Arizona & Utah by Bus

Story by Marise Boehs

By the numbers. . . 

          8 days on the journey

      926  miles traveled in the tour bus

        20 miles hiked

129,254 steps walked

       538 photos taken

           4 pounds gained from eating 

                            whatever I wanted on vacation

Interesting facts I learned from Michael C, our

knowledgeable and experienced tour director:

The Saguaro cactus grows an inch in 10 years; they can be

100s of years old; and are protected and closely guarded by

the state of Arizona.

A 13 year old local native girl discovered Antelope Slot Canyon

(pictured below) and it was a closely guarded secret for many

years. Now people come from around the world to visit this

natural phenomenon. It is managed by the Navajo Nation.

Editor’s note: This is part one of three (maybe four). With 538 photos, how do I choose? Each of the sites we visited are more than worthy of full focus, and I will try to do each one some modicum justice. 

First I want to talk about the Grand Canyon hike because I anticipated and trained for it. In the end, feet on the ground and faced with reality,  I did not do the hike I planned because it appeared too difficult and dangerous. 

And while I was a little disappointed and somewhat down on myself, I am basically satisfied with my Plan B effort.

Bright Angel Trail is the one I fixated on and trained for months. The morning I was set to go, I walked less that a tenth of a mile, hit a sharp, blind right turn with nothing but straight down canyon on my left. I was already a little head-achy from the altitude (7000+ feet). Slowly and carefully, I turned around, hiked back up to the rim and chose the Rim Trail instead.

The Rim Trail, true to it’s name, runs along the rim of the canyon. It was early morning and as I walked and the sun rose, the canyon changed each time I looked at it. The Grand Canyon is absolutely all that it is cracked up to be!!

The Rim Trail has a variety of surfaces, starting with a nice blacktop rock lined path then becoming more rugged as it progress away from the Village. I hiked for 5 miles and was beginning to fatigue a little but worse was running out of water (although I packed 2-20 ounce bottles, the altitude and bright sun claimed them both quicker than I anticipated.) Fortunately, a well organized shuttle system operates on the canyon rim, so I caught one back to my hotel room. I had some lunch, rested and refilled water bottles then began walking the other way from my room on the Rim Trail. All together that day, I hiked 8 miles on the Rim Trail and saw many, many vistas of the Grand Canyon.

I would go again next month if it wasn’t so far!

For more photos of Grand Canyon, Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, and the other two stops on this leg of the trip, Montezuma’s Castle and Sedona, visit my blog at www.mariseboehs.com/blog.