Our Grand Canyon Vacation

We're back from our trip to the Grand Canyon and it was...grand!  We enjoyed camping, hiking, relaxing and stargazing in this truly majestic place. Here are a some pics, if you'd like to see.

We got up early, packed the car, strapped Guiri in, loaded our music and we were on our way.

{Selfie in the car - Grand Canyon or bust!}

We arrived in the late afternoon, pitched our tent, and hiked over to catch the sunset. Such an amazing start to our trip! This was our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon and the scale of it is truly mindblowing. It is gorgeous and at the same time, its size is almost incomprehensible. We sat on a cliff and watched the sky change colors. We were 3 little specks in a huge landscape.

The next morning, we made breakfast, packed a picnic and set off for a full day of hiking. Isn't Guiri the cutest in her backpack?! :)

{paleo pancakes, goofball}

{Rim Trail}

{love these two}

{with backpacks}

Flavio is CrossFitty McFittster -- he can hike for hours without tiring. It was a crazy workout for Guiri and me (the Grand Canyon is steep!), and in the evenings we'd all relax. You could hear the coyotes howling in the distance as we sat with our books and cold beer, cooking, waiting for the elk to visit our campsite.

{relaxing in the shade}

{tired eyes, dusty nose}

{elk at camp}

{firestarter}

Flavio and I don't like s'mores, so every camping trip we make some kind of dutch oven fruit cobbler. This time we made blackberry cobbler -- it was so good and really cozy on cold nights.

Each day we tried to cover different trails to see various parts of the Canyon. The geology is amazing (some of the rocks are 1.2 billion years old!) and there's so much area to explore. We can't wait to go back and see more.

{In front of Vishnu Temple}

{Bright Angel Trail}

{view of the Colorado to our right}

{view of the Colorado from the bottom - the colors are amazing!}

{Desert Floor, Colorado River}

Back at camp, Guiri thoroughly enjoyed burying her bone, digging it up, and re-burying it in a new place. We loved watching her funny wilderness instincts come out. Dog versus Wild.

{mama and baby elk}

{dinner}

Finally, on our last night, we went back to Pima Point to watch the sunset. The three of us snuggled under a blanket in the chilly air and watched the evening sky change colors over this natural wonder of the world. It was one of those spiritual, magical moments I'll never forget.

My favorite part of the trip was being completely disconnected from technology, which let me be present and enjoy every minute. We played games, told stories, laughed a ton and our time there felt really long in a good way. It was a special trip, with memories I'll always cherish.

After the Grand Canyon, we headed to Vegas to see my parents, which was also lots of fun. More on that soon..

Random memories not pictured: Guiri barfed in Barstow;  our camp neighbor was the creepiest 50-year-old cheeseball we'd ever met - he repeatedly blasted songs like "Blame it on the Alcohol" and Lady Gaga, rarely left the campsite, and had been camping alone for weeks - so bizarre;  the zipper on our tent broke and we nearly froze to death until Flavio jerry-rigged it in the middle of the night, saving us from certain death; the night skies were spectacular - I finally saw a shooting star.