New Mexico - The land of Enchantment

 This blog gives details and useful information about our trip to New Mexico.

We arrived in Albuquerque in the afternoon by plane. First stop was getting a rental car. 

We have booked the  car but during pandemic we were not sure we will get it. Our experience at the Enterprise car rental checkout was wonderful. The guy at the counter was not only very friendly but also helped us with the car we chose. Not just him but the backup team was also very helpful.  It is true that all these people who you interact with when you come to town, project a persona of the town. We felt good to be in Albuquerque. 

We had planned to go north to stay in Farmington near Bisti Badlands. My aunt had told me about the Bisti Badlands and I had dragged our friends to come with us to visit so a lot was riding on how it was going to turn out. The hotel we went to in Farmington was reasonably good,  It had a pool and a hot tub, which all of us were happy to enjoy after a 3 hour drive from Albuquerque to Farmington. 

We had expected Farmington to be a small town, not knowing much about New Mexico,  but Farmington was a decent size town and an Olive Garden close to the hotel put us in a  good mood. The waiter again was very friendly and gave us a recommendation for another Mexican restaurant close by. 

Next morning, was the moment of truth about how this Bisti Badlands was going to turn out. We first went to the visitor center to get more information about the place. I am glad we went there first, because when we reached Bisti, there was no information there. 

We decided to take the first walk to see the cracked eggs formation. After seeing the formation, we did not know what more it had to offer. We went to the parking lot and saw that there was a board on the other side. When we went close to the board. we decided to go a bit further to see what was ahead and the land invited us to go further. We circled the rock garden and Walla, we were in another world. There was nothing there. but the nothingness was overwhelming. It encompassed us so much that I did not want to come back, I wanted to go further, and further, I wanted to sit there and just meditate. I envisioned how the universe was formed here. The nothingness had it's own sound, it's own vista. The closest I can describe it as is the moon scape but for a place where so little was advertised, this place certainly had an huge impact on me. And not just me but all 4 of us came out saying, I am glad we went this route. This was out of the world. The pictures won't do any justice to the actual environment. but I need to show you what it is. It is the overall impact that this environment has, that matters, that is why  I am writing the blog. Hope more people go there and get this out of the world experience. 

Then the next day we went to Albuquerque.

On our way back, we stopped at Four Corners, only place in the United States where 4 states meet. What a unique place.  You can get on all four and take a photo with one limb in each state NM,UT,CO,AZ

 

Last time we had stayed in the old town in Albuquerque , so this time we stayed in the new town. Both have their own charms. Albuquerque looked like a decent size city with overall good temperature thru out the year.   

Everybody knows about Santa Fe near Albuquerque.  That is an artistic town with small adobe houses and a small art displays and galleries everywhere. it is about 2 hours drive from Albuquerque.  A town you have to visit when you go to New Mexico. 

Next we drove south, almost close to the south border next to Mexico.  We stayed in a small town called Las Cruces. We stayed in The Best Western there, Weather was perfect. The air was filled with freshness, Aloe Vara plants were thriving. Our hotel also had a staff that was very friendly. and the at breakfast they server biscuits and gravy which was delicious. A southern hospitality was abound. 

We went to White Sand National Park the next day.  We were there on a full moon day and took a tour of White sand on a full moon night, the sand was white, but like a dessert sand, I was worried it was going to be cold, but the sand here does not get too cold. In the afternoon it does not get too hot due to the water table under the sand. What a fun thing to walk in the sand. They have tested Mar's expedition in the White Sand National park.   Lots of hikes, beautiful vista, you can decide how much you want to go.   This is a new national park but the park guides were very knowledgeable about the park and the geology of the park.  

I am sure glad I pulled our friends to come with us.  We return back from El Paso airport which saved us a long drive back to Albuquerque.  While doing these long drive north and south, you have to pass thru Indian reservations and what pleased me to see was that the these reservations seemed like working reservations, They had agriculture, solar power generators, It was a work in progress but it was good to see these reservations on the way too. 

In all New Mexico left a good impression in our mind. When we arrived in Albuquerque, they welcomed us to the land of enchantment and I was skeptical about it but after spending a week in the state, I believe it. 

3000+ mile road trip in winter: Portland OR to Tucson, AZ and small towns in between.

This blog gives you a lot of information about less known places, good bites and reasonably priced good places for staying. 

December gets cold in the northwest so where can you soak in the sun, this year we decided on Tucson, AZ via California.

Redding, CA We have been driving from Portland to California for years now, but we never really stopped at the small towns on the way, now with the long road trip, we had time, and we stopped at Redding on I-5.

A small town but it has its own charm. Its fame is the Sun Dial bridge which is worth visiting but the best part is the path by the river that goes up to Shasta dam. It is a 17-mile bike ride and you can rent bikes near the bridge. I think we will do that one of these days.  But this time we just went south after taking a one-night break. We were headed to Long Beach.  Look at the blue sky in the photo. Needless to say, we knew we were headed in the right direction to soak in the sun.

Long Beach is a pretty town with a long walking/biking trail right by the sea. I love the this town. After spending a few days in Long Beach, enjoying the local farmers market, the flowers, the sea beach and the gentle sun, we went a little bit south and parked ourselves at Dana Point, just south of Laguna Beach. 

Laguna Beach is famous for being a cute little town, but someone recommended us to visit, the piratetower. We would not have known this place by ourselves. This small strip of the beach was pristine. 

Dana point pier is a place you have to visit if you are in the area. Around Christmas time, it was really well lit with beautiful lights.

We stayed across from the Capistrano beach. There was a casual but nice restaurant called Sunset’s Bar and Grill, close by and they had a very good happy hour with fabulous Mai Tai for $5.

We also visited the MissionSan Juan Capistrano, historic landmark and museum, it is called the Birthplace of Orange County. It was founded more than two hundred years ago.  It shows California’s multi-cultural history, embracing its Native American, Spanish, Mexican and European heritage. It was built as a self-sufficient community by Spanish Padres and Native Americans, and it shows how agriculture, industry, education and religion was done in those days. It is also famous for the Annual Return of the Swallows. 
We would not have gone to this place unless somebody told us about it. It is worth visiting and paying the 20$ entrance for the mission. 

This time in San Diego we stayed at a Best Western in Gaslamp quarter.  We stayed at the Best Western Hotels in this trip, because I found out that most of these are small franchises in the good parts of the cities and the owners are generally the ones welcoming you.  They are very courteous, the hotels follow Covid-19 rules and all the big chain standards followed, most of these have started out as individual hotels and have now joined Best Western chain to get the marketing arm and other benefits.  These hotels are small and are well decorated, really cozy and they give you a feeling of staying at home, especially when you are on a long road trip, it is important to not feel like you are going from hotel to hotel. The Best Westerns also have a decent breakfast. This hotel in the Gaslamp district was really well decorated and welcoming.

What can I say about Seaport village and the Gaslamp Quarter? The weather was perfect as it always is in San Diego, the food was fabulous and the music that was playing on the street was adding to the ambience with all the Christmas lights. From San Diego, we drove on Highway 8 to Tucson. A little detour down south took us so close to the border that we could see the border wall.  We were actually looking for the Talavera Mexican pottery but did not get it near the border, neither at Calexico near Mexicali.  Calexico turned out to be a bigger place than we imagined. The drive to Tucson was interesting because of the little detour. We reached Tucson in about 7 hrs. Our hotel in Tucson, was not expensive but luxurious.

The lodge in the dessert.  They also had a nice breakfast every morning. It was a nice sit-down breakfast. The lodge had a pleasant décor.  They actually, had a cactus garden with such a variety of cacti, wish they added some information about each cactus. We used the swimming pool and a hot tub every day after our daily excursions.

We went to the art district in Tucson with small cafes and restaurants, we also went on what looked like the most popular hike in Tucson, the Tumamoc hike. The trail is only 3 miles but it climbs all the way to the top of the hill where you get some 360 views of the city. Southwest is famous for the sunset colors and we got to see them on the hike. You have to start climbing around 4 pm when it is not too hot, and then when you come down, there is still light.  

The Saguaro National Park was as expected a typical landscape with huge Saguaros but we did not go on any hikes there because we went   after 11am and it was quite hot and sunny in December, for us people from Portland.

We had heard about Tucson being a dark city so we drove to the outskirts of the city later in the night and we were treated to luminous stars and our milky way up above. I wish I had a map of the stars and constellations that we were seeing.  There was one thing we could not do in Tucson and I wished I had looked into earlier, that was a tour to Mt Lemon, because of Covid-19, they had a dinner, astronomy tours only couple times a week and they were completely booked. Wish I had done the reservation earlier.

In Tucson, we came across a chain of Mexican restaurant name Blanco Tacos and Taquilla, I would strongly recommend their skyline location for their service, drinks, fajitas and overall atmosphere.  We also found amazing Talavera Mexican pottery shops very close to our lodge.  Mission successful. When you have a car, you can bring some heavy and delicate stuff with you too.

The little man, we have named him BOBO, is sitting at our house in Portland reminding us of our wonderful time in Tucson. We found something so simple but useful on the signals in Tucson. Every signal had a left signal and it was right below the normal signal and it turned on when the straight car signal stopped so one did not have to worry about whether you will get to complete the left turn in the current signal or not. I think this simple addition helps drivers a lot and I am sure will reduce left turn accidents in big cities.

From Tucson we stayed only 1 day at Scottsdale, Phoenix, Visited Papago mountains and the fashion district to see the art galleries.

Then, we drove to JoshuaTree National Park on Highway 10. After the exit from 10, it was a 1-hour drive thru complete isolation with no life in sight. I think the road from Palm Spring is better to go to Joshua Tree. We stayed in Twenty nine palms, a small town near the west entrance. We also found a local pizza place, called Rocky's Pizza  and the food was so tasty we went there the next day as well. Their tiramisu was out of this world. The locals also recommended the Campbell Hill bakery where we actually stood in the line to get some of their goodies which were selling fast in the morning. Joshua Tree National Park, where two  desserts (Mohave and Colorado) meet,  has 3 entrances. We got in the west entrance and went to our first hike to Barker Dam, there were warnings of flash floods and weather was convincing, I had heard about these flash floods, Luckily, we did not encounter any.   There is no food available in the park so you have to plan well or take your lunch and water with you.  Ryan mountain hike is very good and you should time it such that you return around sunset, to get the best views. Another hike we went to was Black Rock Canyon Panorama loop. We got a bit lost but because of that, I saw a campground there. And if I were younger, I would have loved to do camping there right under the stars in a little chilly but good weather.  That said, we were happy to come back to our bed in the hotel room. 

Our next stop was Temecula. We had rented a  house and we met out friends there. Temecula is So Cal’s Napa. So many wineries and beautiful vista.  They also have hot air balloon rides, had we known earlier, we would have book that too. But it was good to see the hot air balloons in the sky every morning. We went on a hike to Eagle rock where the rock formation is truly like an Eagle. It was a 6-mile round trip hike, very easy, moreover the hike also gives you bragging rights for walking on the Pacific Crest Trail!   We were so hungry after the hike, that when somebody in the group suggested a restaurant close by, we just followed them. The Farmhouse turned out to be such a cozy place with excellent choices of foods, good wine, quick service. We were also very hungry so it all worked well for us and on top of that, it was next to the Julian Pie Company. People from San Diego and Long Beach have always told me to try a pie from Julian, here we got to choose the freshly baked pies right where they were made and now, I will join also tell people, if you have not had a pie from the Julian pie company, then you have not had a pie yet.

After spending 2,3 days in Temecula, we headed back to Portland via San Fransisco.  It was raining in San Fransisco before we went and after we left, so we lucked out with the good weather. We stayed in downtown, couple blocks from the Union Square. So, we walked around and went to The Thonglor, Thai lunch place. I was glad to see that they did not let anybody enter the restaurant without checking their vaccination card.    

On the way back, I-5 was closed due to heavy snow, so we took 101 N, and it worked out really well, the road was slow but driving thru The Redwood National Park is a delightful experience. Those Colossal coast redwoods never stop to amaze me with their beauty.

We stopped at Crescent city. A small coastal town with a lighthouse that can be visited only if the tide is low. We like the Light House Inn there to stay.  There are quite a few options to eat at in the town.

 

Coming up via Brandon, Umpqua was a wonderful drive, it was rainy but not pouring rain, nothing an Oregonian cannot handle, no big trucks like on I-5. A vast sea that you can see all the way,  some wonderful music playing on the radio. This is what a road trip is all about.  

After Coos Bay we took route 38, passing Elkton where you can see elks roaming and grazing.  

 This road meets I-5 near Eugene, it is a pretty flat road so no worries about the snow in winter especially if you are driving a non AWD car.  We drove a Tesla and had no issues with charging because the car maps out where you can charge and those ½ hr. breaks really help.  Most of the charging stations are next to some coffee shops or restaurants.

 

We entered Portland around 4, 4:30 and there was a beautiful sunset seen from the rear-view window, when we left, we saw rainbows around Portland and Eugene and this sunset on the return, we knew we have returned to a beautiful place, our home.

 

Thank you for reading my blog.

my other travel blogs are 

New Mexico - The land of Enchantment

Trip to Ketchikan, Alaska

When you are going to Shanghai, be sure to go to Hangzhou

Lake Titicaca

Grand Canyon - Traveling 2 billion years in 2 days!

Trip to Ketchikan, Alaska

 Ketchikan, Alaska

Where is it?
It is the first city in Alaska when you start from Seattle. See city facts posted at the port.

How do you get there?
It is a stop on the inland Alaska cruise, you can also go by Air. but you have to take short ferry to the town from the airport. There is no road to drive to Ketchikan.

Places to stay:
We stayed at the Best Western at the Landing which is a decent hotel. It also has a complimentary shuttle to go to downtown all day. Down town is about 2 miles from the hotel. There is also a bus stop right next to the hotel.

Another lodge we liked was Cape Fox, good service, good menu and the best view in town. Plus it is in down town where all the action is.

Best time to go:
Summer of course. Winters are harsh but 2014-15 had a very mild winter and early summer.  It rains a lot so make sure you take rain jacket and a light jacket.

Places to visit:
Zodiac tour -  A ride in a rubber raft where you get to drive the boat, a good 2 hr sea excursion , You might see whales playing in the sea or a bald eagle catching a fish.

Downtown tour of  Creek street is entertaining and right next to the fish ladders.
We also took a bike ride. There is only  1 place where you can rent a bike on  honor system for $20/day. The bikes are good. We rode from downtown to Herring Cove where the river meets the bay and when tide comes in, salmon come in too. You have to go at the time when the tide is just starting to come in.

There is one hike that starts behind Best Western. The hike goes up in the mountain, has fantastic views and is pretty easy and well maintained. It goes to the Carlanna lake and beyond.


The original tribes of  Tsimshian live on an island called Metlakatla.   Other tribes, Tlingit and Haida are known for their Totem poles. you can see the totem pole museum in the downtown or go to the Totem State park. We took the city bus. It is very easy to commute in the bus.

Local Art scene -
The small town of 10000 people, has a fabulous 4th of July parade. Everybody is super excited about the parade. It is fun to watch how the whole town participates.

The town folks are also very enthusiastic about art and drama. They put up a play every month. Unique art by the pier has  a wonderful collection.

All in all, it is a beautiful town with friendly people, There are  more bald eagles than humans on the islands, The town is surrounded by sea and mountains and that makes you relax and enjoy your time in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Thank you for reading my blog.

my other travel blogs are 

New Mexico - The land of Enchantment

3000+ mile road trip in winter: Portland OR to Tucson, AZ and small towns in between.

Trip to Ketchikan, Alaska

When you are going to Shanghai, be sure to go to Hangzhou

Lake Titicaca

Grand Canyon - Traveling 2 billion years in 2 days!

When you are going to Shanghai, be sure to go to Hangzhou

Hangzhou - a must see resort near Shanghai.

Generally all the business folks have a day to do sightseeing in shanghai and they go to Suzhou the silk city as an outing, if they have already seen the city. Suzhou is a tourist town, and is worth visiting. I found out a place called Hangzhou which boasts a big lake called West Lake. Hangzhou is further south than Suzhou, about 120 miles from Shanghai. So most people do not visit when they are on a business trip. But it is a place, you should go to, even if you have only a day at hand.

We decided to go at a last minute and did not have enough time to plan, we made all possible mistakes in getting there and still it was worth it. so I want to write this so people will get more time to see the place than to travel there.

You can find a train to go to Hangzhou from Shanghai. If you want to save time in getting to the lake, make sure you go to the downtown station in Hangzhou, not the south station. The tickets are sold before the day of travel, so you want to book them in advance. Take the fast train, so you need to spend only 2 hrs traveling, rather than 4 hrs like we did! When you go to the North station (in downtown) the lake is quite close. You can walk or take a cab. Hangzhou city is quite big, as you would expect a small city in China, still has lot of people. Once you land on the lake, you enter a different world. This lake is home to dragon boat racing in June. so you see families, people rowing there boats and having fun. There is a line to get a boat to row. So if you are not too keen on rowing yourself, there are boat rides you can take. One is a small boat ride, you can take your food in the boat and eat while watching the beautiful surroundings (at least ice cream or hot tea/coffee depending on the season). it is an half an hour ride and all you need to do is enjoy!

Then there is a dinner cruise, but the boat is royal Chinese boat. It is not too huge and is very artistically made. The royal families vacationed here long time ago and these boats and the architecture around the lake, shows you a glimpse of how they lived.

There are quite a few tea houses by the lake, but the Chinese do not serve much food in their tea houses. People seem to drink just tea or beer with peanuts and cherry tomatoes! There are some open food makers who grill the meat and have popcorn.

The lake is huge, there is a pagoda on once side and a temple on the other, you can walk to both these sites. The walk is by the river, It is very refreshing to walk by this willow treed path. People come and play music there, kids play, people chat, paint. In spite of so many people around you, there is a certain calmness to this place. It felt very relaxing to be by the lake, We had spent about 6-7 hrs getting their by slow train and bus, but even then once we got there, it was worth it.

I hope you go and have as much fun as we did.

Thank you for reading my blog.

my other travel blogs are 

New Mexico - The land of Enchantment

3000+ mile road trip in winter: Portland OR to Tucson, AZ and small towns in between.

Trip to Ketchikan, Alaska

Lake Titicaca

Grand Canyon - Traveling 2 billion years in 2 days!

Lake Titicaca

A lot if travelers go to Peru.  Machu pichu is the biggest draw and for a valid reason too. but then after you enjoy Machu Pichu and hike around, tourists generally can visit at least 1 or two other places in Peru and I think they should.    It is  such a diverse country that you have to see all the corners for appreciating the country and its diversity. Lake Titicaca is a hidden secret, not so close to all the other attractions and does not get on the tourist's list that easily. but in my opinion, the experience on the lake is a must.

This lake is on the border of Peru and Bolivia. Peru has  Titi means Puma  and Bolivia has the caca means Rock. Of course this translation was from a Peruvian and so they took the better part of the name, but that aside,  this lake in the Andes is huge.  It is considered the highest navigable lake in the world at 12000 ft.

We went there from Cuzco in November of 2012. We joined a tour bus from Cusco to Puno, It was a 8 hr bus tour but with stops every 2 hours and at every stop there was something worthwhile to see. We also went to the highest mountain top in Peru at 15000 ft, on the way.

Puno is a small town, when we reached Puno, it was the town's establishment day, so people were dancing in the streets. It was nice to see old and young couples wearing their traditional dresses and dancing to upbeat songs in a parade. School bands marching. No wonder, there was so much dancing in this town, it is the "Capital folklórica del Perú" (folkloric capital of Peru) due to its wealth of artistic and cultural expressions, particularly dance, I found this out from the Wikipedia page later.

Next morning, our tour guide brought a mini bus to collect his tour group from different hotels and took us to the boating dock. Our boat was a mid size boat and we had a captain and a navigator in the boat.  The weather in November morning was mild, but we carried sweaters and I am glad because on the lake, it was a bit chilly and windy at times.   We started pretty early in the morning for the boat ride around 8 am.  We navigated thru some marsh land and came to the open lake after about an hour.  Since the sunlight was now bright, most of us sat on the upper deck to get the full view of the lake.  That is when I realized that the lake was so huge that we could not see the end from where we were, and the lake actually had waves! The water was turquoise blue even though, the average depth of this lake is about 350 ft.   Compare that with our Crater lake in Oregon which is 1940 Ft deep!

Manmade land on UROS and people of the floating islands

This lake has quite a few islands in the lake, we visited two. The first one we approached from Puno was a group of floating islands of Uros. We made a stop on one of the islands. These islands are man - made with the local reed called totora. It is amazing to see people settling on these floating islands, they are living on the layers of reed, not even a sturdy land underneath. They took us in a house on the island, Men fish, build and maintain the house and he boats and women cook and knit and do some crafts.  Their boats are built from totora as well and have pretty artistic shape. They sell their crafts to tourists. They have learned English so they communicate quite well. It was so unique to see happy people, who literally even do not have a solid ground under their feet. People in our world worry so much about material things, their house, car etc, but here these people have pretty much nothing and yet they did not appear sad. We bought a small replica made by the men on the island. It reminds me of these happy people.

On the top, enter the town of Isla Taquile

Main and the only square in Taquile.

After this stop, we rode in the boat for another hour or two and got to the big island of Taquile.  Compared to the floating islands of Uros, this island was huge and had actual land, it was a  hill in th middle of the lake.  We got down from the boat and started climbing up the mountain on a hike. This hike was about a mile and a 1/2 long and was uphill all the way to the top of the hill.  We met some people and sheep on the way. The best part about this hike was the view, On one side we could see the blue lake all the time. The weather was perfect. As we approached the top, we met more people from the village.  We ended up in the town square where it looked like in Spanish central  square we saw in all the cities in Peru.  This square was definitely a meeting place for all the local people and the tourists as well. Beautiful panoramic views of the vast lake from the top of the hill were breath taking.  Even from the 13000 ft. we still could not see the end of the lake!  of course, the lake is at 12000 ft above the sea level. Our tour had arranged a lunch with the local family. They gave us insights into their culture. Their culture is still preserved, thanks to  the efforts from UNESCO.   There are no cars or hotels in the islands, people live very simple life. We saw some solar panels to generate light.  The Taquileños run their society based on community collectivism and on the Inca moral code ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla, (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy). The economy is based on fishing, terraced farming horticulture based on potato cultivation, and tourist-generated income. When we went to the local house to eat lunch, they gave a simple demonstration of their traditions,  clothes, they told us how to know if a man or a woman is married or unmarried from their clothes. Men get to chew Coca leaves once they get older and get married and get a special pouch to put these leaves. The young man who told us this, looked pretty eager to be able to get older and get the special pouch! The lunch we ate was the best we had in Peru. It was "Trucha", trout lunch. The fish was so fresh and so well made. I am not a fish eater but I still remember the taste of this  home made, fresh sea food. The ambiance was unmatched with the view, the place and the weather.  Once we were done with the lunch, our boat guide did not waste any time in showing us a straight path down. Climbing up was on a winding road with gentle slope, getting down was a straight drop but quite well built with famous Incan steps. When we reached the bottom.,our boat was waiting on this side of the island. 

Now with full tummy and fun filled hearts, we started our boat ride back to Puno, It was a long ride but the minds were full of these wonderful memories.  We had made friends with our co travelers from Columbia, Mexico and time passed quickly when we came back to the dock in Puno.

What  a wonderful day we had. Before deciding to go there, we had heard and read a lot about Lake Titicaca and different views about whether we should go there or not. Our friends from Peru and others who had visited Peru were advising us not to go there and I was happy that we still decided to go and see and enjoy this marvelous lake.

Grand Canyon - Traveling 2 billion years in 2 days!

It all started when our friend, Leena actually got  the reservations at 'The Phantom Ranch' for  all 12 of us - 6 couples.  It is not as easy as it sounds. We had been getting up at 5:30 am and calling 13 months in advance,  for 3 years without even getting to the live person on the phone. Around 6:30 then you hear a person and they tell you, all the spots for the month you want are already booked, and to please call next month.   We knew the best times to go are March or October, so we religiously called every  Feb 1st and Sept 1st, 1 year in advance, but had never heard the beautiful words of how many do you want to reserve.  So it was a big tasks accomplished when Leena got us all booked for end of October 2013 weekend.  Now the real question surfaced.

Can you really do it? Now that one excuse for not doing it was gone. Every one, who had gone, said you better practice. and since those were the words of the experienced,  we decided to follow.  What do you practice for? Endurance, Elevation gain, Steep downhill, Heat, Carrying heavy load, Keeping hydrated.... so many things to worry about. So many things need to go right for this one hike.

We took it to our heart. This was a once in a life time event and we were going to make the most of it. It was the thrill of achievement,  the thrill of going down and coming up the steepest and deepest canyon   the excitement of traveling 2 billion years in time, the thrill that each step would mean 40000 years.... We practiced and went to hikes closer to Portland  in spring of 2013. When September came around,  our friend, Sunil  kept reminding us to practice so we all found longer routes, steeper routes and kept hiking. Our friends Hem and Atul , who have gone 3-4 times, led some of our hikes.  Since we used to go in a group, it never felt like practicing, we were just bunch of friends having fun.

In our group we had all kinds,  One with painful knees, one with back pains, one with a pace maker, one with fractured foot and one with fear of hiking down a steep path next to exposure......One wounded soldier can easily get demotivated  but the group power kept us going. Every body wanted to do it and we knew we could do it with  our group.

As the day started coming closer and closer,  we started discussing which route to take. We all wanted to be together but some of us thought that the Bright Angle trail is the easiest,  so why not stick to easy?  South Kaibab is most beautiful. these are the two super highways into the canyon.  Then there are North Kaibab and Tonto trail and many others. We decided to select between the easier paths, the two super highways into the Grand Canyon as the hikers put it. All the experts seem to point us to Sount Kaibab on the way down and Bright Angle on the way up. So we decided that, but the easiest was bright angle both ways,,, so i mulled over the idea all the time. Is the risk worth taking?

Information on the internet and the YouTube videos came to my rescue. There is so much information on the web, pictures, videos and advice, dos and don'ts ...   The visualization was easy.  If your mind is ready to go, you will go.

The next question was,  what should we pack, mule skin for the toe nails, camel back to carry water,  Getorade or nun tablets for energy, snacks, extra socks,  proper cloths, shoes, hiking poles, sunscreen and so many things but make sure they do not weigh a ton, you have to carry everything. Thank goodness we had dinner, breakfast and lunch arranged with the phantom ranch stay.

And then there was the Government Shutdown  which closed all the parks,,,, are we going? We were hopeful. And  they opened 1 week before our weekend to go. The weather guys predicted snow right around when we were to go!  but  then it was changed to 1 day after we came back... So many hurdles to overcome.... But they were resolving themselves.

We reached Phoenix the day before, drove around Phoenix then had a nice lunch at Flagstaff and reached the national park around 3 pm. The whole group of 12 got together for pizza and beer.   All of us were a bit worried but each one of us was determined.

Now there was no turning back, even if one wanted to return from half way, we did not have reservations at the lodge, plus the ready made camp dinner was waiting for us at the bottom. We had so many yummy snacks and full map of where we were going to eat which snack.... The best snack was closer to the end, so we knew we had to work hard to get that!

We got into the express bus, that dropped us at the South Kaibab trailhead. It was all downhill from there. We started hiking around 8:40 -9 am We did not want to start very early and wanted to do it slowly, and enjoy the scenes. When else do you get  nature's 360 degree panoramic beauty while hiking, so we followed that advice to the tee and took long stops at the OOH AAH point, Cedar Ridge, Skeleton point and at the Tonto trail junction.  The trail  was steep but South Kaibab is built and maintained so well that even I could go down.  When we reached the Tonto point, we thought we had now made it, so we relaxed a bit more, and when we started, we realized, this was probably the steepest and the longest hike, at least it felt that way! We could see the green Colorado river from the trail and it was beautiful,  The maker of this vast canyon was calmly flowing beneath us.

When we reached Phantom Ranch, it was victory! We made it, all of us. We showered and walked around waiting for the sunset,  We could see all the way to the top. There was a man way on the top and we decided to waive at him, half of us were thinking, they are not going to see us, but the man waived back.... We saw  the mules, relaxing after a long hike. We were very happy when the meal was announced at 6pm. The stew and the chilli tasted wonderful. 

After dinner, we went to listen to the presentation at the ranch. It was wonderful to be near the river, hear all the information about how Grand Canyon was formed   Ms. Toy was a young girl from CA who was the camp geologist. She told us stories about how Grand Canyon was put on the map by Mr. Powell's fearless efforts and while telling us how Grand Canyon was formed, she told us to simply  remember DUDE, Grand Canyon Rocks....  DUDE meaning --- Deposition, Uplift, Down-cutting, Erosion. That has stuck in our minds. What a nice story teller Ms Toy was.

Now we started thinking about going back up. General rule of thumb to estimate time to go up, was double the time you took to go down, we took about 6 hrs to go down, so we would need at least 12 hrs to go up.. that was scary.. specially hiking up in the hot sun...  so we started early in the morning.  Had our water bottles filled, ready to climb.  

The trek started with a gentle river walk,  The sun was rising in front of us, some tips of the mountains were shining with the new sun light where the others were still in the dark. The Bright angle trail is beautiful, it is a natural trail, with so many well defined points on the way, the river on the side, it did not even feel like a climb. Only when we stopped for the mule train or photo opportunity, did we realize how far up we had already come. Looking at the rock formations, and trying to figure out which layer of the rocks were we in, kept us quite occupied,  We passed the red stone walls, and the green bright angle shell rock, then coconimo sandstone towards the top.  Indian Gardens was a very green campground. We made to that mark fairly quickly. Then came the 3 mile stop, then the 1-1/2 mile rest house and the tunnel at the top. We did not realize that we were already at the tunnel within 6 hours.

No wonder this trail was used by the native people to carry material. No wonder, this trail was kept private for years before National park services acquired it. It was kept private for so long that the national park services built South Kaibab trail. Of course  our stars were properly aligned, because we had one of the best weather on those two days. 54-60 on the top and 75-80 at the bottom.

One by one, each one of us came up from the land under... Jayant was waiting at the top with a camera, the two members who reached first were told to hold there cameras for our entrance onto the rim. It was victory, it was jubilation, it was happiness, it was pride. It was time to eat onion rings without guilt. 

Now it is time to brag, it is time to look at the photos,  it is time to remember how scared we were before going there,  it is time to talk about the fun times, the vastness of the canyon, the history of the trails... we all have a stories to tell.

Thank you for reading my blog.

my other travel blogs are 

New Mexico - The land of Enchantment

Trip to Ketchikan, Alaska

When you are going to Shanghai, be sure to go to Hangzhou

Lake Titicaca

3000+ mile road trip in winter: Portland OR to Tucson, AZ and small towns in between.

Hangzhou - a must see resort near Shanghai.

Generally all the business folks have a day to do sightseeing in shanghai and they see shanghai city or at the most go to Suzhou the silk city., Suzhou is a tourist town, and is worth visiting. I found out a place called Hangzhou which boasts a big lake called West Lake. Hangzhou is further south than Suzhou, about 120 miles from Shanghai. So most people do not visit when they have only 1 day to spare, but it is a place, you should go to, even if you have a day at hand.

We decided to go at a last minute and did not have enough time to plan, so we made all possible mistakes one could make in reaching Hangzhou. I hope this blog will helpful in avoiding those mistakes. In spite of the time it took us to reach, the trip was worth it.

Best way to go is to book a seat on a train from shanghai. If you want to save time in getting to the lake, make sure you go to the downtown station in Hangzhou, not the south or east station. The tickets are sold before the day of travel, so you can book them in advance. Take the fast train, that way you will spend only 2 hrs traveling, rather than 4 hrs like we did! When you go to the North station (in downtown) the lake is quite close. You can walk or take a cab. Hangzhou city is quite big, as you would expect, a small city in China, still has lot of people.

Once you land by the lake, you enter a different world. This lake is home to dragon boat racing in June. You see families, people rowing there boats and having fun. There is a line to get a boat to row. if you are not too keen on rowing yourself, there are boat rides you can take. One is a small boat ride, you can take your food in the boat and eat while watching the beautiful surroundings (at least ice cream or hot tea/coffee depending on the season). it is an half an hour ride.

Then there is a dinner cruise, the boat is royal Chinese boat. It is not too huge but it is very artistically made. The royal families vacationed here long time ago and these boats and the architecture around the lake, shows you a glimpse of how they lived.There are quite a few tea houses by the lake, but the chinese do not serve much food in their tea houses. People seem to drink just tea or beer with peanuts and cherry tomatoes! There are some open food makers who grill the meat and have popcorn though. I was thinking of Nachos or pizza to take on the boat ride, but alas, this is not US of A.

The lake is huge, there is a pagoda on one side and a temple on the other, you can walk to both these sites. The walkway is right by the river, It is very refreshing to walk by this willow treed path. People come and play music there, kids play, people chat, paint. . In spite of so many people around you, there is a certain calmness to this place. In Shanghai, you do not see any trees any more, here there are lush green mountains surrounding the lake and the contrast makes a bigger impact.

At least to me, It felt very relaxing to be by the lake, We had spent about 6-7 hrs getting their, but even then once we got there, it was worth it.

I hope you go and have as much fun as we did.