The Grand Canyon: North Rim

After leaving Carlsbad, NM at around 3:00 p.m., we started the drive up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The reason for choosing the North Rim was due to the fact that it was so much closer of a drive to the next destination, Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah.  Driving through the night, we decided to pull over in a random little rest area on the side of the road about two hours outside of the Grand Canyon.  Sleeping in the car for a few hours, we got up with the sun and the view was absolutely stunning!  Pulling in at night, we couldn’t see a damn thing around us, but when that sun came up it was beautiful.

Getting to the North Rim before any centers or the main campground opened, we took a stroll around the canyon.  No picture or description of a sight will ever do justice to this amazing landmark.  You HAVE to see it yourself.  When you are standing on the edge of that canyon, you have a new appreciation for life.  All of your problems, or so thought problems, begin to wash away and you are focused on the sheer size of the canyon that lies in front of you.  After a bit of exploring, we found some awesome lookout points that were pretty dangerous to get to, but no guts no story!

I visited the Grand Canyon when I was in middle school and it is a sight that you can never forget.  However, I only saw the South Rim.  The North Rim was completely different!  With greenery embedded into the rock siding, the North Rim has a lot more of a nature feel with trees and hiking trails surrounding the rim.  After setting up camp we made our way back to an awesome rock spot that Cory found while taking a little walk for the sunset over the canyon.  With a clear sky, it was impeccable.  It was a perfect ending to a great day at the canyon.  In the morning, we packed up camp and hit the road to the next stop: Zion National Park!  Check out all of the pictures from our time at the Grand Canyon on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

The only thing worth seeing in New Mexico, after driving through the entire state, is most certainly the Carlsbad Caverns.  This was a request that my mom made to me while on the trip; to stop at the Carlsbad Caverns.  We got into Carlsbad, NM in the evening at a small RV camp that was $20 for the night to camp.   Nice and cheap, that’s what we like!  As we were checking in, we actually met Cody Ross’s (from the Red Sox) in-laws who ran the site.  Definitely a small world we live in.  The man running the desk told us to give him the money and leave ASAP for the bat flight.  Looking pretty puzzled, he explained that every night around 7:45 p.m. the bats of the Carlsbad Caverns leave the caves to hunt for the night.  Only about a 7 minute drive away from the caverns, we shot up there as fast as we could and got there at perfect timing.  No photography was allowed, so no pictures, but seeing 400,000 bats leave a cave is pretty insane.  Wave after wave of bats was mesmerizing, watching them fly off into the sunset.

We left shortly after as the sunset was falling over the hills of the open plains surrounding the caverns.  As you will see in the pictures, that sunset was one of the best I have seen in a very long time.  It will definitely be one for the books and one that will stay with me forever.  As for the rest of New Mexico, fly right through because there is nothing but borderlands and oil pumps for hundreds of miles.

The following day we got to the caverns first thing in the morning to do a self-guided tour of the caverns.  It was about 96 degrees out that day, so we were ready for some shade.  The caverns have a very stable climate, sitting right at 56 degrees.  The mouth of the cavern was definitely intimidating.  It looks as if you are going to walk into the opening of hell; a gaping hole probably 100 feet across welcoming you into the depths of the earth.  Once inside, the lighting is very poor which makes it tough for photography.  However, I turned off the flash mode and just let the aperture catch all of the natural lighting down there and some of the pictures came out great.  A place like the Carlsbad Caverns makes you truly appreciate how beautiful the works of mother nature can be.  75 foot columns of minerals formed over hundreds of millions of years surround you.  It is seriously other worldly down there and I would highly recommend it.  The entire time we were down there our heads were on a swivel, soaking in all of the unique sculptures made simply by dripping water.  After about 3 hours in the caverns, our time was up in Carlsbad and were ready for the next stop: the Grand Canyon!  Check out the rest of the pictures from the Carlsbad Caverns on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

If Only Money Grew on Trees…

I am a bit late on updating this, but there have been some major additions to the Ultimate Road Trip campaign.  As of last week, I created a Facebook page to go along with this blog to help accompany with photo albums and video uploads.  It is also easier because the updates will come up on your newsfeed, if you “Like” the page on Facebook!  Also, as I have stated before, we are three broke college grads who are going on this trip.  We decided that it wouldn’t hurt to make an Indiegogo Ultimate Road Trip campaign as well.  Literally, any dollar will help us live out this dream a little more leisurely, so if you make a donation or have made a donation, thank you!  Whether you support us morally by commenting on posts, liking pictures on Facebook, or make a donation, it will help us immensely.  With graduation this Sunday and road trip commencing in just ONE WEEK, the excitement is growing by the day!  The links to the Facebook page and the Indiegogo campaign are as follows:

https://www.facebook.com/ultimateroadtrip

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-ultimate-road-trip

Thanks again and I’ll be posting again real soon!

Brian

The Chosen Path

As seen above, this encompasses Road Trip!  With departure less than one month away, some slight changes were made to the itinerary, but this seems to be the final draft.  The trip will go as follows, respectively:

• Departure begins from just north of Boston, Massachusetts on May 23rd at 5:00 p.m. to make our longest leg of the trip down the east coast to Nashville, Tennessee
• After a day or so in Nashville, we will drive to New Orleans, Louisiana
• After seeing what New Orleans is all about, Houston, Texas will be the next stop on the trip
• While in Texas, San Antonio will be in direct path of getting out to the West Coast, so why not check it out?!
• Cutting up diagonally through New Mexico, we will make our way over to the Grand Canyon to enjoy a night under the stars
• A short drive from the Grand Canyon will have us end up in the infamous Las Vegas, Nevada, which will be the only place that a hotel room will be necessary
• After a few days/nights in Las Vegas, the boys will head out to Los Angeles/Santa Monica, California to begin the mini-trip up the west coast of the USA
• The hopes are that 4 days will be dedicated to seeing California, working from southern to northern Cali, ending the 4 day trip in the Redwood National Park
• Once out of California, Bend, Oregon will be the next stop.  If time permits, we will venture up to Portland to explore some more West Coast shenanigans
• Starting the trip back to the East Coast will be a stop that all of us are looking forward to – Yellowstone National Park.  The plan is to camp there for roughly 3 days or so
• If time permits, a stop will be made to Arches National Park in Utah
• From either Yellowstone National Park or Utah, Denver, Colorado will be the next stop on the leg  back to the East Coast
• The second longest leg of the trip then comes, from Denver to the windy city of Chicago, Illinois
• After seeing what Chicago has for us, the big apple, New York City will be the final destination on the trip before home
• Finally, after a month of driving, exploring, and extremely messed up sleep patterns, the traveling trio will be back home in Massachusetts where the memories of The Ultimate Road Trip will live with us for the rest of our lives!

The time that we will be spending in each city will be completely variable.  The goal is to get out to the West Coast as fast as possible.  All of us have seen a majority of the East Coast multiple times in our lives and this trip is all about new adventures!  Any changes that will be made to the trip itinerary will most likely be last minute decisions, but that’s the beauty of Road Trip!