Bergjord Boarding

July 29 – August 7 2016

By: Luke

Sam and I wake up in Rapunzel’s tower. It is hard to leave the first bed we slept in for a week but we have an exciting day ahead of us. Instead of a continental breakfast, Castle Creek offers a small breakfast menu that you can ask to be delivered to your door. We sat down and enjoyed crepes and chocolate milk before a day of driving and two National Parks.

We have a shorter drive to Arches National Park. The landscape changes drastically halfway through the trip. We leave the mountains and enter the old west. These red rock monoliths start appearing on the horizon and it feels like you’re travelling back in time. You start feeling the need for a horse and a sunset to ride off into.

We had a beautiful summer day to tick up the odometer. The weather had been exceptionally nice our entire trip and we really were so lucky. Somehow Samie and I got to see the very best of Mother Nature.

Arches National Park had not been on my radar until planning for this trip. Like so many things, it is hard to translate over photos. You see a rock with a hole in it and think, ” that’s strange.”, or ” neat.”. But then you drive thousands of miles and walk up to be in the middle of that same hole in a rock and you’re dumb struck. It is hard to comprehend how much time it would have taken water to erode the unique structures in this rock.
Stepping out in to nature can have a very humbling feeling. Living your life is the longest thing you will ever do and it is still such small amount of time compared to those silly red rocks. So take a deep breathe of hot desert air and try not to be a jerk. After that epiphany we still had another National Park to get to!

Our next camping spot was waiting for us at Grand Canyon National Park. The grand canyon was one of the earliest “must do”s on our list of parks to hit. I remember Samie had a legal pad she was taking notes on and planning out this insane road trip. It had number of miles and minutes expected to do each day. One thing that twisted our minds into pretzels was all of the time zone crossing we were going to do and exactly how it would affect our plans. Another fun complication is Arizona doesn’t observe daylight saving, thus adding another shift.

All of this to say that somehow Samie planned it out that we get to the Grand Canyon right before sunset. I truly mean it when I say it didn’t seem real. My small brain couldn’t comprehend the vastness laid out in front of us. I wish I could explain it better, but I have to be annoying and say you’ve got to see it for yourself.