Las Vegas, NV

After leaving Phoenix, Arizona I headed north to Sedona, Arizona and Red Rocks Country. I stopped into the Forest Service office got a daily permit and headed out for Cathedral Rock. Red Rocks country was unbelievable, massive rocks jutted up from the flats of the desert below. Onward from Sedona, AZ I traveled up 89 north to Flagstaff, Arizona, where forest fires are ravaging the area. If you pray, pray for rain out west, if you hope, hope it rains out west, if you wish, PLEASE wish for rain out west. Passing through Flagstaff the smoke from the forest fires was several thousand feet higher than 12,000 ft. San Fransisco Peak, which still had snow on it. After running by the bank for a bank statement, "Shakes Head", I head north up 64 to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. Mathers Point was my destination to get a quick glimpse and pictures of the canyon before dark. I don't how to explain it, you see the canyon, and it feels like the first day of school your a small child, in this massive, massive existence, so tiny up against something so "Grand" and millions of years old. I sat next to the rim for about an hour, well into the night. I'm completely worn out at this point, from hiking the red rocks to the almost 8 hour drive I'm ready for sleep. I ended up not being able to camp inside the park, because Tourist Joy, Jim, Sue, and Lu, make reservations twenty years in advance to sleep in there RVs at the campground, O well. I drive outside the park, pull off down a forest service road, walk into the woods about a quarter of a mile, and throw up my tent, jump in and fall asleep to the howl of coyotes near by. The following morning I awake around 6 o'clock grab my things and head back to the truck, bound for the back country rangers office, in hopes of getting a permit to spend the night in the Canyon. I don't think I have ever been this excited when Dean a back country ranger told me I could hike to the bottom of the canyon and spend the night, except for the one time when I walked the Appalachian Trail that was pretty exciting. So around 9 o'clock I head out from the Rim into the canyon with little more than my sleeping pad, camera, and some snacks. At Five miles into the journey you come to Indian Gardens, an oasis amidst barren canyon and 110 plus degree temperatures. In the Gardens there is a running creek, and 500 year old Cottonwoods. I break there for sometime before heading out for the Colorado River, by this time it's close to 120 degrees in the sun, but for the last five miles I am for the most part completely alone. I make it down to the River, where signs are posted no swimming dangerous currents, Yea but, Its the Colorado River, I must swim and plus my water bottle is four degrees from boiling. After a couple hours of swimming in hands down the COLDEST river I have ever experienced, and taking a nap on its sandy shores, I head out doing the last couple of miles to the camping area. So get this I have been traveling for almost 3000 miles across the country, do one of the hardest hikes in the canyon and who do I end up meeting and spending the rest of my time in the canyon with, two rednecks from where, wait for it, Charleston, South Carolina. What are the odds, they fed me dinner and lunch, and kept me laughing for the rest of my time in the canyon. Las Vegas right now, Yosemite national park soon, California here I come, Portland I am sorry I'm taking so long.