The stargazing didn't stop when we got into our tent, but it did eventually subside in time for a solid night's rest.
Waking up the next morning, we packed up our site and drove off for the Grand Canyon National Park. The North Rim gets roughly 10% of the travelers to the national park, so we knew it was going be quite a different experience away from a very touristy one.
That was evident the minute we entered the park and saw a herd of more than 80 bison in the one field.
After consulting a few park maps and travel guides, we settled on the Kaibab Trail, a roughly two-mile hike that would take us down 800 feet into the canyon. We figured this would be long enough to give us just what we wanted to get a good taste of the park.
Along the hike, the contrast between orange and brown mountains and green trees under a bright blue sky made for quite the view. The trail itself was fairly difficult with it narrowing at times, rough along the edges, and a sand, dust, and loose rock trail that made slipping a very real possibility. But we made it!
We knew that our turnaround point on this trail would be the Coconino Overlook, a huge sheet of rock that gives the hiker an incredible panoramic view of the canyon below.
And it wouldn't be a trip to the Grand Canyon if I didn't let Steelers Nation know we've been there.
At the Coconino Overlook, we met an older couple from Virginia that were retired teachers and doing a very similar thing that the four of us were doing. It was nice to chat with somebody like that.
We eventually hiked ourselves back up to the trailhead (although we're still not quite used to the idea that if you hike downward, you will eventually hike upward). After cleaning ourselves off and eating lunch, we set off for San Diego and to visit Katie! Our GPS told us it'd take about 9 hours, so we'd probably get in around 8 pm.
But before we even got out of the Kaibab National Forest, Cara threw out an idea that we all jumped on board with. We'd take a slight detour to Zion National Park, which would tack on no more than 45 minutes to our trip to San Diego.
We wouldn't be able to do a whole lot of hiking in Zion because we were on a schedule to get into San Diego, but we could stop along Highway 9, a beautiful road that weaves its way right through the park. We pulled over a few times to snag a picture, but they don't really do this drive any justice.
Highway 9 took us right out of the national park as well, and we hooked up with Interstate 15, which would basically take us to San Diego.
However, by the time we got service again, we saw that there was an insane accident on I-15 outside Las Vegas. We figured that we could stop for dinner in Vegas and hope that traffic would clear up. As per usual, when we don't know exactly where to go, we consult Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. We were also all craving pizza, so we went to Naked City Pizza on the north side of Vegas in Chinatown.
The pizza hit the spot and was absolutely delicious. We got two types of pizza, the Guinea Pie Pizza and the Naked City Pizza. Both were equally good.
When we got back into the car, the GPS said we'd get into Katie's around 11 pm. Unfortunately for us, traffic said that'd be more like 12:30. Apparently a tractor trailer caught fire on I-15 and closed multiple lanes. However this happened in the early afternoon, and we hoped that by the time we'd get there traffic would start moving faster again.
We were mistaken.
We sat in over an hour and a half of traffic, moving no more than 5 MPH. But that didn't stop some crazy drivers from flying on both shoulder sides. Some had to be going over 60 MPH on the shoulder. We couldn't believe how dangerous that was as we saw car after car pull over on the shoulder for a bathroom break, food break, or just to rest and save gas. There very well could have been another accident.
The four of us wanted to keep pushing to get as far as we could, but eventually we had to make the decision to stop and get a hotel somewhere. Katie had to work the next morning so getting in after midnight is a huge inconvenience, and we had been driving for quite a while, so we were getting tired.
We made it through the traffic, and found a Super 8 in Barstow, about an hour past the accident and about three hours from San Diego. It would have to do for the time being. Considering we have had such a smooth trip so far (no rain, little traffic, and no accidents), we figured it was bound to happen. A stop at a hotel would also give us all a chance to shower, something we desperately needed, before going to San Diego.
But, yesterday, we did eventually make it to San Diego. I'll get you caught up on that in another post later today.
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