48 Arizona [Updated to Full Credit]
My first time in Arizona I was a very small baby, so it only counted for partial credit. I've now clobbered the state into full credit. For those who missed the FaceBook update, the trip was occasioned by my fraternity brother PWG (who happens to be one of my two little brothers) getting married. He's lived in Phoenix for years, and kindly scheduled an outdoor wedding for early March, which meant that it wouldn't be insanely hot AND that spring training would be going on. My sister signed on as my date for the wedding and hiking companion.
We did a lot of outdoor stuff. We originally planned to hike Camelback Mountain right in Phoenix, but the trailhead was closed to combat erosion or some such thing. We instead hiked twice (Friday with ERP and Saturday morning with AMR, SA, JAD & AS) in the Tonto National Forest 45 minutes from Phoenix. This was a very hot and stereotypically desert-like area in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains, featuring cactus, sand, rocks. It felt like a western. I'm surprised John Wayne didn't turn up. It was excellent and I highly recommend it.
On Friday afternoon we caught the Oakland A's at their spring training home, Phoenix Municipal Stadium. I got a nice sunburn and a souvenir cup. The latter was mostly a coincidence; if you wanted a non-alcoholic beverage that pretty much your only choice.
The rest of Friday and Saturday prior to the wedding was spent wandering around Scottsdale, which is basically a playground for rich elderly white people. This would have been a little boring, but I was with a bunch of Phi Kaps. Besides JAD, ERP, AMR and AS, we also had MRM, FXK, JWC, ND, NAP, JMD, DPR and SCD plus assorted spouses, girlfriends and kids. The wedding reception was correspondingly awesome. It was outdoors in Scottsdale on a beautiful day that turned into a very comfortable evening. Much alcohol was consumed and much dancing was done.
Then Sunday the trip really got going. Rachel and I headed north. On the advice of EJ, we got off the interstate at Sedona and drove north through Oak Creek Canyon, which was very pretty. We stopped in at Flagstaff to stock up on hiking food and then entered the South Rim portion of Grand Canyon National Park.
I've been to a lot of National Parks - Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce, Arches, Glacier and many, many more. Grand Canyon was quite possibly prettier and more impressive than all of them. I'm frankly a little irritated at my parents for not bring us when we were kids :-) At the high elevation it was chilly on the rim, but the sunset over the Grand Canyon was fantastic. We hiked along the rim (ok, so it's a paved path for most of it) until it was too dark to see.
Monday we did serious hiking. Bright Angel Trail may be the most popular trail into the Canyon proper, but that doesn't mean that it is easy. We went 4.5 miles in, which translated to 3000 feet down along a multitude of switchbacks. The trail was icy for the first 1.5 miles because it is cold at elevation and the trail doesn't get much sun early in the morning. The second 1.5 miles was muddy. For the last 1.5 miles the trail was in great shape, but by this time we were down far enough that there was little shade and a nice 80 degree burning heat. Mule shit could be found throughout from the regular mule tours that go through; thankfully we didn't encounter any mules as the trail is quite narrow at points and that could have been unpleasant.
That was a nice hike and not too terribly strenuous. It helped that we were able to stop briefly as there are nice rest stations at each of the 1.5 mile marks. However, as the signs said "Going down is optional, going up is mandatory,", so after a 30 minute lunch break at Indian Garden [not a curry place, the name of campground] we refilled our water bottles and went up. This was a lot more challenging. My sister the marathon runner didn't have many problems, but my heart rate was definitely significantly elevated and rests were taken. As it turns out, this might be because we went blazingly fast. We did the whole thing in 8 hours, and our time to go up only slightly longer than our time to go down had been - 4 hours to 3.5 hours, with the 30 minute break in the middle. Given that our rests were much more frequent on the way up, we might actually have spent less time moving on the way up than down, which is crazy. We ate some food, took some anti-inflammatories (yes, I really took meds) and passed out.
So yeah, the hike was fantastic. It was actually only rated as 'Difficult'; I'm not sure I want to see 'Strenuous' but we definitely want to do some hiking below the rim again, hopefully with an overnight stop at Phantom Ranch as we go rim to rim. That might happen as soon as this September; if I get sent to Vegas for work we might tack something on to the end of the trip.
After that, the rest of the trip was tame by comparison. On Tuesday we drove along the rim of the canyon and stopped at various overlooks. Due to exhaustion, we opted against driving to Meteor Crater and Winslow. After lunch in Flagstaff we headed back to Phoenix, with a brief stop at Montezuma's Castle. We went swimming in the hotel pool and had some tasty Mexican food and passed out. The next morning we flew out, and that was it.
My sister wrote an excellent summary which includes a link to many, many photos, especially of the Canyon.
So yeah, I've definitely been to Arizona, and I'm definitely going back, but not in the summer. I can't imagine going in July; the heat while hiking near Phoenix and at the bottom of the Canyon was bad enough in March, and apparently the traffic at the Canyon really picks up in the summer.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 39: Delaware ( partial credit post), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland ( partial credit post), New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona ( partial credit post), Alaska, Washington D.C.
Partial Credit - 5: Connecticut, Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, Idaho
No Credit - 7: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Hawaii
We did a lot of outdoor stuff. We originally planned to hike Camelback Mountain right in Phoenix, but the trailhead was closed to combat erosion or some such thing. We instead hiked twice (Friday with ERP and Saturday morning with AMR, SA, JAD & AS) in the Tonto National Forest 45 minutes from Phoenix. This was a very hot and stereotypically desert-like area in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains, featuring cactus, sand, rocks. It felt like a western. I'm surprised John Wayne didn't turn up. It was excellent and I highly recommend it.
On Friday afternoon we caught the Oakland A's at their spring training home, Phoenix Municipal Stadium. I got a nice sunburn and a souvenir cup. The latter was mostly a coincidence; if you wanted a non-alcoholic beverage that pretty much your only choice.
The rest of Friday and Saturday prior to the wedding was spent wandering around Scottsdale, which is basically a playground for rich elderly white people. This would have been a little boring, but I was with a bunch of Phi Kaps. Besides JAD, ERP, AMR and AS, we also had MRM, FXK, JWC, ND, NAP, JMD, DPR and SCD plus assorted spouses, girlfriends and kids. The wedding reception was correspondingly awesome. It was outdoors in Scottsdale on a beautiful day that turned into a very comfortable evening. Much alcohol was consumed and much dancing was done.
Then Sunday the trip really got going. Rachel and I headed north. On the advice of EJ, we got off the interstate at Sedona and drove north through Oak Creek Canyon, which was very pretty. We stopped in at Flagstaff to stock up on hiking food and then entered the South Rim portion of Grand Canyon National Park.
I've been to a lot of National Parks - Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce, Arches, Glacier and many, many more. Grand Canyon was quite possibly prettier and more impressive than all of them. I'm frankly a little irritated at my parents for not bring us when we were kids :-) At the high elevation it was chilly on the rim, but the sunset over the Grand Canyon was fantastic. We hiked along the rim (ok, so it's a paved path for most of it) until it was too dark to see.
Monday we did serious hiking. Bright Angel Trail may be the most popular trail into the Canyon proper, but that doesn't mean that it is easy. We went 4.5 miles in, which translated to 3000 feet down along a multitude of switchbacks. The trail was icy for the first 1.5 miles because it is cold at elevation and the trail doesn't get much sun early in the morning. The second 1.5 miles was muddy. For the last 1.5 miles the trail was in great shape, but by this time we were down far enough that there was little shade and a nice 80 degree burning heat. Mule shit could be found throughout from the regular mule tours that go through; thankfully we didn't encounter any mules as the trail is quite narrow at points and that could have been unpleasant.
That was a nice hike and not too terribly strenuous. It helped that we were able to stop briefly as there are nice rest stations at each of the 1.5 mile marks. However, as the signs said "Going down is optional, going up is mandatory,", so after a 30 minute lunch break at Indian Garden [not a curry place, the name of campground] we refilled our water bottles and went up. This was a lot more challenging. My sister the marathon runner didn't have many problems, but my heart rate was definitely significantly elevated and rests were taken. As it turns out, this might be because we went blazingly fast. We did the whole thing in 8 hours, and our time to go up only slightly longer than our time to go down had been - 4 hours to 3.5 hours, with the 30 minute break in the middle. Given that our rests were much more frequent on the way up, we might actually have spent less time moving on the way up than down, which is crazy. We ate some food, took some anti-inflammatories (yes, I really took meds) and passed out.
So yeah, the hike was fantastic. It was actually only rated as 'Difficult'; I'm not sure I want to see 'Strenuous' but we definitely want to do some hiking below the rim again, hopefully with an overnight stop at Phantom Ranch as we go rim to rim. That might happen as soon as this September; if I get sent to Vegas for work we might tack something on to the end of the trip.
After that, the rest of the trip was tame by comparison. On Tuesday we drove along the rim of the canyon and stopped at various overlooks. Due to exhaustion, we opted against driving to Meteor Crater and Winslow. After lunch in Flagstaff we headed back to Phoenix, with a brief stop at Montezuma's Castle. We went swimming in the hotel pool and had some tasty Mexican food and passed out. The next morning we flew out, and that was it.
My sister wrote an excellent summary which includes a link to many, many photos, especially of the Canyon.
So yeah, I've definitely been to Arizona, and I'm definitely going back, but not in the summer. I can't imagine going in July; the heat while hiking near Phoenix and at the bottom of the Canyon was bad enough in March, and apparently the traffic at the Canyon really picks up in the summer.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 39: Delaware ( partial credit post), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland ( partial credit post), New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona ( partial credit post), Alaska, Washington D.C.
Partial Credit - 5: Connecticut, Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, Idaho
No Credit - 7: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Hawaii