American Roadtrip: 6/21/09

We stayed in Colorado for nearly a week in a few different places. I love that place. It is by far the nicest state we've visited on this trip so far. We stayed just outside of Denver for a few nights, and spent a day touring the city. We went hiking several times, increasing the difficulty as we went along. June 18th was Emily's birthday and we took a hike that lasted a few hours.

We then did an overnight backpacking trip deeper in the mountains. It was fairly difficult, but it was worth it. I'm not sure what our elevation was, but it was somewhere around 10,000 feet above sea level. Hiking at this elevation is SO much harder than it is back home. The air there is much thinner.

For our backcountry hike, we had to use hiking backpacks to store everything we needed such as the tent, our sleeping bags, etc. They were Emily's parent's backpacks from when they did the trip when they were younger. They weighed at least 50 pounds each, maybe more. So that added to the difficulty. But it was worth it to do something that challenging.

After that we drove through Trail Ridge Road, which is the highest continuous highway in the United States. It reaches an elevation of around 12,200 feet above sea level. It was quite the ride. We also took a hike just off of that road, and the view was incredible. We had a 360 degree view of snow capped mountains and nobody else was around us. We were in the middle of nowhere. The winds were sustained at over 60mph and it was very chilly.

We left the Grand Canyon yesterday and arrived in Las Vegas yesterday. Back in civilization... kind of. Words can't really describe what the Grand Canyon is like, so I'll just show the photos. The photos also don't come close to doing it justice. The downfall is that it is VERY touristy. And although we're tourists right now, I still hate them. We've done a few small hikes around and into the Canyon, but nothing too major. The best part so far has been watching the sunset here.

We'll be hanging out in Vegas today and tonight, then to San Diego tomorrow. The plan is to be camping on the beach there. I can't wait.

(photos are in reverse order of when they were taken)