Cuppa Connections
Cuppa Connections
Cuppa Connections Episode 19: Road Trip Day 5 to One of the Seven Wonders of the World; The Grand Canyon
This episode is about experiencing the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the Thunderbird Lodge, just a 100 ft. away from the South Rim of the Canyon.
It was such an honor to have such an experience of hiking on the famous Bright Angel's trail and to walk with Elk and deer, which apparently graze in front of the hotels every morning.
This leg of the trip was priceless, and I encourage anyone to visit this magnificent area.
We hope you enjoy our adventures.
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Hey guys. Welcome to Cuppa Connections. I'm Portia, and we're here coming to you from our virtual cafe, Better with a Cup of Coffee. We are savoring relationships with coffee lovers around the world and sharing their experiences that have been better with a cup of coffee. Hello. It is off to the right. Day five, we leave Santa Fe, New Mexico and.
Cate:We were sad to leave.
Portia:We were. We were sad.
Cate:Because it was so relaxing. You know, we've been to Aruba and relax, but this had such a different feel. Mm. You could soak in the hot, in the hot springs.
Portia:Mm-hmm.
Cate:You could swim in the salt water pools and it, it was just. Ah.
Portia:I don't know. It's for me, I just felt the energy in Santa Fe was relaxing, was relaxing. It was something I, I don't know if it was the Native American, uh, history, culture surrounding us, or, um.
Cate:Yeah. That was cool.
Portia:We wake up and we, uh, utilize our cart once again.
Cate:I was just thinking about that. That was too funny. That cart came in handy.
Portia:I'm telling you, you guys have to get one. It is a cart. I think it was no more than$70 at Walmart, if I'm not mistaken.
Cate:We put so many, so much stuff. You can only imagine how much stuff we took on a road trip. And I'll be honest with you, half the stuff we didn't use. Yeah. Our Jeep was packed from the front the back and from the top to the bottom.
Portia:You, you couldn't help but pack that much on a, on a road trip. I mean, first of all, you know it's two people. Even though I've traveled and done these road trips before, it's just different when you are doing all of these other things, camping, glamping, and Airbnbs and hotels. Horseback riding, uh, all kinds of stuff. But as we leave Santa Fe, starting off, it was right before Sunrise, again, not, not maybe about an hour before. And sure enough, we have one of the best sunrises that we saw the back of our Jeep going through new Mexico. Then we're going into Arizona. Arizona. We have decided that's gonna be our future home. So when we were going through Arizona, um, of course the topography changes. And this time she was driving.
Cate:I drove the whole way.
Portia:What did you think of it?
Cate:Oh, it was fine. It was good.
Portia:You think of the topography and how that changed.
Cate:It was different.
Portia:It was.
Cate:It was very different.
Portia:A lot of Red rock.
Cate:A lot of red Rock.
Portia:It's beautiful. Sunrises and sunsets. Uh, it, it's, it's priceless. So you drive all, you drove us all the way to the Grand Canyon.
Cate:I did.
Portia:And at that point, I told you guys that we had to change our accommodations. We were gonna stay, we were gonna camp camp at the Desert View campsite, which was top rated from what I was researching, what I found out. But we just couldn't, Cate couldn't deal with it with her back. And what we realize along the way, and you take it for what it's worth, But when you're doing 19 days and you're staying in one place for one night, and then you're packing up, and then you're staying in one place another night. uh, even though we stayed in two nights in Santa Fe, you know, the one night stops It's really hard to camp because you're catching a tent and you're taking out all of this stuff. You're putting up the tent and you have to break down the tent.
Cate:It's a pain in the butt.
Portia:It is a pain in the butt, but you know, it's one of those things you live and you learn mm-hmm. so that you can, you know, you learn from your mistakes in order to enjoy the next road trip.
Cate:Absolutely.
Portia:But take it from us, the road trip was spectacular.
Cate:Yes.
Portia:So driving to Arizona, the Grand Canyon and.
Cate:The grand Canyon. When you get into the park, into the park of the Grand Canyon, you're, the trees are different. They're. Yeah. Yeah, they're more of them, yes. Did you see animals that come about just grazing deer, elk?
Portia:It's kinda like pine, pine trees. we passed by Flagstaff, And that's more of, Forest,
Cate:more greenery,
Portia:more forest area because you are getting you going up north. Now, you know, there are, I believe what three rims, this, or maybe four, but I don't know if the east is, is utilized as much. I know the north they have more, um, Woods Forest, uh, the South Rim, that's more of the picturesque, uh, part of Grand Canyon. That, that you've seen lots of pictures and you see the canyons and the striations within the rock. And then the west side, that's where it has the skywalk.
Cate:The Skywalk.
Portia:Yes. But we wanted to, Go, because we, I've been to the Grand Canyon, but I've only kind of driven through it and stopped just a little bit with my parents, but this time we wanted to stay and see and do some stuff. Mm-hmm. So that's why it was great that we found the accommodations, the Thunderbird Lodge.
Cate:And, when we get there, we found a parking spot.
Portia:Yes, people get upset about parking, and I understand but I was reading, uh, the recommendations for people is when you find a spot, Keep the spot. And we got there early enough where we found a spot. But, we couldn't, we couldn't check in.
Cate:Too early for that one. We got a parking spot. We were fine.
Portia:And it, it was close to the Thunderbird Lodge. And the way that they do it, is you have to go to a another hotel in order to check in to the one that you were supposed to check into.
Cate:It was weird.
Portia:It was weird. It wasn't as if you can go into the Thunderbird Lodge and just check in there. You had to check into another hotel at another place.
Cate:Yeah.
Portia:Yeah. But anyway, it was fine.
Cate:So we just start walking, and we just go straight out to the edge.
Portia:I kid you not, it was about a hundred feet from our hotel.
Cate:Yes. And we were just awe struck.
Portia:Oh, it was beautiful.
Cate:Breathtaking. I've never ever seen anything like that in my life. So we, we walked along the edge.
Portia:Yeah. For a little bit.
Cate:For a little bit. Just a kinda just see, And, we would see these little pelettes. They were probably about that big. Just a group of pelettes.
Portia:Yes.
Cate:It was poop.
Portia:But we asked, we don't know what it was.
Cate:It reminded me of rabbit pelettes.
Portia:Mm-hmm. But a little bit bigger.
Cate:Quite a bit bigger.
Portia:And so we asked one of the ground staff. Yeah, the ground keepers. Keepers. She was working out there and we just walked up to her.
Cate:What is?
Portia:What is that? No, we didn't pick it up. It's not like, what is this? What is this Nicole? No, we didn't pick it up, but we pointed. Ok.
Cate:And she was like, oh, that's from Elk. What?
Portia:I know, right? The poop was about this big. That's it. Little pelettes. Pop, pop, pop, pop.
Cate:Yeah.
Portia:Mm-hmm.
Cate:I was like, elk. What are elk doing here?
Portia:I know right.
Cate:Up here where all their people are. I was like, what? And, she was like, yeah. I've seen some. And, I was like, alright whatever.
Portia:Mm-hmm. So we end up going, I wanted to go hiking. I had been.
Cate:We look at some stores, but then we come back down.
Portia:Yes.
Cate:And, we follow the ramp all the way to there was a gift shop.
Portia:Mm-hmm. it was like perched out. You, you followed this trail and it's like on a ledge almost.
Cate:Uhhuh.
Portia:And it seems like it's floating. I think it's like an OB observation point, Uhhuh where people can go out there past the gift shop and just observe out there like you're on a ledge. bloating over the canyon. Oh. But we didn't go into that first. We ended up going onto the trail. What's the name of the trail again?
Cate:Bright Angels Trail. And, it's a. It's a beast of a trail. Walking down no problems. Okay. We met a bunch of people. Yes. There's this ranger, volunteer ranger.
Portia:I don't know what his name was. And he was so nice. He went very, he was very kind. And they're, they're just walking around. They're volunteer rangers. He was a volunteer ranger. I think he was a firefighter before.
Cate:Uhhuh.
Portia:Um, but he was Avol and he retired from that profession and he was volunteering.
Cate:But you have to be in shape.
Portia:Honey, you do. You do.
Cate:I'm not in shape.
Portia:At this point I was, we had gone down and the goal was to hike down to, there's a, a building where, I think it's a bathroom stop, and I believe it was a mile and a half down. So you're thinking, okay, it's down, it's a mile and a half, no problem.
Cate:And there's a thunderstorm.
Portia:Yes. And that was one of the reasons why we turned back around because.
Cate:It was getting close.
Portia:Did we see the ranger as we were going down or as we were coming back?
Cate:As we were going down.
Portia:Obviously. So we see this ranger, right? And this is where I'm gonna have to say something. Not to him, but to y'all. This man as sweet as he was. How are you gonna tell me about all these deaths that happened? I was like, that was, you know where, um, you are, you're going that building down there. He said, all of a sudden I was here that day. He said, all of a sudden I get up. Well, no, he said he passed the guy. He passed, I think it was like two or three or four guys, and they were all friends and he looked at them and he asked them, Hey, you guys okay? And the guy who's a doctor, the guy who was a doctor, he was, you know, he, he was like, mm, he didn't really say as much, but the other guy said, oh yeah, we're fine. So he goes on his merry way cuz that's what he was there for. He was there to, to help. He actually can't, do you remember? He, he can't CPR and all that stuff. I'm like, what the hell you there for then? But anyway. I didn't say it. I didn't say it. So anyway, he said he left them and he was walking another direction and he got a radio call that somebody needed assistance. Well, sure enough, he gets there and it's the doctor. He was spit, spit up, granulated blood, not blood, but granulated blood and he died, right then and there.
Cate:Right then and there.
Portia:Then he had a nerve to tell me. Tell us about. Oh yeah. So, one of my coworkers who was here with some of her friends in our family and what have you, and they were up top where we were just starting the trail, and they're these metal railings. She, he said, well, six people got struck by lighten. And I had just read this before, that in, in these places you could be struck by lightning. And the lightning storm is 10 miles or so away. Mm-hmm. And that's exactly what happened. It was the storm was like 10 or so miles away and they were hanging on the rails and the lightning came and struck her. And luckily she didn't die. And I'm thinking to myself, what the hell is this, this man doing? Okay.
Cate:And then he told a story of a lady that had hiked all the way to the bottom.
Portia:Yes, it was a nurse.
Cate:A nurse. She hiked all way to the bottom.
Portia:To the river, the Colorado River.
Cate:And she was in you an ankle deep water.
Portia:No, it was a little bit deeper. Honey. She was hot. She was trying to cool off.
Cate:She was trying to cool off. Mm-hmm. and the current just went, took her under.
Portia:He said, he does not mess with the Colorado River. It is. So the undercurrent, it is so strong. Now mind you, we're on this hike and I see storms, clouds, and I hear thunder and all this stuff in the back and hear, this man is just spewing off these deaths. All these deaths. I'm like is this man out his mind? What is wrong? What is wrong?. And then here I, and then as we leave, right, my wife.
Cate:We're, we're we, continue on. We continue on. Okay. Try to get to the, to the, at least the house.
Portia:Cate said, Nope.
Cate:I got to a point, I mean, Yeah.
Portia:It was tough for me. I mean, I was in shape, but it was tough. I heard this man was talking about all these deaths and Cate barely made it. I mean, that's how it's strenuous. Your hike is up. It's just zigzag. Zigzag straight up.
Cate:Up, up, up.
Portia:And there is,
Cate:the storm was coming in.
Portia:Mm.
Cate:I couldn't, I couldn't rest. It kicked my butt. I was actually worried.
Portia:Yeah, she was.
Cate:And I didn't wanna tell her that. Oh, you, her worried. But I had never been that. Felt like that was weird.
Portia:She was out of breath, lightheaded. So it,
Cate:I mean, I just felt, I didn't feel like I was in my body. I just, and I was shaky. I couldn't walk straight. It's like I was drunk. But I wasn't.
Portia:How do you feel after hearing about all of this and how serious the Grand Canyon is the hiking is, and then you, you kind of experienced.
Cate:A little bit of that.
Portia:A little bit of that. It's terrifying.
Cate:I didn't want what that man bothered me. I didn't let it bother me. I didn't even think about that. All I knew is they had to beat the storm and. Yeah. However,
Portia:I mean, because that was actually, it scared me and we say this to let people know that as beautiful as the Grand Canyon is and as wonderful of an experience as we had, if you are not used to climbing or hiking, make sure first you carry a lot of water. Make sure you also research it. I researched it, but I didn't research it well enough to understand and, and you know, there are times when you really don't. You don't understand by words. Mm-hmm. You don't understand the scope of how serious something is mm-hmm. uh, until you actually do it. But that trail that was serious was very serious. We'll be better prepared for it next time. It's, it's great fun, but hey, you just gotta be mindful of what you can do, knowing what you can do first and foremost. So I'm glad we decided to turn back around and leave it for another day and we get back, we're exhausted. That was what we needed and we
Cate:we get back. We were able to check in.
Portia:Yeah. And that was the day, but it was a long day. It was exciting just to see all of what you've read about so much. You know, what you've seen on these nature, the Smithsonian channels, channel about, the Grand Canyon, and.
Cate:Experience that in, in the flesh. the, the videos, the, the pictures, they don't do that justice.
Portia:It does not do it justice.
Cate:No.
Portia:To see how vast it is. You're standing there at, and the South Rim has the most observation points.
Cate:Mm-hmm.
Portia:So you're just standing there. You can go to each observation point and you, you get somewhat of a different view, but similar.
Cate:Mm-hmm. And I just wish I could fly. And just fly over the Grand Canyon and just.
Portia:Well, that's what helicopter rides are for and that's, and they have all of that. At the West Rim you could, I was, I was looking at things to do you could take a helicopter ride over the canyon. You can whitewater raft.
Cate:That's what I want to do.
Portia:They have zip lining you can do. You could buy like passes or tickets to get a meal and then, um, you could add different activities if you want to that.
Cate:Zipline and white water rafting.
Portia:Yes. There's so many things to do in the Grand Canyon and then going up north, Um, there's a train ride that you could take around the canyon and it's supposed to be a nice, nice view. It's different, you know, it's less crowded. It's a little bit cooler because it's, you know, up and higher in elevation and the terrain is different. The topography is different. You have a lot of, uh, forestry, you have a lot of trees there. Mm-hmm. So the Grand Canyon is, it's just beautiful. It's just not the South rim that's captivating. It is.
Cate:The whole shabang.
Portia:Every point in, in its entirety. I think you said something, elevation. Mm-hmm.
Cate:That was a, a big drop on that hike. Going down and then coming back up. Yes. Elevation sickness, I believe is what I had going on.
Portia:It's a possibility. Mm-hmm. because you think about it, we come from a place where it's sea level and that's the one thing that helped us along the way. And I realized, yes, every state that we went to and everything that we did, it was a higher elevation and it kind of prepared us for when we got to Colorado.
Cate:Yes. When we crashed. We slept so good at the Thunder Thunder Bridge.
Portia:Thunderbird.
Cate:Thunderbird.
Portia:Lodge.
Cate:Yes. We slept so good. So when we get up, We get our bags packed and we take it to the car, and Portia's like, Hey, Cate look at that. She said there's a deer in the bush. I was like, what?
Portia:And it didn't mind us walking. We weren't up close with it, you know, we were walking behind our car.
Cate:But it was just like, ok, whatever.
Portia:I guess it's just used to to people.
Cate:Yeah. So then, we walk in between the two buildings. Well then there's a herd of elk.
Portia:Oh my God. It Was.
Cate:What?
Portia:It was like.
Cate:So this lady was serious.
Portia:She was serious. You remember when I just said when we first got there and it was like this soundtrack in my head of when we were walking through and seeing the canyon? That's how it was when I saw the, elk.
Cate:The elk. Yeah. And, they didn't mind, I mean, and there were babies, mamas, and their babies. Now, we did not. I did not get close. I did not try and pet them. That would be inappropriate.
Portia:Thank God there weren't any male elk.
Cate:Oh yeah.
Portia:But
Cate:Yeah, they were just eating on the grounds and whatever, just chilling.
Portia:They've been there for years.
Cate:Yes.
Portia:I mean, it, it is such a, a luxury. You, you never dreamt in your wildest dreams. You see elk on shows, on tv, but to see it up close and personal.
Cate:Less than 10 feet.
Portia:And they, because they're so used to humans and, and humans don't feed them. We, I didn't see anyone feed them. But you see everything. You, we saw them, the nursing, they're young. We saw, I, we saw the deers. Some deers actually intertwine in in the herd. Around the herd. I mean, it was just a mixture. Mm-hmm. they're huge.
Cate:And I forgot to mention, on the hike.
Portia:Mm-hmm.
Cate:When we were hiking that trail, the day before? They were telling us about the squirrels. The squirrels would come up to you. They, they would ask you for food.
Portia:And they were saying to be careful, and that's the thing I had mentioned before. Don't feed the animals. Don't touch animals, right? These animals are so used to humans because there's so many humans, so many people that go to the Grand Canyon. They're so used to them. Mm-hmm. that Cate did have an interaction with a squirrel, but not there.
Cate:But not there.
Portia:But I mean, as far as an interaction of coming close to you, right. Yeah. But they did say be careful of the squirrels because they will.
Cate:And the chipmunks.
Portia:And they will scratch you. And they cause some, some infections and things like that.
Cate:You know, it's just so weird. I have a video of a squirrel going up to this family and they were just looking like, what? and they wanted some food.
Portia:Mm-hmm. It's because of all these people probably feeding them.
Cate:When they shouldn't.
Portia:Yes. But thank God we didn't have any interactions, any negative situations, especially with those elk because they were huge and it were, there was a huge herd. It was such a, a treat and honor to see something like that. It was just nature.
Cate:Just nature.
Portia:And as long as you are, are.
Cate:Respectful.
Portia:Everything works out fine.
Cate:Yes.
Portia:So day six. We waste no time. We're off to LA. We are in California for four days, and we're in Los Angeles for two and in Joshua Tree for the next two. Stay tuned.
Cate:Yes, thank you. Bye everybody.
Portia:Bye. I'm Portia White, and I hope you've enjoyed today's conversation. I'd like to give a special thanks to our sponsors betterwithacupofcoffee.com and peeztees.com. If you want to be our guest on our show, email me at cuppaconnections@gmail.com. And if you like what you heard, please rate and review our podcast. And, join us again soon on Cuppa Connections.