Sunday, December 07, 2014

THE GRAND CANYON

Sunday, December 07, 2014
Photos by Alex Salcedo and myself
I WAS WEARING:
JACKET | Nordstrom Rack
TOP | *Courtesy of Abercrombie & Fitch
HAT | Forever 21
JEANS | Topshop
SNEAKERS | New Balance

I could tell you a billion things that I loved about last weekend, but I will let the photography do (some of ) the talking.



We began our little adventure at the airport. After almost leaving me stranded (okay, slightly overdramatic), we couldn't decide on what to eat (story of our lives), plus also the fact that it was Thanksgiving DAY meant it was even more difficult to make such harsh decisions (hey, I was hungry and I needed to pee!). We ended up at a Jack in the Box (classy), where I ate a delicious chicken sandwich and thanked God that I wasn't celebrating the date like the guy we had just purchased some tacos for. After derailing a bit for gas, we were off, leaving any trails of the city in the rear window, through desert, forests, people who didn't know how to drive, and vast spaces of land that only made me even more inspired for future projects. The ride was a total of about 3.5 hours, and they just flew. We had planned to at least see the sunset when we got there, but everything was just so tricky, it was pretty hilarious after an hour of finding our lodge and room. And it didn't help that there was absolutely no signal, because we couldn't even find the right address of the place we were supposed to stay at. Needless to say, after encountering an elk and two gorgeous deer right outside our car, the feeling of being connected to the world began to fade; the only reason at times I was becoming close to desperate was the urge to share it all with everyone. After registering and getting a map to our room, we stopped to gaze at the sky, because even though it was extremely cloudy, it was a hot pink and purple greatness that I can't even put into words. I wish we are able to go back as often, but as Alex said, the next time we will probably hit up the Grand Canyon will be when we have kids (I really hope it's not that long)! 
After ending our night traveling 8 miles outside the canyon in pitch darkness in order to find wi-fi (and some cheeseburgers), we came back to the room and called it a night in order to wake up to see the sunrise. I read up on the trails and got a self-taught history lesson on the place the day before, so I thought I had it all down. Come 7am, we tried to beat the sunlight by speeding down the path we thought had been the right one, but was not. The place had no car parking and you can't park on the streets there at all, so luckily, we came across a parking lot and rushed to the canyon- I was speechless. And it was about 50 degrees, so I was also freezing my ass off, but my God, what a fucking sight. Something I had only seen on postcards was lighting up before my eyes...literally. People started arriving to see the same thing we did, and besides almost giving me mini heart attacks for standing on edges, Alex scored with this trip. I felt breathless, and other unexplainable things when I looked all around me. I was one with nature at that point, and for once in my life, I couldn't be happier. We obviously took a zillion photos, and quickly went back to our very warm room, packed up, watched "The Price is Right" for half an hour, and left. Traveling down the only highway to take you to the national park, we came across this insanely chic place dedicated to The Flintstones cartoons called "Bedrock City" near Williams, AZ. It is a road trip MUST for tourists, and even though it might be gone soon (the owner is selling her 30-acre property), I knew no matter what, we had to stop there. Not to mention there was a small diner in which we ate some of the most delicious eggs and ham and 5 cent coffee (no joke!) in the entire universe by a small fireplace. SO cozy and straight out of a book, I couldn't wait to take our "tour" out back. At $5 per person, the outdated architecture and fiberglass statues were nothing short of cool, and it was a blast. Upon leaving, we made sure to fill up the tank again and took off. What I didn't know was that Alex was serious when he told me that on our way back he was going to stop at "Bearizona", a wild animal park where you legit drive YOUR own car through a whole path full of bears, rams, elk, and even wolves while they are just roaming around as if nothing was surrounding them. IT WAS SOOOOOOO LIFE CHANGING! No, seriously. I had a newfound love for Arizona that I never thought I'd have because I was always too busy hating the damn state so much. How ironic. It took me getting to the country to truly appreciate it. We parked at the end of the path and walked into a small type of zoo where you could eat and see smaller animals. I fell in deeper in AZ's grasps. I just couldn't get enough.







































Have you ever been to any of these places? What did you think of it? 
xx

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