel Trail. The trail was 1.5 miles long to the 1.5 mile test house. By then you are 300 meters deep in the canyon. It was really amazing to see the depth of the canyon. It makes you feel on top of the world, and yet so small, all at the same time.

Walking down is easy, of course the way up is not that simple. It was a sweaty 1.5 mile back up, but it felt like a great workout.

After grabbing a drink, we went on to see the west rim, which you can only reach by a shuttle bus. We went to see a few view points, and it was truly stunning.

When we came back we took the bus to our cars, and finished the east rim route. We arrived at desert view point by sunset, which was magical! We waited until the sun had hidden itself in the canyon, and took our car to look for some food, which was not an easy thing. Afterwards, we drove up to Page at Lake Powell, to check in to a new AirBnB. About that more tomorrow. Goodnight! Cheers!