Thursday, January 13, 2005
Holiday Trip (7)
Day No. 7
We left Vegas with regrets early in the morning and headed towards the Grand Canyon. It was Christmas, and the traffic was very smooth. Therefore, I could drive at 100mph on the freeway. I didn't mean to do that. :P The road in Arizona is straight, flat, and dull with no exits, no gas stations, no rest areas but only long long drive.
On the way from Vegas to the Grand Canyon, we stopped at the Hoover Dam for a couple of photos. Two cops were guarding on the entrance to check the cars for terrorists. We both look honest, and were let go in 2 seconds.
Around noon, we were almost there. We could see a huge sign saying McDonalds were 44 miles ahead. Oh, my God. Still 40 minutes to go, but I was already hungry. Soon, we saw the bad part of Christmas. Even McDonalds were close for the day, so were Wendy's. That sucked. We ended up grabbing two cold sandwiches at the gas station selling unleaded gas for $2.399 per gallon. Of course, we fueled our car because there is no gas station in the National Park. During the break, we reserved the hotel.
At around 2pm, we were in the park. There is a fork in the park, one leading to the desert view, and the other to the trail. We decided to go for the latter first, and left the desert view for the next morning. The view is really awesome. I like it very much. At 4pm, we were at the head of the trail. We were excited to get down the trail, because we were told that down the canyon, it was like Spring. We started downward fast despite of the rugged trail. We saw sereval tourists coming up at the first 15 minutes but not a single afterwards. 45 minutes later, my toes started to ache. I couldn't run as fast as before. The sun started to set. The temperatue dropped quickly. But Kelvin was still fast. :) I suggested that we got back at 5pm no matter how far we went. The next 15 minutes was another rush. We arrived at a little wooden house with chairs. :) It is the mark of the farthest we went. The returning was much more energy consuming. We had to rest from time to time. We saw the sunshine vanish from the top of the mountain. The moonlight on the snow gave us some light. The whole mountain is in serenity. There is no sound except for our pant. It was freezing. Thank goodness, that I brought my thick jacket for the trip. I started thinking that if a bear appeared... One hour later, our rest frequency increased sharply. My legs were so heavy that I wished I had done more exercises. Another 30 minutes later, we ran out of drinking water. But we still couldn't see the moon, which meant we had a long way to go. The small sandwich that I had for lunch had already gone. I told myself that I was gonna get a good dinner after we got out. 40 minutes more went by, and we finally arrived at our car. We sat on the bumper and shared chocolate, the only food on the car with water in excitement. Kelvin hoped we had had more time to get to the bottom of the canyon. :) Strong man~~~
We went to the hotel. Due to Christmas, my hope for a good dinner didn't come true. After a quick dinner, I threw myself into a spa while Kelvin was watching First Knight in the room. I was too tired and we needed to drive 800 miles the next day to get back to Mountain View, CA.
We left Vegas with regrets early in the morning and headed towards the Grand Canyon. It was Christmas, and the traffic was very smooth. Therefore, I could drive at 100mph on the freeway. I didn't mean to do that. :P The road in Arizona is straight, flat, and dull with no exits, no gas stations, no rest areas but only long long drive.
On the way from Vegas to the Grand Canyon, we stopped at the Hoover Dam for a couple of photos. Two cops were guarding on the entrance to check the cars for terrorists. We both look honest, and were let go in 2 seconds.
Around noon, we were almost there. We could see a huge sign saying McDonalds were 44 miles ahead. Oh, my God. Still 40 minutes to go, but I was already hungry. Soon, we saw the bad part of Christmas. Even McDonalds were close for the day, so were Wendy's. That sucked. We ended up grabbing two cold sandwiches at the gas station selling unleaded gas for $2.399 per gallon. Of course, we fueled our car because there is no gas station in the National Park. During the break, we reserved the hotel.
At around 2pm, we were in the park. There is a fork in the park, one leading to the desert view, and the other to the trail. We decided to go for the latter first, and left the desert view for the next morning. The view is really awesome. I like it very much. At 4pm, we were at the head of the trail. We were excited to get down the trail, because we were told that down the canyon, it was like Spring. We started downward fast despite of the rugged trail. We saw sereval tourists coming up at the first 15 minutes but not a single afterwards. 45 minutes later, my toes started to ache. I couldn't run as fast as before. The sun started to set. The temperatue dropped quickly. But Kelvin was still fast. :) I suggested that we got back at 5pm no matter how far we went. The next 15 minutes was another rush. We arrived at a little wooden house with chairs. :) It is the mark of the farthest we went. The returning was much more energy consuming. We had to rest from time to time. We saw the sunshine vanish from the top of the mountain. The moonlight on the snow gave us some light. The whole mountain is in serenity. There is no sound except for our pant. It was freezing. Thank goodness, that I brought my thick jacket for the trip. I started thinking that if a bear appeared... One hour later, our rest frequency increased sharply. My legs were so heavy that I wished I had done more exercises. Another 30 minutes later, we ran out of drinking water. But we still couldn't see the moon, which meant we had a long way to go. The small sandwich that I had for lunch had already gone. I told myself that I was gonna get a good dinner after we got out. 40 minutes more went by, and we finally arrived at our car. We sat on the bumper and shared chocolate, the only food on the car with water in excitement. Kelvin hoped we had had more time to get to the bottom of the canyon. :) Strong man~~~
We went to the hotel. Due to Christmas, my hope for a good dinner didn't come true. After a quick dinner, I threw myself into a spa while Kelvin was watching First Knight in the room. I was too tired and we needed to drive 800 miles the next day to get back to Mountain View, CA.
# posted by yaping @ 1:50 PM 
