I did it! I finally made my way to the west coast! Even though I only planned to go to Arizona.
This summer, the Stokes family (minus one) decided to hit the road and go on an actual road trip. With only one destination in mind, we packed the car and made our way west to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. This trip was truly an adventure.
Day one: I booked our hotel in Arizona
Note to self: don’t forget to make reservations for in between stops!!!
Day 2, New Mexico
I’m not sure what woke me up. I guess it was a mix of the constant movement, and people talking outside my window. We had stopped about 2 hours outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. We have a friend from high School that recently moved out that way so we ended the drive in front of her door. Of course, I wasn’t coherent enough to drive any more than those two hours, luckily my original hotel blunder was rectified when we were able to get a hotel for the night.
We arrived in Santa Fe during the wee hours of the morning, later I realized is was about 4 am. The time change from central Standard to Mountain time really threw me off. Since the town wasn’t quite awake yet we decided to do some site seeing!
Awake and ready for adventure:
We ended up at Tent Rock, New Mexico. If you follow my Facebook page, you have seen many of the pictures. Wow, what a treat this was! The views from the elevated altitude were simply amazing. Even with my fear of heights, it was truly enjoyable.
At some point during the hike, I thought “I should turn on my fitness tracker” in order to track it as exercise. Hearing my wife and son’s enjoyment along with the beautiful trails, I never transitioned that thought into an action. Needless to say, amidst the fun, I did meet all of my fitness goals for my day in New Mexico.
After Tent Rock, we met up with our friend for ice cream before heading back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.
Day 3, Arizona!!!! Oops wrong part
After having such a great time in New Mexico, we were ready to get to the Grand Canyon. The drive from Santa Fe to Arizona was breathtaking. The view of the mountain’s from the highway was enough to make me wish I want the one driving!
7 hours later we arrived in Phoenix. The destination we wrongly set out for from the start. I’d booked the hotel thinking we were only an hour or so away from the Grand Canyon. We arrived with enough time to grab something to eat, and get directions to what we’d come to see only to realize that the Grand Canyon was 3 hours away! Had we not already check in to the hotel we could have driven the remaining three hours. Since we were there, we decided to stay in Phoenix for the night. At least we made it to Arizona. Right? 😖
We’d hope to see some firework celebrating the Fourth of July, but there was not a fireworks display for miles. I spent the evening swimming in the hotel pool with my son. He and another little boy his age decided to make of game of how far I could throw them in the pool.
Another thing worth noting about the drive thus far is about the availability of a cellular signal. Once we left Oklahoma the less of a cell signal we had. This made using our cell phone as a GPS and a radio really difficult. Arizona was mostly desert. We ended up reactivating an old SiriusXM radio subscription in order to have music for the drive. We would get a flood of message alerts when we drove through a major city. But, it only lasted a minute or two while we were close to the city.
Day 4, Grand Canyon
We finally made it to Flagstaff AZ., the closest hotel that we could get to the Grand Canyon, without staying at the Grand Canyon. After checking in, we were off. After driving for an additional hour and a half, we made it to the Grand Canyon!
A trip to the Grand Canyon is a must. The pictures that were posted, really do nothing for the extraordinary views. We took a tour along the red bus routes. We were told that this was the most scenic view of the canyon. We took the bus to one location and then walked along the rim of the canyon to the next location in order to catch the bus to a location that simply amazed us.
We stayed until sundown. Watching the sun set over the canyon as we made our way back to end the 4th day of our adventure.
Originally, this was supposed to be the end of the trip. But along the way to we started seeing signs for Los Angeles. Seeing the signs begged the question, how much further could it be? By the end of the day, our plans were set to spend the next two days on a beach in Los Angeles.
Day 5 and Day 6, Los Angeles
Roughly 7 hours later we were checking into our hotel in Los Angeles. In hind-site, I should have booked a hotel closer to the beach because we never did make it to the sandy beaches of California. Instead, we went shopping in the most bizarrely situated Walmart I’d ever seen. I used to think that if you have shopped at one Walmart, you could find your way in any Walmart, regardless of the city. I guess they didn’t get the memo. We spent nearly half the day of our first full day in California trying to find supplies in Walmart.
Later, we’d decided to try to find our way to the Hollywood sign. Apparently, there was a hiking trail that leads to the top of the mountain. We followed the GPS directions, to what we’d hoped would be the Hollywood sign and found ourselves at Griffith Park home to Griffith Observatory… WOW!!
If you have ever heard me tell stories about my wife and “following a crowd” this will come as no surprise to you. We followed the crowd! To my surprise, the great gem that awaited us was better than anything that we could have hoped for. We sat through an amazing exhibit at the planetarium about the sky, stars, and planets. We walked around and were truly amazed by what we’d found by mistake.
We got directions from the locals and finally made it to the Hollywood sign just before the sun started to set.
Corey Stokes 