On the Road to Grand Canyon

Those seemingly never ending roads!

Fast paced cars fade away and so do the busy roads of the city of Angels and the sun. Rains lash the view pane of the car while the sparsely green land turns barren and dusty yet stunning. Vast plains fringed with barren hills keep you company for what seems like eternity even at a car going at crazy speeds. Sun and rain keep up their play, while winds race with the few but very fast cars on the road. On and off the route 66 and then you see that shiny little city that is famous for, well so many reasons – you are in Vegas Baby!

Awaiting rains

That was a part of an epic road trip I had a couple of weeks back! Oh, yes a part – Vegas was just a pit stop the journey went on to Antelope Canyon, Glenn Canyon and South Rim Grand Canyon! 

Some sunrises can't really be described

I had a huge list of to dos in my Bucket list when I came to the US, but grad life let me explore only Seattle until late December, and then this fateful work group reunion with six amazing wanderlust souls happened in Los Angeles. With approximately 1500 miles to cover, I was on my way to get some green ticks on my list –

Somewhere in the mountains

Road Trip on Route 66 – Well we didn’t really do the whole east coast to west coast trip but we were on Route 66 for most of our trip and also explored the Calico Ghost Town Road on our way to Vegas.

Vegas Strip – Luxury maybe overrated, but sometimes it leaves you happy and stunned!

Antelope Canyon - that narrow ridge of earthly colours and dancing sunbeams, yes I was finally there!

Horseshoe Bend – That iconic Colorado river meander that has been feeding on the old Rockies since Paleolithic age. Still can’t get over that view and that place!

And of course Grand Canyon – There is a reason why it is called Grand, and what I saw was merely 5% of its natural grandeur.

I was excited about these places for obvious reasons, but I was elated like a kid when we touched four states of the US in four days, (it was a big thing for all of us!)

To add to all that, this was actually my first experience of a drive in the US and I literally saw every kind of weather there is – I think! From warm winter sun in Los Angeles to unusual lashing desert rain, sun on snow early morning, foggy days, clear starlit nights and heavy snowfall preceding a snow storm! I was not the one behind the wheel, but I could feel the thrill and fear of driving through a foggy dark night with occasional sleet rainfall through Canyon Roads – you get the point right?

When rain and snow attack alternatively and make way for fog

I don’t usually write about the whole journey without writing about the place, but for me this was one such trip, after my Mumbai Goa road trip in India, that just turned out to be about the journey as much as that about the destination, if not more! Hence this was like a mandatory prelude to the chain of posts coming up about the places! More about the trip coming up soon.

Yeah, well.

P.S. The Route (Just for reference)