Most recently I just got back from a hike down to Havasu Falls on the South-Western edge of the Grand Canyon. It's a 22 mile round trip hike starting at the top of one of side canyons of the Grand Canyon. The parking lot is actually on a shelf with big cliffs above and below it. There's helicopter service to the village of Supai, which is 2 miles from the waterfalls for the lazy. If you're lazy, but still want to go through the canyon you can go down on horse. I went all the way in and out w/ my 40 lb pack.
For the main shot of Havasu Falls I took 5 pictures of segments of the waterfall, and then when I got back put them back together into one big ultra-high resolution picture that I will probably have printed in poster format, and framed.
I think there were more than 300 people down at the campground while I was there for one night (I guess normal people spend two nights to recover, AND normal people reserved their spot 5 months earlier, I was lucky to pick up a cancelled spot the day before). With all the tourist dollars this native-american village brings in ($31.50 for me just to get in and stay the night) I'm surprised they live as modestly as they do. Well, they do have satellites on every house. I managed to get away with only one blister, which ended up being the size of a pistachio (still in it's shell), and surprisingly it didn't break open. By the time I reached the parking lot my feet didn't want to be stepped on any longer. Unfortunately my truck was parked a 1000 feet from the trailhead. :(
After the hike I went on to Vegas. I drove on Route 66 for about an hour until I hit the town of Kingsman, AZ. I stopped at Denny's for an All American Slam, which was SOOO good after having eaten only rehydrated freeze dried food. I also came across a huge Harley Davidson festival while I was there. I noticed that gas was $1.34/gallon which I thought was odd given the town's relative small size and remoteness, but I decided that Vegas would probably have gas just as cheap, if not cheaper, so I didn't fill up. What was I thinking? I learned my lesson when I hit Henderson and saw gas for $1.93. The only eventful moment during the last leg of the trip to Vegas was a blockade around the Hoover dam. I spent the night very comfortably in a nice bed in Western Las Vegas, and made it back to Provo the next afternoon. Now it's back to the normal working life.
