Katherine took over some of the driving on the way to the Grand Canyon. And as all of you know, Katherine is a badassssss...
On the way out from Albuquerque we stopped at one of the most unique places we have visited so far on our trip, the Acoma Pueblo in Sky City, New Mexico. Well over 2000 years ago, the Acoma people moved their village to the top of rocky mesa where it still exists as a Native American community to this day.
The tour was lead by a college student who had grown up in the mesa, and he made a point to remind everyone that they were just tourists and that they were expected to follow tribal laws out of respect, which everyone did... almost. Some poor excuse for a mother allowed her two year old twins to run around screaming on the sacred alter of the mission for about five minutes while the tour guide praddled on about how holy it was to his people until finally he stopped talking, picked one of the kids up like a proverbial sack of potatos, and told the mother he wasn't allowed up on the alter. I wanted to applaud, but I restrained myself. Children, afterall, are the Acoma's most precious resource (I learned something). The village itself was stunning. Small adobe and stone houses, pitched high against the blue sky, built right to the edge of the mesa's steep cliffs which plummeted over 300 feet to the New Mexican savannah. Perhaps the coolest part of the experience was the fact that the village was still an active Native American community. Men helped one another patch walls in a new building, young children text messaged people on there cell phones, girls flirted shyly with our tour guide... it was a community still as real and alive as it had been 2000 years before.
The tour took longer than we thought it would, so afterwords we were eager to make our way to the Grand Canyon. It was already about three by the time we got back to our car, and we still had a six hour drive ahead of us. I have to admit that the day was pretty long. We saw a lot though. We stopped in Arizona twice. Once at the Petrified Forest National Park, which we kind of, sort of, half-ass drove through. It was kind of, sort of, half-ass pretty.
Katherine sat and contemplated the half-assed beauty of the Painted Desert and came to the same conclusion I did... "Screw the petrified wood... we're leaving." So, onward we ventured down ol' route 66 in search of a big hole in the ground. The first one we came to, however, wasn't quite as big as we were thinking...
Yes, that's right folks... Meteor Crater, AZ. A 50,000 year-old almost-tourist-trap that shows off its wears daily for the low, low price of $15/ticket. Well worth the stop for a chance to commune with a real life Michael Bay sized disaster and a meet-and-greet with our own Apollo astronauts.
The day still not over, we fueled up and plodded onward through Flagstaff, where we loaded up on groceries and camping essentials before making our way to Grand Canyon National Park, well past ten. We pulled in breifly at Mather Point to see what we could see, but found instead several strange persons flailing about like madmen. One was lying flat on the asphalt, while another was scrambling up the hood of his car.
"What is going on?" Katherine asked.
"Don't get out of the car."
"Are they on shrooms?"
"Probably..."
Then it dawned on me. They were looking at the stars. Next thing you know, we were scrambling on top of our own car to get a look at the crystal clear sky. Millions of lights, hundreds of costellations, dozens of shooting stars cascaded across the night. It was hands down one of the most beautiful night skies I had ever seen. Katherine, however, wasn't content with star-gazing and decided she wanted to get a closer look at the canyon. Next thing I know she's barrelling over a small cement barrier announcing, "I'm sure we can see something..." heading directly for the invisible canyon. Luckily, she realized that it might not be the best idea in the world and stopped. :-)
Finally, we got to our campsite and put up our tent. It took well over an hour to do in the dark, but we got her done. And when we woke up in the morning it looked pretty damn good if I do say so myself.
The next day we walked around the rim of the canyon and out on Shoshone Trail. She certainly doesn't fail to impress. Pictures!
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