Days 7-10: Red Rocks/ Las Vegas

Thanks to Jeff and Aarash we had a place to stay while in Vegas.  Aarash found another of his patented online super deals and Jeff had then booked the deal at the Hilton for three nights and had picked up the tab!!!  We were planning on getting up early and getting a long climbing day in, but instead, Greg woke up at 6:30 and took the car to a local shop.  We were worried about getting ripped off, or just having an expensive repair bill, the last thing we needed given our unemployment status.  Instead Greg found a shop near the hotel that was able to check the car out right away. This place was great, and they definitely didn't try and rip us off.  They ended up finding a rock lodged in the brake system which was scraping up against the right front rotor.  Instead of charging Greg, the guy just told him to give the mechanic a tip.  Greg was certainly in a good mood when we got back to the hotel, to find Jeff and Courtney still asleep, and the quick fix still allowed for a good day of climbing.

We have two of the worst Red Rock guide books that are available.  Jeff has a new guide books that is by far the best one but couldn't find it in Colorado, so in continuing his awesomeness, bought a new one in Colorado before his flight.  Unfortunately, that guide book was left in the back seat pocket on the plane.  Sorry Jeff we had to include that.

So we were stuck with our old guide books and as usual the 'one hour' approach time turned into two and a half hours of uphill bushwacking and boulder hopping.  We climbed three pitches of "Unimpeachable Groping" before deciding to come down and hike out.  The climbing was great but with the late start and long approach, we ran out of time for the rest of the climb. 



Courtney belaying Greg on the
first pitch of "Unimpeachable Groping"



Jeff at the top of the 3rd pitch of "Unimpeachable Groping"



Greg getting ready to rappel down off of "Unimpeachable Groping"

That night we got back to the hotel and got ready for a night on the town in Vegas.  It was pretty late, so we ended up having some appetizers and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant.  The restaurant was getting ready to close when we got there, but they said we could come in anyway.  We had finished eating, and were finishing our drinks, when the very skilled waitress came around and poured all of our drinks into to-go cups without us even noticing.  Before we knew it, we had paid, and been shuffled out of the restaurant with our drinks in hand, wondering what had happened.  The three of us agreed that we were very impressed with this restaurant.  It was definitely not their first time kicking people out at closing time . We played some black jack, and slots, and hit the sack, excited for another day of climbing.

The next day was my birthday...the big "29"!  We also had several more friends coming into town that night.  We decided to take it easy, since we were going to have a big celebration that night, so we just did some single pitch climbing in the second pull out of the 13 mile loop.  At around 7:30 we met a bunch of friends at Ferraro's Italian Restaurant.  It was sooo delicious, and really great to see everyone.  Next, it was on to the casino's.  Courtney quickly lost all of the money that she had won the night before, but Greg hit the jackpot on a slot machine and won over a hundred dollars!

 Greg on "Fear and Loathing"

Court leading on the Magic School Bus rock

Jeff leading on the Magic School Bus

Court Belaying in Red Rocks

Courtney's birthday dinner at Ferraro's

Our third day climbing in Red Rocks there was a wind advisory with gusts up to 60 mph, so we spent most of the day climbing with everyone in the Black Corridor, a fairly sheltered climbing area.  Greg and I had decided that the next day we were going to make our second attempt at climbing "Black Orpheus".  This is a 10 pitch climb on the Solar Slab wall.  About 4 years ago, we attempted this climb, but ended up getting off route and ended up climbing on something that was dirty, brittle and well beyond our ability.  That day ended with a sprained ankle, a tarantula attack, and too many cactus stabs to count.  Needless to say, we were excited to give it another shot. 

Since we had to get up early the next morning to start the 2 hour approach to the base of the climb, we decided not to go back into Vegas with everyone that night, and instead camped at the Red Rocks campground.  It gets pretty cold at night in the desert, so to save time, we decided that it would be best if Greg got all of our climbing gear organized for the next day, while I set up the tent and got us ready for the night.  Well, remember those 60 mph gusts of wind I talked about that day...well, putting a tent up in that definitely proved easier said than done.  

That next morning we woke up early and drove into the loop road as the gate opened at 6am.  There were clouds rolling in through the mountains and it appeared to have rained a little throughout the night.  The soft porous sandstone of Red Rocks shouldn't be climbed on after rain for a day or so.  We did have hope that the rain didn't reach our climb and that the rock would be dry.  Regardless of any rain the night before, as we got further into the canyon a light mist turned to a drizzle and the canyon filled up with darker rain clouds.  About 25 minutes into the hike we made the tough decision to turn back, even if the clouds burned off and the sun came out, the rock would be too brittle and dangerous.  On our way out we passed a couple looking to climb on the Eagle wall.  We told them how wet things were deeper in the canyon but they wanted to check it our for themselves.  Seeing them continue on certainly made our decision harder to take and even made us reconsider for a few minutes.  In the end I know we did the smart thing and I hope they were safe in their endeavours. 

Approach to Oak Creek Canyon Rainbow

Walk of shame out of the canyon

Black Orpheus 2 and Greg/Courtney 0. 

We packed up the car and headed to Joshua Tree disappointed and itching to climb. We were still getting an early start and knew that we could still get a good day of climbing in at JTree. 

Days 5-6: Zion National Park

The sun woke us up fairly early in the morning at the Grand Canyon camp site.  I had a pretty rough night, with a terrible bloody nose in the middle of the night, and some altitude sickness that hit soon after.  Greg actually had to check and make sure I was still alive in the morning.  Apparently he was pretty worried when he woke up to find blood all over the tent in the morning.  After a banana and some oatmeal, I was good to go.

We repacked that car...again, and drove to a few more vista points along the canyon rim before heading towards Zion National Park.  The drive to Zion was about 4.5 hours through the desert, so we also stopped at a few scenic spots along the way.  It was definitely a beautiful drive, but it's hard to believe that people live all the way out here.

View of the Grand Canyon from the South rim.

View from the Navajo Bridge in Arizona.

We decided since we were going to be leaving Zion from the West Entrance, that we'd enter from the East Entrance, and boy are we glad we did.  Zion National Park was absolutely beautiful.  I've really never seen anything like it.  Soon after entering the park we drove through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel.  It's a 1.1 mile tunnel that takes you into Zion National Park.  It was so amazing because you'd go into the tunnel, then come out the other side in what seemed like an entirely different world.

Zion National Park entrance.

It was late in the afternoon by the time we got to the park and we went to the visitor center to get some info on hikes to do the next day.  The camp sites in the park are first come first serve, and fill up pretty early in the day, so we ended up having to pay double for a camp site just outside the park.  We decided that the next day we were going to do a pretty strenuous hike to the top of Angels Landing.  The pamphlet said that because of the sun, to start the hike between 6-8 in the morning, so we ate dinner, and got to bed pretty early.

We woke up at about 7:00 the next morning, packed up our camp site, and headed into the park.  Zion is very organized, and in the busy months, has everyone park at the visitor center, and take buses to all of the sites in the canyon. So, we hopped on the bus, and got off at the Grotto to start the Angels Landing hike.  This is one of the most popular hikes at Zion, but we were happy to see that only a few people got off at that stop with us.  We were also really surprised that almost all of the hike was paved.  I guess that so as many people as possible can experience the amazing views.  The first section of the hike takes you up several switchbacks to a spot called Scouts Lookout.  This is where most people stop on the hike, because the remained of the hike, very steep, unpaved, with thousand foot drop offs on either side.  There were chains, bolted into the rock, to hold on to while climbing the rest of the hike.  This was right up our alley. 

Courtney beginning the final hike to the top of Angels Landing

Greg at the "true" summit of Angels Landing

Courtney and Greg at the top of Angels Landing

View from Angels Landing

There were definitely a lot more people on the way up as we made our way back down to the bottom.  They all looked like they were struggling a bit from the heat.  Apparently they didn't get the memo that you're supposed to start the hike early in the morning.  After we got down, we did another shorter hike called the Emerald Pools.  This hike consisted of three pools, that in the summer, grow a green algae that makes the pools glow emerald.  Well, in early May the algae hadn't quite kicked into high gear and the pools were more a muddy brown color, but it was still a nice little hike.

Waterfalls at the Emerald Pools

After the hike we headed back down to the bottom, had an early dinner, and set off on the 2.5 hour drive to Las Vegas.  We were picking our friend Jeff up that night, and climbing in Red Rocks for the next few days.  On the drive we started to notice some concerning noises coming from the front axle of the car.  As we got closer into Vegas the noise got worse.  By the time Greg picked Jeff up we knew something was definitely wrong, it sounded like we were dragging a piece of metal under the car.  Unfortunately, we had hit our first (and hopefully only) snag of the trip and decided to hold off on an early morning climb.  We were going to get the car checked out first thing in the morning and hope for the best.
Dun Dun Dunnnn....

Day 4 - Grand Canyon National Park

We arrived in Flagstaff, AZ at around 9:00 A.M. AZ time, and after a quick stop at Cracker Barrel we decided to head to the Grand Canyon. Neither of us had been there before, so we were so excited to get there! Plus, after a long 27 hour drive the day/night before, we were both definitely itching to spend some time out of the car.

We thought it was pretty cool that we got to drive on the historic Route 66

Our first camp site of the trip in the Grand Canyon!

We finally got to use the hammock that I bought fr Greg for Valentine's Day!

We went on a really cool hike on the South Kaibab Trail to Cedar Ridge.  It was about 3 miles round trip, but after a 29 hour drive with very little sleep that was about all we could handle.  It was so beautiful!

Greg and I at a look out spot on the South Kaibab Trail

After a long day we got back to our camp site and once again tried to repack the car to make it a little more managable.  We made dinner, played a little guitar and went to bed early. 

Day 3 - On the ROAD with Tornados, Floods, and Cracker Barrel

After a quick and much needed repacking of the car, we grabbed some coffee and hit the road to Arizona. Things started out great but as we got into northern Alabama and headed towards Memphis the scenery and weather took an abrupt turn for the worse. We drove through a small town near Birmingham that was completely destroyed by the tornadoes from last week. We weren't able to take any pictures but the destruction was devastating and heart wrenching.


As we drove around Memphis the first bad weather of the trip began. The dark clouds and cold air moved in as the heavy rain began. We kept a sharp lookout for any developing tornadoes but the real danger seemed to be the flooding that was occurring all around interstate 40. Neither of us had heard too much about the flooding across Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas but it was obvious the last thing anyone here needed was an additional few inches of water.

"Parked" car at gas station

After 10 hours of rain, sunshine on the other side.

We decided to drive through the night and straight to Arizona..... except for TWO stops at Cracker Barrel within 10 hours. Gotta love the apple butter!!

Day 2 - On the Boat

We woke up Sunday morning to a beautiful day in Seneca, SC.  We all went out on Danielle and Brad's boat on Lake Keowee.  It was still a little cold to go swimming, but it was so much fun to be out on the water!

Brad took us to a waterfall on the lake, it was so pretty!  Then Perrin took the wheel and drove us all home.

Day 1 - Clemson, SC

Day one of our trip started with a nine hour drive down to my alma mater, Clemson University, to visit some friends.

We figure it's a good sign when a few hours into the drive we saw a rainbow over the highway, on a clear rainless day!



Here we all are at TD's in Clemson having dinner, I haven't seen Danielle and Brad in about 4 years, and Greg hadn't met them yet at all, so it was really great to catch up.  Also, we both got to meet the newest addition to their family, Perrin!

Road Trip

Sorry for taking so long to get the "road trip" section of the blog started, but we finally found a few hours to get on the internet and post some pictures.  As many of you know, Greg and I are going to be on the road for about a month before heading down to St. John on June 7th.  We're so excited  to do a bunch of climbing, and to see some friends and family that we haven't seen in a while.

So, we've packed up everything we own, and either stored it with our amazing families, or squeezed it into Greg's Honda Civic.  This car is definitely smaller than I thought it was!

One Way Tickets!

Greg and I bought our one way plane tickets to St. Thomas last night.  It's official, June 7th!  I can't believe how fast it's coming up.  I feel like we have so much to get done before we leave for our road trip on April 30th.

Woo Hoo, First Post!

Hi Everyone,

I'm so excited for our first post.  We still have a few months before we leave for the St. John, but I figured I should probably set everything up well before hand because we're going to be really busy packing and getting everything organized for our road trip and then the big move. 

What road trip, you ask?  Well, when we first started planning our move, about a year and a half ago, we decided that it would be really fun to do a road trip around the U.S. a month before we move.  How often do we have time to take a month off of work to travel....never.  So, we're going to be mostly camping and staying with friends and family as we hit up lots of national parks and climbing spots.  I'm getting so excited, I can't wait!