Picks and Pans

As our trip comes to a close, we are reflecting on the best, and the worst. While all the scenery was fantastic, the snow capped mountains of CO had one key thing going for them – they were not in the heat/sun zone. Yeah, it’s a dry heat, but we doubt Icarus was complaining about the humidity either.

We do pride ourselves on having lunch in interesting locations, and we certainly picked up two of those this year – the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and on the Bear Creek Trail in Ouray, CO.

(The photo below is from CO. For a video of the North Rim lunch spot, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfS_S_a219o)

Our best campsites were easily those which were cooler and more isolated. And we have a new all-time worst: Wahweap Campsite at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area at Lake Powell near Page, AZ. Hot, sandy, windy (which does fun stuff with said hot sand), burrs that pierce the tent (not to mention your feet), and full of RVs. Save yourself. Push on to the dispersed camping in Kaibab National Forest near the North Rim instead.

The food was disappointing in general. We had been hoping for truly amazing Mexican, some great Native American food, and we just didn’t find it for the most part. We did pick up two great restaurants in Colorado, though: The Adobe Inn in Ridgway with great Mexican and Smokin’ Jack’s Pit BBQ in Poncha Springs/Salida with fantastic pork and ribs and even better sides.

Overall, we’ve taken four trips exploring different parts of the country. We’d rank this the second-best, trailing only 2006’s Montana/Wyoming tour. Of all the trips, probably the timing was most important for this one and we may have enjoyed it more had we been able to go earlier in the year. As one of the Bryce Canyon rangers said, there’s only a couple of million years left before it erodes away. Better hurry!