Been through the desert...

...with a car with no plates. Yep, NV does not make new cars have temp plates, but rather a little piece of paper taped to the passenger side of the front windshield. We double-checked about our plate-less jeep before leaving the rental car place, but they assured us it would be fine so long as we knew where the registration was just in case.

Saturday, after a long plane flight (combination of having to turn back to CLE to change planes when the 1st's landing gear wouldn't pull in and a strong headwind), we got provisions and made camp.

Sunday was Mass at the Catholic chapel in the GC, followed by hiking. We hiked from our campsite, through part of the Rim Trail, to the Bright Angel Trail. There are signs all over reminding you "what goes down must go up," and warning how marathon runners have died from not having enough water or overdoing it somehow. We made it to 3-Mile point (there had been talk of going further but a friendly ranger advised us otherwise). Throughout the trip we were confused by the fact we made better time going up than down (supposedly it takes twice as long to go up). The squirrels along the trail are brave. One tried to climb into Don's backpack. They were cute from a distance, but their bravery unnerved me a bit. We were also surprised how many European travelers we saw on the trail (the ones we met were mostly from Austria and Switzerland).

The next day we went on the Grandview Trail, which was suggested by the friendly ranger on the previous day's trail. We almost went on a different trail, because the Grandview did not have water stops, but we were thankful we didn't get our campsite taken down in time, because the Grandview Trail was spectacular. We didn't make it through the whole trail (half of our group had small water bottles and we would've been hiking in the heat of the day), but we walked a good ways.

After the Grandview trail, we went north, stopping at the watchtower to see another angle of the GC, then continued north, stopping in Cameron, where I got stamps (at the watchtower they sold stamps in machines but that made them expensive) and mailed my postcards. We also got bread and lunchmeat to eat in the car. We drove just north over the Utah border to scope out multiple entrances to the park around Lake Powell, but settled on a campsite in AZ. Then we went in the lake for a bit. In the GC it had been cold at night (40ish F). At Lake Powell, it did not get cold.

The next day we did two short hikes in the Lake Powell area, then drove south to the Sedona area. We stopped at a place called Slide Rock Park on the way. They have natural water slides. It had been raining, but the rain let up long enough to go in the (cold) water. It was fun. The rain held off just long enough for us to get the tents and rain tarps over, and to get dinner mostly cooked. Then the rain let up again in the evening, and we were able to restart the campfire.

Wednesday we hiked the Cathedral Rock tail in Sedona. Then we drove back to Phoenix, dropped one group member off for his business trip, and went to see the basilica of St. Mary's in Phoenix. It was locked. As we walked around, we found a man who was doing a water ministry outside the basilica, and he was a Franciscan (but not yet a priest) at the church and he let us inside to look around.

It was an amazing trip. I got my film pictures back today. Being back in the "real world" for a few days, the whole trip seems rather surreal.