Grand Canyon and Sedona!

Ryan and I decided to celebrate our first anniversary camping in the Grand Canyon and at Sedona. It was an incredible trip...I'd dare to say it was our best trip together yet...even better than our honeymoon, which is a good thing...trips and time together should continuously be getting better as opposed to staying at the same level, right?

We live about 6 hours south of the Grand Canyon, so we drove there and spent our first night in a lodge just outside the canyon. There were super heavy rain, thunder and lightning for the second half of our drive and through the entire night. We were both starting to question how good of an idea it was to camp inside the canyon, but with the following day predicting only a 10% chance of rain, we decided to go for it.

Our first glimpse of the canyon...(we both held hands and ran to the edge while looking down so we'd see it all in full at the same time...I think Ryan cheated...but only because he didn't want to trip and fall into the canyon. :) )


We each carried a pack of about 30lbs with all of our camping gear, food, and water. We hiked down Bright Angel trail to Indian Gardens which is 4.5 miles.


We set up our camp at Indian Gardens...




(view from inside the tent)


Stretched....




Ate....


Played some cards...(we had to keep score in the dirt since we didn't have a pen)..


Then decided to hike another 3 miles (roundtrip) to see Plateau Point, which is said to be the best view in the canyon...we'd have to agree...




The view from Plateau Point on what we had hiked that day...(our campsite was in the middle of the cluster of trees)...


Cooking pasta over our little Coleman burner...


We woke up the next morning at 4:45 and started hiking by 6am. Our neighboring campsites (a couple from England and two guys from Ireland) started their hike out at the same time, so we were able to get to know them more and share in some laughs and cliff bars along the 4.5 miles uphill.

The start of our trek to the top...


We saw 9 deer that morning, and 4 the day before...


Ryan's Napolean Dynamite pose...


This is a view from the top looking down at our hike. The middle of the picture, where there is a cluster of trees is where we camped, and the dirt trail that ends in what looks like the middle of the canyon was were we hiked to, "Plateau Point"...


We had expected it to take us 5 hours, but it only took 3.5...which meant that we were ready for lunch at 9:30am, but had to wait until it was served at 11am!...some leftover girlscout peanutbutter cookies tied us over. :) My body was as sore and stiff as when I had finished my marathons...actually, my calfs are still recovering...I'm going to try going for a run in the morning to try and loosen up the muscles a bit more.



On our drive to Sedona, we stopped to see the Meteor Crater which is said to be the best preserved meteor crater in the world...


We set up camp in Sedona...


and then went out for a nice dinner at an outdoor restaurant that is supposed to be known for their sunset views...it was nice, but I think we are spoiled by how great the sunsets are in Tucson...


Ryan making breakfast the next morning...yummy eggs and honey wheat pancakes! It was a little chilly, so he wore my jean jacket...he looked really cute in it, if you ask me!


Our drive home from Sedona...