Back in IN

From Slab City we left for Saguaro, just the two of us at this point. Once arriving there, it was awesome, don't get me wrong, but we decided that it's just not fair to these "little parks" when we visit them after hitting the "big apples" RIGHT before. We couldn't appreciate the park because it just wasn't the same as Joshua Tree or Zion... Plus it was just a bunch of cant i everywhere, which is sweet, but not some place I wanna spend multiple days. We spent a couple hours there and then agreed to drive straight to Missouri, which is where Jared and Lanaé Boyd were on Prime. It was a lonnnnng drive through the night, and we had to stop halfway to sleep at a rest stop for two hours, but despite all that we did make it. Arrived the next day around 5. A solid 24 hour drive. Seeing those guys was awesome and they showed us around the church the y were interning at, and then took us out to eat at Lamberts Cafe, which was AWESOME!!! They THROW your rolls at you! How cool is that!? Not to mention that the food was just delightful! We spent the night there and in the morning it was finally to head back to HU. Not much to tell in this post since 85% of all this was being in a car... I ate some of the grapefruits from california and they were unreal. SO good. But yeah not much exciting happened. We're back now and I suppose that wraps up my blog! Ill post a photo from Saguaro when I get them on my computer.

Thanks for reading guys, you've been the best!

Holbeeen

Day 12 Cont. Salton Sea and Slab City

Day 12 Cont. Salton Sea

Definitely the most eventful day so far. After dropping Matt off at the airport stumbled upon a hot springs haven: Desert Hot Springs, CA. We decided to stop in and see what was up. The first place we pulled into was a resort, a sketchy resort but a resort nonetheless. It had hot tubs and pools from natural hot spring water, pumped from the underground. Because it was a hotel we would have been unwelcome. Why not just act like we're staying at the hotel? Well that's what we did. For all everyone knew we belonged there as much as anyone else. We strolled right in and into the pool area and then into the locker room. We could barely stand the excitement of getting into water after over a week of not showering. Shortly after we walked in the locker room, another man, a tanned, well groomed mexican man walked in behind us and set down his towel "Smooth" he said with a snicker. That caught us off guard and I asked what he meant. "I saw the way you guys walked in. You don't belong here." We laughed and admitted the truth knowing now that he was only giving us a hard time and actually thought the whole thing was funny. We struck up conversation and shared a hot spring with him. He was a talkative guy, and we could tell he was a very intelligent one at that. He knew so many little facts and peoples names right off the top of his head. We talked for about in hour while simmering in the hot tub. He knew everything! We learned about his that his name was Freddie Diaz, currently the owner of a landscape company (go figure, right?) with a art history degree. He lived in Los Angeles and loved to get away and visit places like hot springs by himself to just rewind and reconnect with himself. He was obviously a very down to earth kind of guy and we had a lot of common with him. He told us all about local attractions and stories about the towns we were in. What really caught our interest was something he referred to as "Slab City", or "Home of the Hippies" right near Slaton Sea, CA. Apparently it used to be a thriving town, which the military took over to use as a bombing cite later on. Now that the military moved out, all that remains in a bunch of concrete foundations in the middle of the desert. Hippies found this to be an ideal place to park their campers and eventually it became known as Home of the Hippies because hundreds of people go there to camp, or even live in their campers. We were enthralled by this and decided we had to check it out. He also told us of "Salvation Mountain", which is essentially a large mound of dirt and bails of hay which have been painted over with scriptural verses, religious praises and biblical references. As lame as that may sound, it's actually quite the spectacle. It's incredible actually. We initially wanted to camp one more night in Joshua Tree but after hearing the stories about Slab City, we decided we wanted to try to camp there that night, providing we could find it. Eventually, with the help of a ranger, we found the hippie capitol of the world as I like to call it, and parked the Vibe, popped the hatchback, flipped the seats, rolled out our sleeping bags in the back and started a fire by the back of the car and cooked dinner as though we belonged there. Not going to lie. I LOVED it. Everyone was super friendly and said hello whenever given the chance. Even dogs came up to say hello, they didn't even want the food we offered, they just wanted to welcome their new neighbors! Salvation mountain was just unbelievable. I'll post a photo above. I can't really describe it, you just need to look at the photos and visit there yourself to get the full experience. It's one of a kind for sure.

Pretty legit day...

Next Stop Saguaro NP

Read more about Slab City here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City

Day 10-12 - Joshua Tree NP

The photo I wanted to upload is a little too large and I don't have time here in the mcdonalds in Arizona to resize it. Check out Facebook.com/beanart to see it! It's a pretty awesome one, not oging to lie!

We made it to Joshua Tree by midnight on Thursday night, parked on a side road inside the park and slept yet another night in the car. The entrance was free here after hours as well... I guess we know how to get into parks for free now, just come at ridiculous hours of the night. Simple enough, right? It's warm here. Very warm. Friday it hit mid 60's and yesterday it was lower 60's. The nights are much more comfortable as well, reaching close to 40 degrees. Still not ideal, but certainly better than what we've had to deal with before (15 degrees in Arches NP). Friday we spent the day just exploring this enormous playground of rocks. It's quite bizarre actually, there are massive piles of rocks and boulders on top of one another, forming an out of place mini-mountain of rock in the middle of a desert. There are dozens of these unique rock formations too, all for us to climb and play on. It's just phenomenal to say the least. The Joshua Tree is the funniest looking tree I've ever seen. It looks as though someone crossed a palm tree with some sort of conifer tree. As a sapling it literally looks like a large pineapple, but as it grows up, the bark starts to turn into something more like a pine tree or maybe even like a maple tree. The leafs are spiny, tough and yet succulent, but look like the leafs to a palm tree. It also seems as though they have no rhyme or reason to the way they grow. There are tall ones that look like giraffe necks and just one poof of leafs at the top, then there is the lush Joshua Tree with many branches spreading out wide and full. Then once in a while you'll see a Joshua Tree growing at a 90 degree angle, and bending down back toward the ground as though making an arch. They're very fascinating.
As we were climbing and exploring the rocks, we would come across crazy caves and holes in the formations, some bigger than others. We found one that went deep into the formation. We climbed under, over and around boulders, but finally found ourselves in a beautifully constructed cove deep inside. It had it all, a small doorway, just big enough to fit a human body through, a tall ceiling, even stocked with a natural skylight. The ground was flat with sand that wasn't TOO cold, and a corner that would be perfect for a fireplace. It was begging to be camped in we decided. I must stop and say how disgusted I was to find broken glass everywhere throughout the park. It very well might be an unspoken law of the hippies to smash beer bottles whenever visiting the park. Glass just everywhere. Carrying on, we continued playing on the playground until dusk, when we parked the car inconspicuously at a campsite along with other "campers" and made our way into the back-country with our packs on our backs. I carried nothing more than a small sack with food, my 30 degree sleeping bag, a tripod and my camera. Doesn't sound like much, but when you have to walk more than a mile to the campsite, climbing up and over rocks with all that strapped to your back, including the thread like straps of the sleeping bag and nap-sack cutting into your shoulders, it's more than just a chore. Once inside the cave we set up camp, or lack thereof now that we didn't have a tent. We collected wood and started a fire and proudly chilled in our newly acquired cave-home. The night was more than comfortable, the cave did a good job of retaining heat while removing the smoke out the natural chimney/skylight. First night I slept the whole night without waking up more than 3 times. Success? I think yes.
Saturday we spent the day exploring the park further, we visited an abandoned gold mine, which was technically blocked off from the public, but there were many access points which me and Chris took full advantage of. There were about 6 entrances, it took us several tries to find the main entrance that would take us further than 20 feet before a dead end. Once found, we began our spelunking. Heights is my phobia, though I'm beginning to get over that fear ever since climbing angels landing which you can read about in earlier posts. Chris' fear is being in tight spaces, or claustrophobia. The mine was PERFECT for overcoming that fear! I personally had no problem squeezing through dark, cold spaces just big enough for a human body, Chris on the other hand refused to do so. The mine winded back into the heart of the mountain at least 150 yards, equipped with everything from supports, braces and even a railroad track for carts. With a dull and cheap flashlight, we made out way all the way until we hit the dead end. Quite often I would turn the light off just to freak Chris out. It worked well I must say and I got kicks and giggles from it. If not for a flashlight, returning to the entrance would be near impossible. It was the kind of dark, where you weren't sure if your eyes were open or closed. Oh I almost forgot to mention what we found just about everywhere in the mine! MORE GLASS! In case you were worried, we made it out of the cave just fine, didn't even encounter bats of a crazy hermit with a shotgun. Imagine that.
Joshua Tree National Park has easily been the most entertaining park we've been to yet. Zion NP was easily the coolest place I've ever been to, but Joshua tree provides so much free reign and freedom. It's much more chill than other national parks and don't restrict you from nearly as much. This obviously creates a much more enjoyable atmosphere. Last night, Saturday night, we slept under the stars aside a warm fire, and this morning we're gonna start yet another day exploring the unexplored!

Next stop Saguaro NP

Day 9 Grand Canyon

Day 9 Grand Canyon

Turns out if you get to a national park at the crack of dawn, before they even open, you can just stroll in without paying a penny. This would had been nice to know before.... I even had an educational fee waiver, which i worked my butt off to get, and I didn't even get to flash it! We spent the night just outside the entrance in the car and then at 7am just rolled in. Grand Canyon was breathtaking. Never seen anything so... well.. grand. It's so vast. Just keeps going and going. BUT... I have to say that the views from the rim just get dry after maybe 20 minutes. It's all so beautiful don't get me wrong... but it all starts to look the same from up top. And we didn't have time to climb and hike any of the trails down into the actual canyon. Not to mention it was a bitter 20 degrees for a good portion of the day... and it only gets colder the further down the canyon one goes. Overall the experience was well worthwhile, but have to say Zion NP trumps Grand Canyon ten times over. We're headed to Joshua tree now at 7pm and have some grocery stops in between. Hope yo arrive around 1am and sleep in the car. Found out that Jtree apparently has hot springs... so... kinda REALLY excited about that. If anything it'll be nice to take a bath in them and wash my hair and clean the grit from between my toes. I know you're cringing at that last sentence but that's ok you'll get over it.

Keep in touch! Be writing here again soon hopefully!

Days 6-8 Zion NP Cont.

I promised I would finish said stories in later posts, so that is what I intend to do here and now as we drive to Joshua Tree, California. I guess I'll just pick up where I left off. As stated before, we went to climb angels landing in Zion National Park. We had no idea what to expect. All we knew about it was from what Nathaniel Moore (our Colorado host) told us about it. He said you simply have to hit it up. Hit it up we did. Let me first start by saying that our timing and planning of this adventure really wasn't all that super. We started this 3+ mile climb up a mountain face at, oh, around 4 o-clock. Mind you a 3 mile hike up a mountain takes more than just an hour or two. It starts to get dark in Utah around 5:30 6 o-clock. Do the math. Also I should add that there is a sign at the start of the trail stating that the path is strenuous and that 6 people have fallen to their deaths in the last decade.. Anyway, back to the meet of the story. We began our accent on a nice paved, switchback sidewalk with a nice view of the canyon. It didn't seem all that bad! I even thought to myself "how on earth could people die from this mild hike???". Well the answer to that was to come shortly. The path only got steeper, but remained paved and mild-mannered. The path was so windy and in and out that we weren't even entirely sure where the path was leading us for the longest time, or even which mountain face we were going to, if any. Finally, after a thousand feet in elevation, we found ourselves between two mountains, still climbing, and the day still growing later and the sun setting lower. I couldn't help but think to myself "I really hope this ends soon or we'll be walking back in the dark". Haha... anyway.... we finally reached what I thought to be the end of the trail: a jaw dropping view at the peak of a mountain with sheer 2 thousand foot drops. It was beautiful to say the least. We can finally turn back and make it to the base before dusk! Not. Just when I thought the path was over, low and behold, a narrow "peninsula" jut our from our mountain into the canyon. Chris and Matt headed straight for it and began climbing. Another half mile??? The sun was almost gone at this point! We've come this far I thought, might as well just finish it and get the heck outta dodge. I started my accent up this sketchy looking "path" if that's what you wanna call it. There were no more paved walkways with guard rails and safety poles, I had nothing to hold onto but a chain which was anchored to the cliff. Flat ground? Yeah not here. At points the path was no more than 4 feet wide with absolutely no insurance other than the cold steel chain which i trusted with my life. NOW I could see why there had been fatalities here. Chris and Matt were far ahead of me and I lagged behind with a camera case strapped around my shoulder, moving at a more than comfortable pace. Chris and Matt made it to the actual peak, whereas I made it to the level right below them before I had enough. It was seriously getting so dark that I wouldn't trust going another step without fear that turning back would prove to be too dark to make it back down this hike of hell. My buddies were out of sight on he peak, I shouted to them, but no answer.. I shot a few photos which I will post, then started back before it got too dark, hoping that Chris and Matt would have the same sense to do the same. I held on for dear life, the wind was chilling now and I could barely see my feet in front of me as I made my way back down. I made it. So did they... though apparently they had some close encounters. But the good thing is that we made it! The worst was over. Even though it was totally dark at this point, we only had the paved portion to descend thorough. No problem!


Day 6-8 Zion Cont.

Hey so I exaggerated for effect at times, but for the most part all that was true. Also, coming from a guys point of view who is generally deathly afraid of heights, this is what you get when you put that guy on a narrow, unruly, slanted path thousands of feet high at dusk:)

Ok ok. So now after my blog update last night we headed back to camp. As though things can't get more interesting, we find out that our campsite had been robbed. Yeah... We had the bright idea to leave the tent up to air out. Turns out some hooligans saw the tent and it's contents and decided to take it. Only half way though our trip and we're already short a tent. Oh well.. We've already slept half of this trip outside anyway. Just hope it doesn't rain, which the forecast says it shouldn't. I'm more worried about spiders and snakes crawling up in a warm sleeping bag..... ugh... Anyway once we found that someone stole our tent, we became rather nervous and scared that some redneck moonshiner was gonna come out of the weeds with a shotgun and start up a riot. We started a fire, quickly cooked some soup and got out of there. We're headed for Grand Canyon at 9pm! And it's only a 5 hour drive.... looks like we'll be sleeping in the car tonight.

Days 6-8 Zion NP

While Arches blew out minds, it didn't even compare to Zion National Park, which is where I am writing from now. Zion is outstanding to say the least. If you have never been here, it's well worth a visit. I might even go as far as saying it's a necessary visit. I am not exaggerating when I say that this place is what I would imagine paradise to look like. It also looks a lot like the place where the filmed Jurassic Park... Either way, it's drop dead, jaw-dropping beautiful. On arrival, my jaw literally was open. Nothing but massive, red and tan walls, thousands of feet shot up skyward on either side of the road. The rocks here are various in shapes, sizes, texture and color. there are flat rocks, round, blocky, red, white, brown, even blue rocks. There are smooth rocks, crusty, flakey, crumbly, solid, and crinkly rocks. Massive boulders to tiny tumble rocks to huge mountainsides. We arrived to Zion two days ago late in the day and tried to find a camping spot before it got too dark. We found another spot outside the park which looked promising, but was rather close to the road and with a fire we'd be very visible and potentially kicked out. We decided to go to a primitive camp spot Zion offers up north. It was a long drive, but a beautiful drive nonetheless. We saw wild deer prancing in the rose red sunset. The bucks antlers silhouetted in the sky. We even encountered horses feeding on the mountainside while on our drive. They were friendly fellers. Even let us pet them! I will attach a photo of one of the ponies. LOVE this photo by the way. I hope you enjoy it as well. It's only a sample of the thousands of photos I've taken so far. Some of the horses even let us come up and pet them!
We got to the campsite and by then it was far to dark to see anything. Using our flashlights and headlamps we set up camp (the camp ground was closed for the winter by the way.. but it was too late. We were here and too dark to find another spot). We set up camp and started a much needed fire only to find out that where we were was bear infested... awesome. Just awesome. I hate bears. I was on edge the rest of the night twitching at every snap of a twig. We managed the night just fine though. In the morning we realized we had to make it back up the ice, snowy dirt and gravel back road we came up on. We have a two-wheel drive Pontiac Vibe by the way. Kinda important to know that in this story. We didn't make it more than a half mile before the poor little hatchback spun it's tires to it's defeat on a steep, ice-sticken hill. We were stuck in the middle of no where on a long back road which was closed for the winter and with no cell phone service. No big deal right? Yeah well.... There were houses and ranches all over the place, but go figure they were all summer homes which rich folk only occupy in warm months. We were all outta luck. We walked miles trying to find a solution and just when we got hold of an ax, can of gas and a shovel (don't ask how) and we were making our way back to the car, a white truck reveals itself! Nice ol' fellows in cowboy hats and boots with spurs. Called us idiots for taking a two-wheel drive down an icy slope... Can't say I didn't blame him for thinking that as I thought the same thing. But he helped pull us out of the mess and we were saved, never to return to that forsaken campsite again. We actually went back to the first site we thought of and that's where we spent last night.
I have more to write but the sun is going down and we need to be getting back to camp before dark. I am on shooting a star trail or two tonight so keep looking for more photos on here and especially on Facebook! www.facebook.com/beanart!

There are many more stories I will try to fill you all in in the future but time is of the essence now. Stories such as climbing Angles Landing with thousands of feet on either side of a narrow (and I DO mean narrow) "path" with nothing to hold on to but a chain build into the stone. It was an adrenaline rush to say the least and my brother Keith woulda died for it. I'm kinda shocked I actually did it because I am not one for heights. But this definitely tested that fear to the limit. I was flippin out. Anyway I can't talk anoymore!!!! keep in touch!!!

Next stop: Grand Canyon

Days 4-5 Arches NP

FINALLY FOUND INTERNET!!! A small, quant little cafe in Springfield Utah (host town of Zion National Park) has internet for a half hour for free so I'm trying to write fast before I have to start to pay so excuse any errors or typos because I'm not going to proof this... So deal with it:)

It's been an AWESOME week thus far to say the VERY least. From Colorado we headed straight to Arches National Park. Our expectations were for awesomeness, and we got nothing less than just that. It was more than we coulda expected. It was plain beautiful. We looked for campsites on location inside the park but that costs money... go figure. We're poor college kids and have no money. What we do have however is spunk and creativity. We exited the park and no more than 30 feet from the park we found a back, dirt road to no where. We ended up setting up camp and pitching the tent not 50 yards from the fence line to the park. It was far more beautiful than the campgrounds the park had to offer AND it was free AND we got away with having a campfire(s). It got as low as 15 degrees at night. The first night was just awful. We lasted about 5 hours in the tent before we got up, chilled to the bone, and re-stoked the fire. We ended up sleeping by it and actually building two more fires. That was our sleeping method from there out. Sleeping by the fire. Random sparks would put holes in various sleeping equipment, but it was well worth not freezing out butts off in a tent in well below freezing temperatures. Our bodies became more acclimated to the extreme cold and the following night, while just as cold, we slept much better.
The park was just gorgeous. It's called Aches for a reason. There are the most incredible arches, created just form ages of wind and water. We spent a whole day exploring and climbing, and obviously taking photos.

Next stop: Zion NP