The Munchkin's Notebook

The road trip out to the Grand Canyon is a wrap. We traveled 4,560 miles round trip not including any side trips, driving in the park, or detours.  It took us 4.5 days to drive out to the Grand Canyon and 4 days to drive back.  We spent five at the canyon.  We hike approximately 9 miles, not counting the walking we did in the village area. Over the course of the trip we went through 3 one-gallon jugs and 2.5 flats of water. It is dry out west.  As for photography stats I took 1,491 frames across my Canon 80D, my cell phone, and a little Fuji point and shoot camera.  I mostly shot using ISO 100.  My most common aperture was F8 followed closely by F10 and F9.  My most common shutter speed was 1/320s followed by 1/250s.  With my most common focal length being  18mm.  For a majority of the trip I shot in aperture priority mode, which made my life easier and allowed me to quickly compensate for the sun and changing conditions.  I did...

We started our day by sleeping in slightly till about 6:30AM, and then eating breakfast at the hotel.  Graceland doesn’t open till 9:00 AM so we had a little bit of time before we had to leave the hotel and make the drive over to the mansion.   We got to Graceland a little before 9:00 AM, which allowed us to park and pick up our tickets from Will Call.  Our tour wasn’t scheduled till 9:45 AM,  which was the earliest I could get, so that allowed us to visit the Elvis Museum.  Graceland is not just the mansion now, it is a whole museum and shop concept devoted to Elvis.  The museum, gift shops, dinners, ticketing, and parking is all across the street from the original mansion, which you are bussed over to at your designated tour time.   The museum was good, with a lot of memorabilia, life story, gold records, and of course the jump suites on display in all their rhinestone glory.  The museum also has on display all of his cars, including pink...

Memphis Skyline We left Oklahoma City in the middle of the pouring rain and arrived in the land of the delta blues after driving through a rainstorm most of the day.  It basically was a straight drive all the way through without a lunch stop, trying to stay ahead of the storm.  The storm was very heavy in parts and it took us about  4 hours to clear it, by that time we were well into Arkansas. It was dreary the rest of the drive. We took a detour along I-70 to avoid a 30-minute slow down, which kept growing on I-40. So we got to see part of rural Arkansas. Rural Arkansas We arrived in Memphis with heavy cloud cover and the threat of a strong rain storm, really preventing me from wanting to walk anywhere for dinner.  Parking around the city is messy.   View from hotel room Tomorrow we follow the ghost of Elvis to gates of Graceland, and then head to Knoxville.  Looking at the weather it looks like we will be driving in the rain all day again, tomorrow...

Cadillac Ranch We left Albuquerque around 6:30 AM to make our way towards Oklahoma City. Driving into the sun sucks.  We only had two real stops planned for today, and a third stop only if we were hungry enough.  The first stop was at Cadillac Ranch just outside of Amarillo, Texas  Cadillac Ranch for those not familiar is an art installation of a bunch of old Cadillac’s sticking up from the ground at an angle.  People go there and spray paint them, they have several inches of spray paint on them at this point.   We got there about noon, not the best time of day for photos but it worked for the location. Jim bought a can of spray paint on site so we could make our mark on the installation.  Yes, they sell spray paint, t-shirts, and water there; always have to have a gift shop of some kind.   I got my pictures and would love to go back at sunrise, sunset, or at night and do some light painting.  The location is open 24-hours.   Jim...

Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona And such a fine sight to see It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford Slowin' down to take a look at me --Eagles Meteor Crater Today we left Flagstaff, Arizona to head towards Albuquerque, New Mexico, which was only going to be about a 4.5 hour drive not including the time change so we made a few stops. The first stop was at the Arizona visitor center, which was still closed so I did not get my map. The second stop was at the New Mexico visitor center which was also closed, so I did not get my New Mexico map either.  I’m very disappointed in both the Arizona and New Mexico tourist information committees, they are not very welcoming.  How is someone doing a cross country drive, with cell coverage that still drops out in places, supposed to navigate without a map.  I don’t feel the states are very welcoming.   The next stop was at Meteor Crater.  The site has a very small museum and of course a g...

Jim standing on point of Ooh Aah Point Today we left the Grand Canyon and headed to Flagstaff after one last hike.  We actually left the Grand Canyon a day earlier than scheduled because we felt we really did everything we wanted to do, which was hike along the rim, try to see the stars, see the sun rise (I wasn’t going to fight people for a spot for sunset photos), and hike down below the rim.   Our day started early, because Jim got up at 4:15 AM due to us going to bed super early the night before due to being up since 1:45AM the previous day.  This allowed us to pack the Crosstrek up and check out of the hotel by 5:30 AM, and drive over to the visitors center to catch the shuttle bus over to Kaibab Trailhead. Kaibab Trail is the “fast” way down into the canyon because it is steep and has fewer switchbacks. Most people if they are going down and up will go down Kaibab and up Bright Angel which is long because it has a more gentle climb.  Kaibab Trail is als...

View from watchtower viewpoint Today we started very early, at 1:45 AM, so I could attempt some astrophotography.  When we got up Jim went outside real quick to check for clouds, there didn’t seem to be any, so we got ready and started our hike to the location.  It didn’t feel too cold at first then the wind kicked in, making it very cold.  By the time we got to the trailview overlook I was cold, even though we were hiking uphill, and the several thin clouds were starting to creep in.  We toughed it out for a little bit, and I got a few not so great night sky photos.  At least I made the attempt.  For being a dark skies park I really was expecting to see more stars, maybe I was in the wrong location or needed to wait longer for my eyes to adjust.  I wasn’t as awed as I was hoping to be.  The original plan was to stay in that location all the way through till sunrise, but after 30 minutes of standing still my thin hoodie couldn’t handle the wind an...

The canyon village from along the rim trail  Today we got up around 5:30 AM and were hoping to get breakfast from the lodge around 6:00 AM, but they don’t start serving breakfast till 6:30 AM.  This seems a little silly considering the buses start running as early as 5:00 AM and they recommend you be out on the trails early so you can finish up your first hike around 10:00 AM to avoid the heat and sun of the day.  We waited for them to start serving breakfast, we both had breakfast burritos which weren’t very warm or very good, this put us heading to the trails at around 7:00 AM.  We walked the rim trail from the Bright Angel trailhead to Hopi Point, which is all paved.  We took the bus from there to Monument Creek vista and walked to Pima Point, then took the bus the rest of the way to Hermit’s Rest.  All told we walked about 5-miles.  Hikers on the Bright Angel trail clearing the first tunnel, they have hike a mile in at this point.  You can see...

Today we got up at 5:00 AM to get ready for our mule ride along the rim.  We got to the pick-up point at 6:45 AM like the person who checked us in yesterday informed us.  However, when we got there we were informed by one of the stable hands that we didn't need to be there till 7:45 AM since the bus leaves from the pick-up point at 8:00 AM.  This actually makes a lot more sense, so we walked up to Bright Angel Lodge, and walked along the rim trail a little bit before heading back to the pick-up point.   We boarded the bus at 8:00 AM and headed to the historic mule barn. Once we arrived at the mule barn they gave us the safety and instructional brief, divided us into two groups of seven, and then we got on the mules.   We were in the second group.   I got to ride the mule named Miss Sharp and Jim got to ride the mule named Sheldon. It was a two hour out and back ride along part of the canyon rim.  We did not go down into the canyon.  We stopped ...