Have you been following our road trip from Seattle to Phoenix and back again? We're still on the road! Catch up with our adventure here and come back for more road trip fun tomorrow. Please forgive any & all rough spots in this post as it has been done on mobile from the road! We will be reading and enjoying your comments but, due to being on the road, it will be difficult for us to respond right away. Thanks for understanding and for coming along on our adventure.
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Typist: Bethany Phoenix was fabulous. The weather while we were in the Sonoran desert was perfect. We didn't get to do as much hiking, exploring and adventuring as I had originally planned because Huxley was nursing a cracked pad on his left paw but we had wonderful visits with friends and family. Probably the most fun for Wilhelm, Brychwyn and Huxley was our visit with my cousin, his wife and their dogs Buddy and Bolt. My cousin and his wife live on a large fenced property. The dogs got to run loose in the desert and take breaks in the shade. It was truly a canine desert paradise.
When we crossed the Colorado River and arrived in Nevada, I added the state to Wilhelm, Brychwyn and Huxley's "States I've Visited" shirts. Wilhelm and Brychwyn have been to Nevada before but it was the other corner of the state. Nevada is new to Huxley and Leo. All questions about what Leo thinks of the twentieth state the dogs have visited and the eighth state he has seen might be answered by the expression on his face in his first Nevada photograph. We arrived at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in the late afternoon with plenty of time to set up camp at the Las Vegas Bay campground. But fitting my very large tent into any of the campgrounds mostly asphalt pad campsites proved to be very difficult. I did it (or so I thought- I was asked to move my tent/go the Boulder Beach campground in the morning) and Leo, Wilhelm, Brychwyn, Huxley and I enjoyed the Mojave desert evening at Lake Mead. After time amongst cacti, every one of us but Leo savored getting our feet wet in the lake. But I know even Leo marveled at what a difference a few hundred miles can make and the contrast from one desert to another Please forgive any & all rough spots in this post as it has been done on mobile from the road! We will be reading and enjoying your comments but, due to being on the road, it will be difficult for us to respond right away. Thanks for understanding and for coming along on our adventure.
The only time we felt a bit awkward during our hike was when we came across elk on the Rim Trail and on the deserted Greenway Trail very near our campground. The first elk had a large crowd gathered around so I rushed the dogs and Leo through the masses and past the elk. the second elk was way more surprised about us than we were about it. I am not sure if Leo saw the elk but after their initial surprise, the dogs were quiet and respectful of the majestic national park resident. I think Leo's reaction to the Grand Canyon was my favorite. He seemed in awe. Sadly, the high winds meant he had to remain in the safety of his Popemobile during our hikes. As expected , the dogs loved gazing out into the canyon and sniffing each and every wind gust. There were times that I stopped for a picture and got the feeling the pets wanted to linger and savor the moment even longer than I did.
This day was truly grand, from canyon to cactus, Arizona has been a wonderful place for the Cascadian Nomads to visit so far. As I marvel at the diversity of this road trip, I can't help but wonder what Wilhelm, Brychwyn, Huxley and Leo think. Do they also think it is fascinating that in just a few hours we went from being surrounded by a high elevation pine forest to hiking in the shadows of massive cacti? It is pondering questions like this, while watching the pets explore strange wonderlands, that make every second of effort to travel with my pets absolutely worth it. Please forgive any & all rough spots in this post as it has been done on mobile from the road! We will be reading and enjoying your comments but, due to being on the road, it will be difficult for us to respond right away. Thanks for understanding and for coming along on our adventure. Typist: Bethany Whether or not you have been to Moab, Utah, try mentioning it to a few people that you know. I bet you will get a lot of "I love Moab" responses. That's all I have ever gotten. Now I know why. Moab is beautiful and fun morning, noon and night. And best of all, everyone has their dog with them. There are dogs in town, at the parks, on the trails and on the river. Moab is truly dog friendly and maybe that is why the people are so happy and friendly too. All the people I met in Moab were smiling but I did see quite a few unhappy dogs. My guess is that they were dehydrated. I am personally shocked by how much water Wilhem, Brychwyn and Huxley have been drinking since we arrived in the desert. We went through over five gallons of drinking water in less than 48 hours. I have been offering them more water, more often and they have been gulping it down. And Leo has been enjoying spritzes from a spray bottle. It was tough to pack up and leave Moab. Having traveled so much for so long, I know better than to swear that I will return to a place anytime soon let alone at all. Yet I am certain I will be back in Moab someday. We really did need to get on the road! Our fourth day of driving to Phoenix was a long one, through four states with one planned stop and one amazing unplanned stop.
Even though the Four Corners Monument plaza is not pet friendly, we still had a great time. We walked all the way around the plaza, I colored in three more states on Wilhelm, Brychwyn and Huxley's "States I've Visited" t-shirts, and we enjoyed the vast view of the corners of four beautiful states. It was, however, very hot. So our visit to Four Corners Monument was short. I was also thrilled to finally be working our laid back road trip on a little bit better schedule. We weren't going to arrive at the Grand Canyon nearly as late as I had feared. In fact, we got there at exactly the perfect time.
Please forgive any & all rough spots in this post as it has been done on mobile from the road! We will be reading and enjoying your comments but, due to being on the road, it will be difficult for us to respond right away. Thanks for understanding and for coming along on our adventure. |
Cascadian Nomads
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