Aaron Cabaniss - Grand Canyon Adventure

Aaron Cabaniss

November 12, 2013

English Blog assignment

Driving to the Grand Canyon was an adventure in itself. As we stopped along the way to get has and snacks, we saw things we would not normally see. One of which was seeing the states of Missouri and Kansas, and as we drove across the highway toward Colorado to spend the next two nights in a campsite, we saw tumble weeds rolling across the road over the vast, flat terrain. After finally reaching our destination in Colorado at midnight, we set up camp in the bitterly cold night.

The next morning I awoke early to find one of our instructors, Dan, already up, gazing at the mountains on one side of our campsite to the other side where the plains set as the sun rose. We then started the morning with making breakfast and finishing our roles. Afterward, we continued our adventure to the great sand dunes where we hiked a valley filled with sand. It was like a ski slope area filled with sand instead of snow. Mounds and mounds of sand we climbed to slide down with trash bags used as sleds. We emptied our pockets full of the dry, fine granulated sand and pilled back into the van to continue our trip back toward the campsite for another night.

The following morning, we packed up all of our gear and headed toward the arches in Utah, another long adventurous trip. We finally reached our destination seven long hours later. The arches were amazing! Huge boulders with holes carved out like caves were more interesting to look at than I had thought. The next day we continued our journey once again to the place we had all been waiting for; the Grand Canyon.

We arrived at Mather campground around eleven at night to set up camp and cook dinner. Everyone was a little frustrated with each other since we had been cooped up in the van for almost eight hours straight. Needless to say, when our heads hit the pillow in our sleeping bags, we were out.

The next morning we tried hiking down in the canyon to spend three nights in the valley, however, one of our team members was not feeling as well as we had hoped. He was still getting over a bad case of the flu. We decided against hiking down in the canyon and instead stayed another night up top to hike around the rim the next day.

Watching a video and touring the visitor center were only a few things we did to occupy ourselves for such an awesome place to be this time of year. We then flew home the next day and are now here, back at SOAR, to tell the wonderful story of the Grand Canyon expedition three experience!