A big change. Plus, a big hole in the ground!

We started this adventure not knowing what would really happen along the way. So in some ways, our next step shouldn’t be that big of a surprise. Well, maybe it is.

Whatever. We decided to head to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to help out Michael’s parents. More details to come on that – or not, I would like to respect their privacy, you know – but on Sunday the 30th we made our decision to head east.

Of course, we were in the middle of nowhere, Utah, at the time (although we had a 4G internet connection there along Hell’s Backbone). So we went south, back into Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, for one more night. Then we popped back up on the grid outside of Big Water, Utah. And this was the view from the Big Water Visitor’s Center:

This is such a beautiful part of the country. It was a little hard to leave, especially with so much of it unexplored. After stopping to see Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon dam (although I thought the bridge was more interesting than anything else)…

our next stop was Page, Arizona. Mostly that so that we could restock at the Page Wal-Mart, a place where you could definitely tell the tourists from the locals.

As we continued south we realized that we were simply too close to the Grand Canyon to just pass it by without major regrets. Besides, we were able to camp in Kaibab National Forest, which was just outside the park boundary. We were treated to a fabulous sunset – and even though we heard the wind howling all night, our tent was nicely protected by the trees.

The toughest part of our visit to the Grand Canyon is that we only spent about 4 hours there. It was so hard to leave! And I can’t wait to go back. I found that it’s hard to take a bad picture along the south rim…

I love that Photoshop can make these panoramas. But really, the close-up views were fantastic too.

It was mostly cloudy the morning we were there, and hella windy:

But we had a wonderful time. I had to remind myself that the Grand Canyon will still be there when we return.

So the blog will be changing, just a bit, and just for a while. Wait till you hear about our 5-states-in-4 days drive to Fayetteville! (Hint: it’s not as exciting as I just made it sound.) We’re still on our adventure, and I’ll still write about it. I hope you’ll join me.