We had some pretty far flung travel adventures lined up for 2016 but turns out we will be embarking on an adventure of a lifetime in September… Parenthood. Since Jenn is 5 months pregnant we decided to alter our overseas road trip of Iceland and stick closer to home – exploring our own backyard.
We hopped on a flight to Phoenix, rented a car, and set out on an epic 8 day road trip. Our first leg of the trip was driving through scenic Sedona on our way to Supai. Supai on the Havasu Indian reservation is the most remote town in the continental USA, nestled in a canyon 8 miles from the nearest road and 60+ miles from the nearest store. As much as I love getting off the grid and not getting work emails, the remoteness wasn’t the draw… it was the waterfalls.
We camped on the canyon rim before waking up at first light to start the 8 mile hike in to Supai.
Once we got to “town” we dropped a bag at “the lodge” and continued on to the first waterfall. WOW – I am going to stop typing and let you look at the photos and come up with adjectives yourself…
Waterfalls on waterfalls, this place is amazing. We followed the river downstream crossing it occasionally to get epic views of falling water.
The only issue to this seductive stream was that you kept following it’s beauty downhill and lost track of how far you had gone… We got sucked into hiking 18 miles the first day.
We had planned on hiking the 8 miles back out the next morning but the 2,500ft elevation gain coupled with the 30 minutes spent draining and bandaiding blisters, we decided we should save our feet for future hikes and hitch a helicopter ride out of the canyon.
From Supai we scooted past the grand canyon and camped for a night catching a great sunset.
Next we drove to Monument Valley where we spent the day driving between the mesas and spires before scouting out an epic campsite for both the sunset and sunrise.
Our next stop was Horseshoe Bend, an epic u-turn in the Colorado River. It was great to see the 800ft cliffs didn’t have railings or warning signs, sometimes America lets safety take all the fun out of things.
I have always wanted to photograph sunbeams coming through Antelope Canyon (random I know) so we timed our visit perfectly so the sun would be at the perfect angle… and it didn’t disappoint.
And if that wasn’t enough we blazed from there to Bryce Canyon to hike between the hoodoos before sunset.
Keeping the momentum alive we woke up at dawn and made our way into Zion National Park to hike Angels Landing. Five miles, 1500+ft elevation gain, strenuous, and dangerous was how it was described- sign us up!
We did a few more hikes before we took the scenic way out of the park stopping to take photos every mile it seemed.
After all of the camping and double digit mile hikes I decided to pull my Hilton Honors Husband card and get Jenn a day of relaxation at the Curio Collection Boulders Resort and Spa.