Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The Many Faces of Arizona Winter: Part 1

So it all started when Angel, Isabel, and I decided to go to the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks before Christmas. We thought, "Oh, how cool! It will be covered in snow. We'll be able to see it without all the tourists and get a cool view that no one else gets." Then we hit a snowstorm an hour outside of Flagstaff.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it does snow in Arizona, and we even get snow storms. We took this drive in a Toyota Yaris with snow tires. We had chains in the trunk, but we were really hoping to not have to try and put them on.

  
The view from the backseat. We saw lots of cars that had skidded off the road into the embankments. Arizona drivers don't know what to do in the snow (us included lol). 

The view out my window.

Look at that lovely, icy road...

Flagstaff.

On the way to our hotel, we went skidding while turning left in an intersection (I told you we didn't know what we were doing lol)  and landed in a snow drift. Luckily, we didn't hit anything hard. Although, we carried this chunk of snow to the parking garage underneath the car. Her car isn't white by the way, that's all snow.

We reached Flagstaff a little late, but we decided to see if we could get to the Grand Canyon anyway.
The road was empty and covered in snow, so we stopped near this field for a freezing cold photo op and then headed back into town.


The road. There's pavement under there somewhere lol.
  Angel and Isabel.
We stayed at the Hotel Monte Vista. We'd heard it was historical and haunted and thought it would be a fun adventure. Turns out that historical just meant old and cheaply done and the only people who might be haunting the place are former customers who were disgruntled about the bad customer service. The rude woman working at the front desk actually gave us directions to the janitor's closet on the second floor to go hunt down a plunger so we could plunge our own toilet. Seriously?? We were staying at the Hotel Monte Vista, not the Hostel Monte Vista (I've been treated much better at hostels, by the way).

Anyway, the bar at the hotel was nice and served some tasty drinks (above and below)

Icicles!!!

Flagstaff the next morning. A beautiful winter wonderland!
We decided that we were ill-equipped for more snow driving, so we decided to spend the next day in Sedona.

The highway was much more inviting this morning.
Beautiful Sedona red rock capped with snow.
We couldn't resist heading out for a short hike.
Isabel and I getting the perfect shots.
The look on our faces is "Thank God it's not 15 degrees here."

Taking it in.
Isabel found me an awesome dead tree to photograph. I am a fan of the dead trees.


I had to use the zoom on my camera to figure out if that was, in fact, a person up there.
"Angel! Pull over in that parking lot that has five 'Gallery Parking Only' signs! We have to take a picture!!"


People actually live here.

I think this picture speaks for itself. I found it hanging in the middle of a huge indoor/outdoor shop. I'm not actually sure where it's pointing. There was a tree over <== there with some wind chimes hanging from it.

After finding some cool things at the shop, we headed over to a couple of the new age crystal hippie shops and then headed home. We didn't get to the Grand Canyon, but we had an adventure!

Check back for The Many Faces of Arizona Winter: Part 2 with footage from a snow storm and an awesome New Year's day sunset!

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