Arizona and the Grand Canyon

 We are now in northern Arizona, in Flagstaff, a really cool town about 110km or so from the Grand Canyon. We spent three nights camping at the Grand Canyon and it certainly lives up to its name. We drove to the canyon from southern Utah, passing through some amazing red rock country, including the Vermillion Cliffs, and passed over the Colorado River (which was an amazing green colour) on the Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon. We also drove through the Painted Desert. It was a spectacular drive, which we almost doubled in length by stopping and taking pictures or slowing down to go "ooh, aah."

Our first encounter with the canyon was in the middle of a thunderstorm, which didn't deter the other tourists, but made for a really dramatic introduction to this truly vast wonder. The thing with the Grand Canyon is that there is not much to do in the national park, apart from the rather lame educational programs they have going on or, barring that, to drive along the rim and take pictures. So it seemed to us that the best thing to do was to take a walk down into the canyon itself, which is for most people who do it the highlight of their visit here.

So on the second day we woke up at 4am, thinking it was 5am (because no one told us that when you cross from Utah into Arizona the time changes back from Mountain time to Pacific time - yes the time thing again) and took a leisurely stroll, in the dark, down into the canyon. We met a super-keen young fellow who's way down the canyon was barred by particularly stubborn mountain goat. We walked with him and shooed the goat along at which point our friend took off at a furious pace to get down to the river. The walk down to the river is particularly long, especially on the way back up, so we opted not to do it, particularly because it had been averaging between 38-40 degrees C and sometimes even hotter in the canyon itself, so we just went to the main look-out point, about 300m (I'm guessing now) above the Colorado River, which was brown at this point. It was truly magnificent sitting in the canyon itself and we were completely alone there, in that breathtaking landscape. We started to see people on the way back up though - lots of people - but we were satisfied and ready to go have some lunch, so we just meandered our way back, moving from one shady spot to the next. At one point Elsje decided that her feet were too hot and she put on her flip-flops. After deciding that that was too easy, she took them off and walked barefoot, to the amazement of some of the other hikers. We thought this was quite funny, so I followed suit and took of my shoes and we hiked barefoot for a good while in the soft, powdery sand, which was actually very pleasant.

All in all it was a beautiful trip to a truly spectacular part of the world.

This elk was just outside our tent at the Grand Canyon campsite

Nevada and Utah

Russell and I are currently sitting in the “Canyon Café” after having gone down the canyon this morning and climbed back out this afternoon. Can you believe that they have Wifi at the Grand Canyon?!

So a quick update on our road trip through Nevada and Utah, before we drove through to Arizona to explore this wonder.

Nevada: Beautiful country. Feels almost like Namibia! Lots of desert and Salt Bush. We couch surfed with very nice people in Reno before we drove through to a one horse town called Elko. Here we stayed with the loveliest man called Doug. His house was outside the town in a place called Spings Creek. We had a spectacular view of the Ruby Mountains and at night, Doug pulled out his telescope and we got to watch Saturn dip below the horizon!

In the morning Russell and I drove through to Lamoille Canyon close by and did a little walk. So very beautiful. Sometimes the beauty here makes my eyes tear. I am very loyal to Namibia and still convinced that it is the most beautiful country in the world, but goodness! There are some awe-inspiring places here in the states. And such diversity!

[Russell: I’d like to modify my opinion about what is seductive about America; it’s not only the dream, the excess and the promise of freedom, it’s the land too, perhaps it is the original seduction, which inspired the rest. Doug introduced us to some cowboy poetry, songs and writings about the American West and it definitely captures the experience of being seduced by the rugged beauty and potency of this land. One piece of writing struck me in particular and I’ve had its imagery and sincerity stay with me since we left Springs Creek and I’ve been carrying it with me through our road trip, watching the land breathlessly.]

After Elko we drove through farmlands and crossed the state border into Utah. Here we made our way to Salt Lake City. We both agreed that this was the most beautiful city we’ve encountered thus far.  We stayed with the most wonderful people; Cheryl and David in their beautiful home just outside the city.  They are great travellers, avid hikers and have the most awesome stories to share!

Russell and I went to an Atmosphere concert on the second night…Russ’s childhood dream!! The best part was that he managed to meet and shake hands with the main rapper, Slug, before the show began. There were many many young people and it was interesting literally rubbing shoulders with the American youth, so see and hear what they’re about, particularly in the hip-hop scene. It was really really loud; not really my cup of tea but very exciting! We had a ball.

The next morning, Cheryl and David took us to a beauteous place in the mountains. We had a spectacular walk and even saw a moose!

We then drove to our next camping spot Cedar Canyon. During our time there we went to an AWESOME place called Zion National Park, with lots of red rock. It was averaging 40 degrees when we got there, so we went for a walk in the “narrows” the path for which is basically a river. It was very refreshing and we had loads of fun! Lots of tourists though. We even bumped into a South African from Jo’burg.

 

Me and Sluggo, Sluggo and me...

Blueprint

Evidence

Atmosphere

Us with our awesome hosts, David & Cheryl

Goodbye California

Time. It's been wonky for me for a while now. Ever since I left South Africa for Namibia and I lost an hour to when we landed in Cuzco and I thought I lost a day. It has become fluid, changeable and untrustworthy. I feel as if I have become unhinged in time somehow, as if it has become an entirely arbitrary concept that only the locals of the places we visit hold like some secret pact I know nothing about. They keep time like some mass conspiracy, holding close to the rhythms of their days which Elsje and I try to match but fail, clumsily falling asleep in the middle of their afternoons and stumbling wide-awake through their nights. With time as an untrustworthy companion, all we have is space and place. But we are foreigners and the land is somewhat alien and this has given our travels a somewhat surreal quality, particularly in North America funnily enough. Perhaps it is because I personally have always attributed a modicum of stability and solidity to this place, indeed a kind of timelessness or "Hollywood time," mythic and ridiculous. Added to this the driving on the right-hand side of the road and you have a kind of surreal mirror image reality that has characterized the first week of me being here.  
But anyway, time. Never seems to be enough of it. Certainly during the past eight days it has seemed as if there weren’t enough hours in the day for the things we needed to do, let alone the things we wanted to do. So far we’ve been watching America go past our car windows, spending only hours instead of days in some of the most interesting parts of California and leaving out massive chunks of this most intriguing of the United States. 

Anyhoo, we are now in Reno, Nevada, with our awesome couchsurfing hosts, after having spent four days camping (in our $36 tent) in Stanislaus national forest and Yosemite national park. It was a most welcome respite to the week we had just had. All I can say is thank God for Wi-Fi. We basically planned the entirety of the rest of our trip in crappy motels, half-arsed diners, coffee joints and fast food emporia. We had the grit of America firmly stuck in our teeth when we decided it was high time to see some of the more scenic vistas of what the land of the brave has to offer. So off we went to Stanislaus; originally booked because of the lack of place at Yosemite, but we were more than pleasantly surprised to find that it is a jewel, pretty much entirely unknown to tourists. Ok, it was full when we got there on the Friday – but full with Americans, not tourists – but by Sunday afternoon be basically had the whole place to ourselves.  We had an extremely friendly campsite manager named Jerry who gave some good advice about bears. We also met a guy who had been coming to that very campsite for the past fifty years. It was he who gave us the tip to go up to Ebbetts Pass and take a stroll along the Pacific Crest Trail (see photos below, the ones with the snow). It was in fact just what we needed. We got to touch the silence of the land and meet some good people, get some perspective and just slow down and enjoy our time here for a bit before we hit the road again. 

We left Stanislaus yesterday, rather reluctantly, and drove through some obscure little towns, stopping for breakfast in one, at a Christian diner called “The Heart Rock Café” (I know, you can’t beat it) where the staff were super friendly, even though the food was crap.  We took an unintentional detour, despite the GPS, and finally got to Yosemite at about 11:30.  It was chock-a-block. Tourists of all descriptions littered that beautiful landscape. Our sole purpose though was to take a shower, so we waded through swathes of cars and crowds and took our first shower in four days – a good feeling, to understate it dramatically, particularly as we forgot to pay the $5 fee per shower. Yes, Yosemite is awesome, but since we were only there for one day and were knackered, we didn’t get to see much, or at least not as much as we would have liked. There really were too many tourists there though. We camped at a place outside of the valley that had something like 300 campsites, almost one on top of the other. Just imagine the smoke from 300 campfires in an area with no through breeze, no so pleasant. But we took another unintentional detour early this morning – this time I couldn’t blame the GPS – which took us around the valley and we got to see the sites more clearly, albeit from the car windows yet again.  All in all a very cool experience. We didn’t get to see any bears, but we saw some deer at least.

 

Today we drove along Route 395 North towards Reno. It’s a beautiful drive along the eastern side of the Sierra Mountains – I think I have that right – and you can literally see the landscape change from lush, greens mountain country to desert mountain country, quite spectacular. 

I have to be honest, I am seduced by America. I imagine it’s what Humbert Humbert/Vladimir Nabokov felt for his beloved Lolita/America, a kind of seduction that’s not altogether savoury, but is utterly irresistible in that it is the kind of seduction that requires the full participation of the one seduced, that is, it requires one, in effect, to seduce oneself, at least with the idea of being seduced. It’s sort of like that. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it definitely has something to do with the excess I experience here. Everything is so big – I’m thinking here primarily of the cars, but the supermarkets too – and there seems to be so much of everything. It’s simultaneously garish and beautiful, ghastly and beguiling and there’s something about that simultaneous stimulation of disgust and a kind of lust that is the essence of America for me. Perhaps that is the essence of the American dream: the lust-drunk ephemera of an Old World notion long gone to seed; the remnants of a project never quite conceived on the Continent finding expression across the pond where Europeans can experience this lush, tainted garden-wasteland, indulge in it even, but then go home and speak of the ‘uncouth Americans’ and their wanton ways.

I am very aware that the eyes through which I see America are tainted with mythic ideas about it that I have received through movies and television and I have to say that so far many of my assumptions about America, and particularly its people, have been dashed. Ah, but so many more remain intact, and I’m even tempted  - seduced even – into picking up the dashed pieces of my favourite assumptions and holding them together with sheer willpower, simply for my own amusement, to seduce myself into seeing what I want to see from this place.

I must say, I like America immensely. I couldn’t live here, I would honestly get so fat, but I like it, it’s a cool place and really all of the people we’ve met so far have been awesome and mostly really knowledgeable and worldly. OK, there have been a few who asked me where I learned English and why it’s so good, coming from South Africa, but I think that’s kind of sweet and besides I had people in England ask me the same questions. That’s what I have to say; America, f@ck yeah!!