TBT: Grand Canyon and Arches National Parks

A few weeks ago, I told you guys all about the first part of my awesome road trip with my two best friends to Zion National Park.  After Zion, we head out to the Grand Canyon National Park and then looped back up towards Colorado via Arches National Park.  

We arrived at the Grand Canyon after a long drive just before sunset.  We managed to find one of the park's recommended sunrise/sunset overlooks and spent the next hour or two just taking photos and enjoying the general splendor that is the Grand Canyon.  Once the sun went down, we set up camp at the Mather Campground further along the rim. 

The next day my last final of grad school was due, and since I naturally hadn't started on any of it since we took off on our road trip, I had to spend the better half of the day cooped up in the Visitor's Center where I could access WiFi and an outlet to plug my computer into.  While I was wasting time doing that, my friends hiked down the Bright Angel Trail.  That afternoon, after I gladly hit "send" and closed out my graduate experience, we took the free shuttles that run back and forth along the canyon to all of the beautiful vistas.  

On our final day at the Grand Canyon, we decided to hike the South Kaibab Trail.  

Both South Kaibab and the Bright Angel Trail go all the way down to the river, but we just weren't prepared for that type of hike, so we stopped near Skeleton Point, making it about a 6 mile hike with 2,060 feet of elevation loss and then gain back up the canyon.  

(Photo Credit: one of my friends)

It was absolutely stunning.  It was just glorious views as far as you could see.  

What surprised me most was how cold it was on the rim (the South Rim is at about 7,200 feet of elevation!) and how warm it was the further down into the canyon we got.  

(Photo Credit: KS)

We even found some more rocks to climb...

At one point, we found a wonderful flat area with a beautiful view (duh) to sit and eat our lunches.  

(Photo Credit: DL's camera's timer)

We also thought it would be fun to take a traditional "jumping" photo with the canyon in the background, which proceeded to be a surprisingly hard workout of continually jumping while the camera's self-timer snapped five consecutive photos of us.  We had to do this multiple times to finally come up with ONE shot where we were all jumping at the same time. 

 

(Really not sure what's happening here...)

The work that goes into these photos, people, is no joke ;). 

 

After enjoying ourselves a little more, we headed back up the hard climb to the rim.  You see, hiking the Grand Canyon is deceptively easy at first...all you're doing is heading down.  We could have hiked down for miles and not gotten tired.  

But at the end of the day, you have to turn around and have nothing but up ahead of you.  Needless to say, we were glad when we got to the top.  

We packed up our camp and said good bye to the canyon.  

 (Click for larger image)

Then we hit the road again for our next and final destination - Arches National Park.  We arrived soooo late at night and had to drive down a very deserted road to find a camp site (I can't even remember where this campsite was).  Not going to lie, it was kind of creepy.  We set up camp and my friends hung out in the warm tent while I played with the shutter release on my camera to snap some star photos.  

 

(Artsy, no?)

After about two attempts at that, I was cold, so I called it a night, too.  And what a night it was.  It was so incredibly windy.  The entire night I was sure that the tent was just going to lift up and tumble us down the road.  It never did, but the top of the tent definitely hit us all in the face multiple times and for my two friends, who were unfortunate enough to have the edge positions in the tent, the walls were suffocating them the entire night. 

 

(My friends were really excited about the wind and not sleeping.  It was still incredibly windy as we packed up)

When we woke up the next morning after a pitiful amount of sleep, we were all done.  We were tired and dirty and mostly just ready to be done with this trip.  I had originally planned a 7 mile hike for us around Devils Garden, but instead we opted for the scenic car route.  

We picked up a map and drove around to all the "attractions" and even got out to stretch our legs for a few easy half mile hikes around some of the arches.  

I have to say, had I not been entirely exhausted, I probably would have really enjoyed Arches National Park. 

The natural bridges and arches are absolutely incredible and the Fiery Furnace was SO COOL! I want to hike through it next time I visit. 

 

(The Windows)

 

(The Fiery Furnace)

After about two or three hours of driving around, we hopped back in the car and headed home.  We made a quick stop in the small town of Fruita, CO, on the way home to grab some absolutely delicious and much appreciated pizza.  After so much camping food, pizza never tasted so good!!  A few long hours later, we were finally home, and utterly exhausted from a whirlwind trip. 

(Photo Credit: KS)

I would love to go back to all three parks.  I really want to do some backpacking in Zion to discover more of what's in that stunning park and the next time I go to the Grand Canyon, I want to do this.  I've been drooling over the idea ever since a friend from high school did it last year.  Any takers?

North Face 50k Training Week 7

Aka. the unintended beginning of my taper.  

Last week I was still deciding if I wanted to start my taper or if I should do one more hard week before winding my training down.

Monday was my rest day as per usual.  I had actually planned to take the day off from work, so I enjoyed my morning by sleeping in and doing nothing all day.

Tuesday I biked to work and was originally planning on running during lunch, but ended up doing a last minute working lunch, instead.  After work I went to visit my sister at her house because she had her ACL surgery on Monday.  I wasn't able to fit my run in at all.

Wednesday I biked to work and planned on heading out for a hill repeat session during lunch.  I had been feeling slightly lightheaded all day (not enough to make me sick, but enough to just be annoying), but I decided to fit my run in anyways.  I haven't done hill repeats in a while and this was definitely a struggle.  I managed to squeeze out 5 miles before I had to head back to work.  When I got back to my desk, I was actually feeling really great.  My lightheadedness seemed to dissipate and I was ready to hunker down for the rest of the afternoon.  About an hour after I got back to my desk, my lightheadedness came back with a vengeance.  I could hardly even look at my computer screen.  I put my head down on my desk and that seemed to help, so I actually took an impromptu 30 minute nap in my cubicle.  When I woke up I felt even worse.  It was already 3pm, so I decided I should just head home.  I left my bike at work and risked the metro.  I managed to make it home alright and went straight into bed.  At about 7pm, I was feeling much better, but I decided I should probably go see a doctor about it because it has happened a few times in the last few weeks.  One urgent care clinic was open, so I headed there, and the rest of the evening unfolded into a trip to the ER.

Thursday I took a sick day from work.  We didn't get home Wednesday night until about 2am and the doctor had told me to "rest," so I stayed home, slept in, and enjoyed a relaxing day with Zach and the dogs.  We went to see the new Star Trek movie (I can't remember the last time we went to the movie theater) and then we took the dogs to the dog park (Cooper's first time!).

Friday was bike to work day and I was really bummed that my bike was still at work from when I left it Wednesday afternoon - meaning that of ALL days, I was going to miss biking to work on bike to work day.  Boooo.  I still showed up at Nat Geo's "pit stop," grabbed my shirt and snagged a few mini Cliff Bars for later.  I was lightheaded again at work, but at a much lesser scale than on Wednesday.  I had originally planned on doing an easy run during lunch, but since that seemed to backfire on me last time, I just relaxed instead.  After work I headed to my sister's again to visit her and we hung out all evening.

Saturday my BIL was getting LASIK eye surgery, so I picked him up around 8am to take him there and then I set off on the Mt. Vernon Trail while I waited for him to finish.  I got in just under 9 miles before he called me to come pick him up.  I dropped him off at home, drove back to my house, and proceeded to take a 3 hour nap.  I never nap.  (Despite that I told you how I already napped at work once this past week).  I hate naps.  They always make me groggy and cranky and I would rather just be tired than take one.  I just couldn't help it.  It was the kind of sleepy where your limbs feel like lead and you just can't lift your head off the pillow.  I dragged myself out of bed to go get my sister and take her on an outing to get some shoes from Nordstroms.  It ended up being a 2 hour ordeal because, well, she just doesn't move lightning fast on her crutches.  She was incredibly sweet and bought me a pair of black crocheted TOMS.  I can't wait to wear them to work! Her and my BIL also treated me to some delicious sushi before I headed back home, too.

(Source)

Today I woke up early again to morally support Zach while he refereed a soccer game (it's only his second time and he's never played soccer, so he's still nervous about it).  I was wearing my HRM while I was sitting there and was averaging around a 44-46 bpm heart rate.

While he was reffing a second game, I went grocery shopping.  When we got home, I passed out on the couch AGAIN for another 2 hour nap.  WHAT?!  3 naps in one week?  What is happening to me??

When I finally rolled myself off the couch, I headed out the door for a quick 7 mile run before sitting down to dinner with Zach and now writing this!  Oh...I also somehow managed to consume 2lbs of cherry tomatoes in like 6 hours.  My stomach will not be thanking me for that.

Sooo...what was originally planned to be another 45ish mile week turned into 21.  Not quite the taper I had planned.

This week I have a 25-30 mile week planned...probably one of the few times someone ups their miles from the week before during a taper, ha. I also have my cardiologist appointment on Tuesday just get the all-clear on my heart before North Face.  Things I'm really looking forward to - working from home on Tuesday (my appointment is mid-afternoon and right next to my apartment) and  therefore working in my sweatpants and a 4 day week followed by a 4 day weekend!!  In addition to Memorial Day on Monday, we also get Friday off for our "Founders Day" holiday.

1. How did your training go last week?
2. What are you guys looking forward to this week?