Day 8: Denver

We hit some pretty strong storms on our way into Denver. After a bit of a white knuckle drive we made it to the hotel. The hotel is gorgeous and we immediately took advantage of the shower and the balcony. We called it a night since we'd already been up for 20 hours.

Thursday morning we slept in and then headed out on foot to explore Denver a bit. Our first stop was a restaurant called Racines for lunch. The food was so good and we got more than enough. Tim ordered the cheese and onion enchilada plate and I had chicken stuffed with ham and fontina and covered in a jalapeno cream sauce. Then we walked through downtown to see the 16th Ave Mall and take a tour of Coors Field. The Field was awesome!

Afterwards we were going to check out the US Mint but missed the tours since they apparently close at 130 pm. So instead we stopped at the yard house for happy hour. The plan was to have a beer or two and then head back to the hotel. That plan was foiled by a powerful thunderstorm. So we stayed, had a few more beers, and some nachos and chicken wings instead. We made it back to the hotel around 630 pm and lounged around watching tv.

I fell asleep early but Tim stayed up a bit. We got up this morning, got breakfast and hit the road for Omaha.

Day 7: Leaving Grand Canyon

Waking up at 430 am to see the sunrise this morning was so worth it. Thankfully the tent held her own last night and we had no leaks. We walked about 45 minutes to the rim of the Canyon to find a good vantage point for the sunrise. There were few people around and the quiet was amazing. Unfortunately the clouds did not cooperate so much of the sunrise was blocked. But, to make up for this, mother nature let us run into 4 elk. 3 females (cows) we saw on the walk to the Canyon, just at the entrance to the campground. Then we saw a male (bull) on our way back. It was so cool! I've got pictures on my camera but not on my phone.

We packed up camp and got ready to hit the road, but not before a crow came along and ate our Franz bread right through the packaging! Bastard. And this wasn't any ordinary crow, oh no. This was a crow on steroids! He was huge!

On the road again we're making our way across Arizona to Four Corners Monument and then on to Denver tonight.

Day 6: To the Grand Canyon

We packed up and left the hotel by 8am this morning. Getting out of Vegas at that hour was fairly easy. We were excited to be heading over the Hoover Dam, but the new bridge is built such that you can't see the dam from a smaller vehicle. So that was a bust. And I was a little surprised to see that the water at Lake Mead is just as low as it was last time I was in Vegas. Hopefully the snow melt will keep helping that.

In Kingman, AZ we gassed up the car and grabbed breakfast at Sonic. Then decided to also get a Sonic Blast for the car ride. The weather in Kingman was really nice and cool compared to Vegas.

We were on the road towards the Grand Canyon by 10am again.
Once we got to the park we located our campsite. Unfortunately it started raining as soon as we parked. So we had to work fast to set up the tent and then ended up spending almost an hour in there with little to do. Finally the rain let up and we were able to make plans for the day. We grabbed the map and some water and headed for the visitors center and the rim trails.

The first views of the Canyon were spectacular. We walked along about 2 or 3 miles of trail near the edge of the Canyon. There are tons of educational markers too so we learned all about the rocks and the formation of the Canyon as we see it today.

For dinner we went to the Maswik Lodge which has a small pizza pub. There's a fire ban in the park and we wanted a hot meal, so a restaurant was our best bet. Plus we were both craving pizza. Then we stopped at the general store to get a few beers and went back to our campsite. We headed into the tent again because the rain had started back up.

And with that our day at the Grand Canyon came to a close. We had decided to get up at 430 am to see the sunrise so we fell asleep early.