{"id":19066,"date":"2025-03-20T23:11:52","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T03:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/?p=19066"},"modified":"2025-03-20T23:11:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T03:11:52","slug":"left-the-house-got-on-a-train-went-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/archives\/19066","title":{"rendered":"Left the House! Got On a Train! Went West!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We finally made it to the Grand Canyon<\/a>! (If you’re friends with me, it’s quite possible you already know this because I sent approximately a million post cards.)<\/p>\n

I love taking the train. I relaxed and read for two days to Arizona and two days back east.<\/p>\n

Once we got to the park, we saw there were lots<\/em> of people there, even though it was mid February; I can’t imagine what it’s like there at the height of tourist season. I imagine I would have not enjoyed myself anywhere near as much.<\/p>\n

Something I’ve noticed before is that I really don’t love the mountains in the west. I finally figured out why: a lot of the landscape there looks to me like areas of West Virginia after strip mining and mountain top removal–bare rock with maybe a single species of trees. I eventually recognized what was bothering me, and it helped a bit to acknowledge this was natural and not human destruction, but I do prefer my worn-down, lived-in Appalachians. <\/p>\n

In Grand Canyon National Park, we hiked about a mile and a half down the Hermit’s Trail, but never went further in\/down. I think I’d like to take a mule down and up, but maybe not hike the whole way. Coming out felt like the hardest mile and a half we’ve ever done, and we weren’t<\/em> pushing ourselves.<\/p>\n

\"2025-02-17_Hermit_Trail_43\"\/<\/a>