Traveling with Siblings as Adults
Crystals and Camping in a Grand Canyon Park Ranger’s Yard
My brother and I traveled a lot together as kids thanks to our wonderful adventurous parents. However, we have not traveled together much as adults but we definitely should do more of it.
Sedona, AZ
On Wednesday we picked up my brother Ben and his fiance Kate from the Phoenix airport, and then drove two hours north to Sedona, AZ. None of us had ever been to Sedona before and didn’t really know what to expect, but had been recommended it multiple times by different people. Turns out it’s just as gorgeous, and rich, as you might expect.
We began the night at the Old Sedona Bar, and sat outside and ate food and caught up. After dinner we went back to our Airbnb, where we were staying in a big room in a hippie house complete with the promise of “coming as a stranger and leaving as family.” We didn’t get a chance to interact much with the host, but we did speak with the other Airbnbers the next morning on the desert patio where we talked about many things under the sun while they smoked bong after bong in the early morning sunshine.
“Don’t let fear guide you” was the takeaway from the new stoner friends. It is what we all came on this trip to think about. Something I’ve realized on this trip is the desert doesn’t give a shit about us in the way I hope it does. We have to learn how to adapt to the desert’s way of life, which is humbling.
Sedona, AZ is a mind blowingly beautiful place. The town is built within red rock canyons, and looking around from anywhere in the city it looks like you’re looking up from the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We went to a crystal shop on the stoner’s suggestions, and then went to “Tamalize” and I had a delicious vegetarian burrito with adobado sauce, oyster mushrooms, fresh guac and pickled radishes with fresh horchata.
Kate and my brother went to check out the “vortex” zones that Sedona is mystically known for while Carp and I posted up at Sedona Beer Co. to write and work.
At the brewery the waiter mentioned: “Be careful, there is a little baby snake that lives under your table. He’s harmless.”
Grand Canyon, AZ
That afternoon we packed ourselves in the car and started driving the few hours to the Grand Canyon National Park.
At the park we stayed with a family friend we hadn’t seen in 20 years who was now a park ranger at the Canyon. We set up shop in his backyard, were we would be staying for the next few nights. It was ideal camping weather, and we all slept great.
The next morning we woke up early to hike South Kaibab trail down the canyon. I was not happy about the early morning, but it was really the only way to safely do the hike in the above 100s heat.
I was nervous about getting heat exhaustion again after my experience in El Paso, but the park rangers had helpful tips for staying safe such as soaking your hat and clothes with water at the faucet before starting out.
The walk down was beautiful, and easy (we walked downhill 1000 feet in a mile and a half), but most of the people we passed who were walking back up looked rough, so we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy second half.
We stopped for salty snacks and water at Cedar Point on South Kaibab trail, and were met with a shrub of lizards, and some weathered desert squirrels.
The hike back up was as you would expect: No joke. I had to stop regularly to get shade and dump water on myself. I was pretty well hydrated, and the water at this point was so useful in not overheating. My legs or muscles never hurt at all during or after the hike, it was my lungs that were really doing the work with the elevation climb.
We finally made it up, and we went to the park ranger’s house and cooled off and made mac ‘n cheese (careful to not let any bird shit in it this time).
That night we drove to Pima point on the Hermit Road Trail at John the park ranger’s suggestion. It was stunning.
After, we met rangers John and Joe at “the only good restaurant” in the Grand Canyon for Mexican food. We had pleasant conversation and they also told us gruesome stories about desert hazards and Canyon accidents. A few things in particular stuck out to me:
- The vast amount of people they have to helicopter into the canyon to save because they get Hyponatremia and their body starts shutting down because of lack of salt and minerals. Their wilderness first aid in this situation is to take packets of ramen seasoning and put it in waterbottles to get salt back in the body.
- They told us a story of someone who had a fear of heights, and started having a panic attack in the canyon. They had to helicopter in to get him, but were not able to land the helicopter in the place he was at. They gave him the choice of spending the night in the canyon overnight, or they could tie him like a burrito at the end of the helicopter rope. He opted for that, and he screamed the whole way out of the canyon, hanging at the end of 30 feet of rope in the air.
The next morning the two Bens got up early for another hike into the Grand Canyon on Bright Angel trail.
They saw desert mountain goats and wore their junior ranger badges and Kate and made our own trail across a forest and met up with some elk on the way to the Rim Trail.
We stopped in Flagstaff for breakfast, and also to give ourselves a break from the cramped car. Recommended: MartAnne’s in Flagstaff Arizona. Amazing food and drink.
We dropped Kate and Ben off at a friend’s in Phoenix, and then Carp and I headed west to California. We stayed that night at Salton Sea campsite outside of Joshua Tree and slept under the stars. Well, I slept... not really Carp. It was 100 degrees Fahrenheit at sunset, a night hawk was squawking consistently right next to our tent, trains were constantly passing less than half a mile away, and our neighbors were partying late into the night. It was also a huge change in elevation; we went from 7,000 feet in the Grand Canyon to 167 feet below sea level in a few hours.
We woke up with the sun burning us in our tent, and we headed to Joshua Tree National Park, hoping to arrive before it got too hot. It was already hot AF at 9 am in the morning, and we made a quick tour through it and then landed in the nearby desert oasis for coffee. We have realized throughout our trip that the white rental car was a blessing, in this heat. It’s also sometimes a bit confusing, because so many people have white cars in the desert.
We made it to San Diego later that afternoon and met up with my AmeriCorps buddy Jess. We ate Mexican street corn and carne asada and then went to the San Diego zoo. Jess and I are here in San Diego for the next few nights, and Carp is flying off to Alaska tomorrow.
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