Day 12 - Sedona, AZ to Las Vegas, NV

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Note: Havent been able to update the blog over the past few days.. Hotels without Internet, more hours of driving as we dropped off people along the way, and weeks of travel through changing weather, different altitudes and shifting time zones caught up with us eventually. Unfortunately, that means that I dont remember all the fun, whacky moments from the trip that made it such an enjoyable holiday 😞 Its those stories, those anecdotes that defined our trip, but nevertheless, heres an overview of what we did end up doing.

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Woke up to a glorious day in the mountains - Clear blue skies, stunning red mountains illuminated by the rising sun and glowing in brilliant orange, a gentle cold breeze, wide open valleys outside our window... Sedona is located 4500ft up in the mountains, and has consistently voted amongst the most beautiful places in US.. Plenty of Hollywood movies have been shot here and it was easy to see why.



Oak Creek Canyon:

Had a quick breakfast and headed out to the Grand Canyon, 3 hours aways.. The extra 45 mins we had driven the earlier day to get to Sedona were well worth it.. We drove through the mountains, passing snow-capped peaks, gurgling streams and plush forests.. The entire area is dotted with cottages, cabins, lodging and vacation homes along the creekside or deeply secluded into the canyon forest., Perfect location for camping, hiking, picnics or just spending a quiet couple of days away from civilization...


The drive from Sedona to Flagstaff along Highway 89A is often rated rated a Top 5 Scenic Drive in America.. Plenty of Kodak moments along the way.. We stopped at the Oak Creek Canyon Vista to get a bird’s eye view of the canyon.. Saw several Native American Indians selling Indian crafts and jewelry nearby..



Grand Canyon:

Reached Grand Canyon National Park by 1pm.. Akshay and I had been to the Park earlier when we studied at Stanford a few years back.. But it was the first time for the others, it was nice to see the excitement on Sanak, Gattu and Sapna's faces when they got their first view of the majestic canyon...


Some trivia (I always love those!) that I picked up from the tourist brochure that we were handed:
- The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6.4 to 29 km) and attains a depth of over a mile (1.83 km) (6000 feet)
- Nearly two billion years of the Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. Here's some perspective: The rocks at the bottom of the canyon are estimated to be about 2 billion years old, the earth itself is estimated to be about 6 billion years old
- There is an Indian connection to these rocks. The 2 billion year old geological exposure at the bottom of the Inner Gorge is named the Vishnu Schist
- About 600 deaths have occurred in the Grand Canyon since the 1870s. Some of these deaths occurred as the result of overly zealous photographic endeavors, some were the result of airplane collisions within the canyon, some visitors drowned in the Colorado River, while some were overconfident hikers who overestimated their fitness levels


We checked out the various trails we could hike along.. We wanted to do a 3-5 hr trail that would still leave us with enough time to make it to Vegas by night... But there was a problem.. It had snowed heavily, and none of us had come prepared with snow boots and other hiking gear since we werent originally planning to do the trek down the canyon.. We did give it a shot though, but soon figured out that hiking down the slippery trails with nothing but the deep, inviting canyon on one side was not a good idea unless we wanted to join that 600-strong club mentioned above...


Finally decided to do a much simpler 2-hr trail along the canyon rim thats usually popular with kids, the disabled and the elderly (hey, its not something that we are proud of, but then, in our defence, it was so cold and icy that we didnt have any other choice).. Turned out to be a nice walk, since there wasnt much traffic along this route.. We had the whole trail to ourselves and soon got busy being kids again - shoving snow down Akshay's shirt, engaging in snowball fights, making designs in the snow, and veering off the trail every now and then to take pics wherever we wanted...


6pm: Its snowing heavily again, and time for us to head out before we get snowed in.. Dont want to stay here for the night and get delayed by a day.. Alright, we are now down to the final stretch to Las vegas!


Encountered the heaviest traffic so far on the trip.. There are a hundred thousand other people who had the same brilliant idea about spending New Years in Vegas..Spent 6 hours stuck behind a million cars and then another 2 hours just to check in at the hotel.. Not the best start to our stay in Vegas, but hey, we were finally there!! Helloooo Las Vegas...

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