Posts

Showing posts with the label Backpacking

Grand Canyon NP (South Rim and South Kaibab Trail) - Day 3 of TX-CA-TX Road Trip

Image
We arrived late afternoon to the NP, checked into our room in Yavapai Lodge and headed to the south rim immediately. By the way, walking distance from the rim, absolutely reasonable price tag, the comfort and cleanness of the room made the accommodation very pleasant. We paid $172/night for two double beds in the highest season with 10 days advance booking. Sunset at the South Rim from Yavapai Point This is the view we got as the sun was about to set. After many photos and videos we headed to our room, got situated, ate our packed dinner and went stargazing. There was an absolute darkness, hard to describe it, the milky way clearly visible and detailed. Our plan for the next day was ambitious. We were going to take the Khabib trail for 2.5 hours down into the canyon, hike out and head to Hollywood, CA where our next motel room was booked. We agreed to go to bed early and get up at 6 AM to pack, move out of the room and begin our huge hike. South Kaibab Trail to The Tipoff and Back The

El Rancho Hotel and Petrified Forest NP - Day 2 of TX-CA-TX Road Trip

Image
This was a road trip we did together with my 19 year old son in August of 2020. We drove close to 5K miles from San Antonio to California and back hitting many different attractions on our way. A lot of planning went into it. I have created a detailed Google Sheet itinerary with driving directions, reservations, sites to see etc. which worked perfect, we followed it every day. Since then Google Travel has become more sophisticated and I am planning to add it to my trip planning tools. Our first day was a long drive from Texas to ALBQ. Day 2 first stop called for the Acoma Pueblos - The Sky City , but they just closed access due to Covid-19. We will definitely check this place out on our next trip. El Rancho Hotel Our next stop was El Rancho Hotel  in Gallup on Route 66 where many western movie stars have stayed in the 1950s and 60s. I really hoped to get some guidance to local sets, but no hotel employees had a cluse the visitor center was closed. For the life of me even after hours of

Mesa De Anguila Hike - Big Bend National Park

Image
We had an unbelievable river trip with my older son yesterday (7/3/2020), check out my other blog post here , so for our next day (7/4/2020) we picked Mesa De Anguila to hike. To give you a teaser, we ended up taking a route that I have not read anyone taken before and we were rewarded with an absolute thrilling 360 view from the top of the Mesa. Here is how it went down... There are many valuable posts about this hike on TripAdvisor and AllTrails, plenty of info about the different options, but none described what we were about to see. We stayed at the El Dorado Hotel in Terlingua Ghost Town, so it was an easy drive in the morning to the trailhead on the outskirts of Lajitas. However, none of the descriptions pointed out the exact location of the parking lot, so of course we missed on our first attempt. We had a local resident help us find it, but we didn't expect an empty lot capable of holding 500+ cars. You can see on these pictures where exactly the parking area is. Or you can