Hiking in the Southwest Part I

I took a trip to the Southwest this past summer with my Dad and brother.  The main intention of our trip was to do as much hiking as we could.

Day 1 and 2: Las Vegas

I didn't actually take any pictures in Vegas.  It was fun. We saw some shows, ate a ton at some buffets, gambled a little, but I was mainly looking forward to what was gonna come after...

Day 3 and 4: Zion National Park

We camped both nights in Zion.  The weather was perfect, warm during the days but in the 60's at night.  Zion was my favorite part of the trip.

Riverside Walk. 2 miles 650ft ascent.

Great White Throne.

View from under Weeping Rock.

Angel's Landing.  5 miles 1,488ft ascent.

Last half mile of the trail was climbing. There were chains to hold onto on portions of the climbs.

Boot shot at top of Angel's Landing.

Emerald Pools. 3 miles 350ft ascent.

Camp site at Zion.  Rental Yota would see some dirt later in the trip.

Taylor's Creek, Kolob section of Zion.  5 miles.  Kolob was great because we practically had it to ourselves, only saw one other person on the trail.

Great Zion Arch.

Hiking in the Southwest Part II

Day 5 and 6: Grand Canyon

From Zion we drove down through the Kaibab National Forest and into Grand Canyon National Park, South Rim.

Here are our first views of the canyon.

We hiked part of the Bright Angel trail our first day. You can see the trail out in the distance.

On the second day we hiked the South Kaibab Trail out to Skeleton Point.  6 miles 2,060ft descent.

Storm started to roll in.

Switchbacks galore.

Rain coming down.  The temperature dropped from 60's to 40's in a matter of hours and it actually began to hail on us just as we were getting to the end of our climb up out of the canyon.

We did the Hermits Road bus route the second part of the day and stopped at each one of the rest stops.

Cloud cover in the canyon.

Day 7: Phoenix

We had a day in between the Grand Canyon and Sedona so we decided to check out Phoenix.  We wanted to try and take a scenic route and avoid the highways and we definitely got that.

From Williams we got onto S Perkinsville Rd/CO Rd 73 which runs through the Kaibab National Forest and the Prescott National Forest and took it all the way to Jerome.  We had no idea it turned into an unimproved road some miles into it.  Luckily the rental Camry was tougher than it looked and we made it through with just some minor desert pin striping.

Some pin stripping from passing an SUV on a tight turn, most of which wiped off.

Once we got to Phoenix, we checked out the Heard Museum which had some cool Native American artwork.

After the museum we hit up Honey Bear's BBQ which had amazing BBQ sauce.  You don't need no teeth to eat their meat.

We went out Phoenix South Mountain Park after that.  It offered a great view of Phoenix and giant cacti.

The next day on our way up to Sedona, we stopped by Montezuma Castle National Monument.

Hiking in the Southwest Part III

Day 8 and 9: Sedona, AZ

When we first got into Sedona we decided to check out some of the shops and get some grub.  We did a wine tasting at Wild West Wine Co, and then hit up the Oak Creek Brewery and Grill for some brews and burgers.

When we first ordered the beer sampler the waitress thought we meant one to share between all three of us.  We had a laugh and explained the error of her ways.

After checking into our hotel, we decided it was time to hit another trail.

Cathedral Rock.  1.5 miles 600ft ascent.

In the Cathedral.

On our second day in Sedona, we hiked Huckaby Trail.  5.5 miles 200 ft descent.

Taking a dip in Oak Creek.

Creek crossing into Slide Rock State Park.

Have boots, will travel.

Day 10: Hoover Dam and Heading Back to Vegas

We had to head back to Vegas for our flight home and drop off the Yota.  On the way we stopped at the Hoover Dam to take the dam tour.

Clean hydroelectric power.  U-S-A!! U-S-A!! U-S-A!!