Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/912yNAnmwByzN2438
As fun as it was (it beats a corporate job!), almost three months of video games, it was great to finally be back on the road again. Went with my high school buddy Steve on a national parks trip – we flew into Phoenix, and then visited the Grand Canyon, drove through Monument Valley (park was “closed” because Navajo Nation is shut down), and then visited Bryce Canyon and Zion before spending the 4th in Vegas. We’re going to Joshua Tree and Palm Springs afterwards, and then Steve flies out of San Diego on July 8th while I stay back in California until the 20th.
After landing in Phoenix, we visited this giant Greek Orthodox monastery about an hour southeast of the city. This was actually a pretty cool place, and looked like it could be straight out of Greece in terms of the architecture and gardens. The food that we got for snacks were also legit – best fig newtons I have ever had and it’s not even close.
After the monastery, we drove directly to the South Rim entrance of the Grand Canyon, with a lunch stop at In-N-Out, which was decent but definitely overrated. A recurring theme of this road trip was all the fast food that we ate, which is fitting, because the only thing more American than fast food is probably national parks (and reactionary white nationalism I guess). Sonic’s had a great burger (better than In-N-Out), and Del Taco is legit and makes amazing tacos.
The Grand Canyon is one of those few places that actually lives up to the hype, unlike Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower. Pictures really don’t do it justice, and it’s so hard to fathom just how massive it is while you’re there. It straight up looks like a painting at some points based off the lighting.
Our first full day there, we did the Bright Angel trek, which took about 8.5 hours. We went down ~3800 feet and 4.5 miles of pathways to the Indian Garden and then turned back up, to make it a 9 mile roundtrip. Working out definitely really helped here, as this was much easier than it would have been a few months ago. Was still sore for a few days afterwards though. Had we started earlier than 9am I think we definitely could have made it further. This was a stunning hike and had incredible views of the valley from above and of the canyon cliffs from below. Steve was saying that this is basically what hell is like, if you look at it strictly from a survival aspect and ignore the natural beauty, and to be honest I do agree with him.
The next day, we walked along the rim to take in the views before driving out to Navajo (and Navabro) nation to stay overnight before seeing Monument Valley. Monument Valley is literally straight out of the movies – the vistas are classic “Wild Wild West” Americana, and it was pretty surreal to see all of it. We also found some areas that were not fenced in and were able to park our car and walk around for a bit.
We then drove to Springdale, Utah, and visited Bryce Canyon the day after getting to Springdale. Bryce is probably the most alien landscape I have ever been to (even more than Ladakh), and looked like it could substitute for Mars. It was probably my least favorite of the four places we saw on this part of the trip, but was still really cool.
Zion, on the other hand, is probably just behind Ladakh in terms of the coolest natural beauty I have ever seen. Can definitely see why the Mormons named it Zion (I have no idea if this is true and refuse to look it up). The lush valleys cutting through the boulder mountains is just an awesome sight. We did the Angel’s Landing trek, but unfortunately the chained section (which is the last 500 feet of elevation) was closed due to COVID, since it’s a very close encounters section. Regardless, the views from the uppermost point we could get to (about 1k feet) was amazing. This was another place that seemed literally out of this world, with the weird giant boulders that were basically large hills/small mountains. We also read up on Mormonism, and to be honest I’m shocked that it’s even viewed as a somewhat legitimate religion.
Before getting to the only negative of this trip, the two main highlights of the long drives were:
1) The Boys Are Back in Town, Thin Lizzy’s seminal song, being the 3rd song that came on shuffle once we got the car and being the song that played as we pulled into the Grand Canyon lodge. Certainly a great omen for the trip
2) Discovering the joys of shitty yet amazing 80s hair metal. The impact that Michael Anthony, Van Halen’s bass player and (more importantly) backing vocalist, had cannot be understated. I saw Van Halen in Chicago in the summer of 2015 after graduation and they were awful. Now I realize the real reason they sucked was because Anthony was shunted out due to some BS nepotism for Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son, and Wolfgang cannot hit those sweet sweet harmonies. Every 80s hair metal song has a baller chorus that is a replica of Anthony’s harmonious voice – Van Halen classic examples include Panama and Dance The Night Away. But there were some real bangers that we listened to, like Kiss’ Crazy Nights and Lick It Up (both post-makeup period, and Jesus Christ are they ugly), LA Guns’ Rip and Tear, and Winger’s Seventeen. Not to mention the classics like Def Leppard and Motley Crue.
Anyways, after Springdale we went to Vegas for the 4th. Vegas is all the worst things of America distilled into one location and on steroids. It is also the logical conclusion America taken to the extreme – all the excesses of runaway capitalism. It’s these giant, gaudy, ugly casinos built for the new religion, one that is all about taking what you can for yourself and fucking over everyone else. One great book rec that I think is relevant here is Chris Arnade’s Dignity (he’s also my favorite Twitter follow along with Glenn Greenwald and PFT Commenter). That said, it was still fun – like Bangkok, a city that can be fun while still sucking. One highlight of Vegas was this really cool dive bar we went to called Atomic Liquors, which had a great soundtrack of unironic 80s metal and 2000s pop punk. The food in Vegas was also pretty good, especially this Chinese hole in the wall called Joyful Kitchen that we went to for dinner on the 4th. It was definitely very fitting to spend the 4th in Vegas, which painfully displays America’s excesses and decline.
The best part about Vegas was definitely the shooting range we went to that afternoon before checking in, called Battlefield Vegas. I took the “Defending Stalingrad” package and got to shoot some old Soviet WW2 pistol, a Mosin Nagant bolt action rifle (which was awesome!), and a PPSH-41 submachine gun. It was really cool to fire weapons that I was weirdly familiar with from my high school video game days of Red Orchestra. The pistol was definitely the toughest due to no shoulder support and it being the first gun, while the other two I was able to rest against my right shoulder to help kick down the recoil. Shooting guns is awesome, but not cool enough for me to join the NRA (yet…).
After Vegas, we drove on out to Palm Springs to begin my ~2 weeks in California.