After a 4 hour hike on the Bright Angel, we had the ambitious idea to drive to Winslow, Arizona to check out the meteor crater the same day!  It was a 2 hour drive from the Grand Canyon and we departed for the place at 4pm.  We realized the park closed at 5pm halfway through the drive, but we assume since it was just a land mark, we thought the crater itself was open, and unguarded .  We arrived at 5:30, and the entire crater was fenced off with barbed wire! I was thinking, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME??”  what’s there to vandalize if it was left open?  Well my plan to jump the fence didn’t work out so well.  It was a bummer, driven so far to not be able to see much.  It was an impressive size crater, like a size of a small mountain in diameter.  It was such a shame, because we did not have much time with 4 days. The next time we return to the Grand Canyon to hike down to the river, we will definitely spend more time like at least 5 days, and put aside 1 entire day to see the crater.  Here’s a photo of the crater from afar:

It doesn’t look that impressive in this photo (because it’s just a photo), but it’s quite large.  I wish I had a scale to show how massive it was.

On the drive back to California, we made a stop in the Mojave desert to see the sand dunes.  Despite my distaste for the desert, I decided to keep an open mind, since my boyfriend was so eager to see the sand dunes.  Here’s a few photos of the sand dunes:

“We” (not really) decided to hike all the way to the top of the sand dune.  Look at it from far away, it looks pretty close to get to, and it’s also pretty high up.  Getting there was pretty tough, especially climbing the sandy hills. My boyfriend was telling me, we’ll just get up this hill and stop, and then once we got up he said “not this one, the next one!”  Well he kept this up and before I know it  I was at the very top of the sand dune.  There were many times where I just wanted to give up on the hike and turn back, he kept me motivated to go forward. =)  It wasn’t hot, even though the sun looks unbearable in the photo, it was incredibly windy. The wind was blowing the sand off the top of the sand dune making it look like smoke, it was amazing.

Climbing the Sand dune with the sand blowing off the tip looking like smoke

Despite all my dislike for the desert, I had to say it was probably my most favorite part of the entire trip.  Once we gotten to the top of the sand dune, it was beautiful, and we were the only people up there.  Saw no one else for miles. Here’s the view from the other side of the dune:

This photo is taken on the other side of the sand dunes on the top.  The wind blew the sand off the dunes as far as the eye can see in this photo

On a un-related note, I forgotten to update my adventures last summer, but w/e, it was time spent touring around California, from the Bay area to Los Angeles. There was a trip to Yosemite National Park, back in September, but we’ll be returning shortly so no need to elaborate.

It has been 1 year since we’ve been together, and it has been the most wonderful year.
❤