"Always take the scenic route" 

Before I start I would like to say that I am not affiliated with Trek America, all views/opinions are my own and I just want to share my experience with you all and hopefully give you an insight into what my trip involved if you are looking to do one yourself, which I would definitley recommend!

** I would also like to add that if I state any activities that I took part in, I will be going into more detail with these in a future post.

Sunday 9th June 2019 

It was van appreciation day! It was going to be a long drive to Amarillo. We set off around 7:30am. We had a 2 gas station shops, a Walmart stop and we had lunch in the park. Whilst in the van we of course had to play "Is this the way to Amarillo" and have a little sing along. We didn't arrive at our campsite until around 6pm but once we did it was the usual routine of setting up our tents and the camp. It was so cold tonight we were all definitely feeling it and decided to get changed into jeans and hoodies/jackets. Our evening meal was booked at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. We got picked up from our campsite and then taken to the restaurant. I had sirloin steak with chips and mac & cheese with a peach and strawberry bellini. Once we were all done we got taken back to our campsite in one of their limos. 


Monday 10th June 2019

It was so cold all night, I didn't really sleep much plus we could hear trains driving past all night. We were setting off at 7:30am and heading towards Santa Fe. Our first stop was at Cadillac Ranch, It was time to get spray painting! It was pretty wet and muddy around the cars so we didn't want to get too close to them. It was then time to head back into the van. We arrived in Santa Fe and at camp, at 3pm a few of us decided to go to Meow Wolf for the rest of the afternoon. It was such a weird place but we had a fun time. Joel then took us to downtown Santa Fe where we met up with the rest of the group and had burritos.

Tuesday 11th June 2019

We are going to Monument Valley! We stopped by at the famous Forrest Gump point, where in the film he stops running. We were all taking photos stood in the road and you could just see Monument valley in the distance. We arrived and picked our spot to set up the tents, we had such an amazing view. We all decided to put up our tents but not put the outer covering on so we could wake up and see the sunrise. Once we were all ready and set up we headed over and went on our 4x4 jeep tour where we got our own guide and jeep and headed down into the valley. The guide told us about Navajo culture and about all the different rock formations. We stopped to have dinner where we got to try out their Navajo tacos, it was lovely! Then they put on a little show for us and started singing and dancing wearing their traditional outfit. They ended up getting us all up and dancing with them too, it was such a laugh. We then got back in the jeep as it was time to head back to camp, we got to see a bit of the sunset too on the way back. 







Wednesday 12th June 2019

It was an early start as we were up ready to see sunrise, it was beautiful! We all then got ready as we are travelling to the Grand Canyon. Once we arrived Joel gave us all bandanas and we blindfolded ourselves so we couldn't see. Joel then put us all in line and had us hold onto the person in fronts shoulders, he then guided us down to the edge ready for us to take our blindfolds off and see the view and oh wow it was amazing! I have seen photos of this but they just don't do it justice, the view is just incredible. At 3:30pm we set off as we were going on a helicopter! Me, Hayley, Rach, Courtney, Jemma and Crystal decided that we wanted to do the helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, we all got checked in and then our pilots came and took us to our helicopters. The ride was amazing and even though it was expensive it was definitely worth it and I would recommend it to anyone. Once we landed back down, we headed to Starbucks as Joel needed to do a bit of work and it meant we could use wi-fi and get up to date on social media. Then we headed back to camp for hot dogs! 



 

Thursday 13th June 2019

We had to wake up super early this day as we were going to hike the Grand Canyon. We were doing the Bright Angel Trail. At 5:30 am we hopped onto the bus and we started the trail around 6am. The Bright Angel Trail has different stops along the way for me I knew I wouldn't want to go too far due to my asthma, so me and Courtney did the Mile-and-a-half Resthouse which like the name was a mile and half down and then back up again. The others carried on further which resulted in a 9 hour hike. As much as I would have loved to have gone further, my body wouldn't allow it and I struggled just doing this but so proud of myself that I actually did part of it. It was steep coming back up the hills and the paths were much narrower than I thought. We finally made it back to the top and then headed back to camp to where we were joined by an Elk sniffing at mine and Rach's tent! Luckily it just saw us and then disappeared. Me and Courtney decided to head over to the supermarket as no one was back yet, so we had a little wander around and had some lunch. We then met up with Jemma and Dean and headed back to camp, we noticed the rest of the group starting to walk back. Tonight's dinner we were having pizza at the rim of the Grand Canyon, so back in the van we got, picked up our pizzas and headed down. It was a lovely view watching the sunset.



 




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