The Grand Canyons: A mesmerizing geological marvel

Since I am returning to my blogging world (yay!) after a hiatus, I figured it had to be something grand! So I thought, a blog on Grand Canyon would fit the bill perfectly. Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona is perhaps the most famous park in the United States. The first time you spot the canyons, vastness would be the first thought that would come to most people’s minds. I was no different :). If I had to pick 3 words/phrases to describe the Grand Canyons, here’s how I would do it: “A Geological Marvel”, “Vast” and “Mesmerizing”.

My trip to Grand Canyon was special due to numerous reasons and I was trying to contemplate why I had not written a travel blog about it for so long. I guess the reason was that I was not sure if it lived up to the hype and the expectations I had in my mind about the place from hearing so much about it before visiting the place. Grand Canyon National Park is not on the very top of my favorite national parks list because I have not explored the canyons and hiked deep into the canyons. I am sure this will change some day when we decide to explore the mysterious canyons extensively. And I wanted to wait until then to blog about it, but since we’re not going back to Grand Canyon anytime soon AND I have had quite a few of you ask me why I don’t have a blog on Grand Canyon yet AND I wanted my return to the blogging to be grand, here it is 🙂

Lookout on Hermit Route: Grand Canyon South Rim

A group of me and a few friends visited the South Rim of Grand Canyon a few years back during the labor day weekend. We stayed at the Maswik Lodge inside the park. I know I say this every time, but staying inside the park always helps. All reservations for lodging inside the park are managed by Xanterra Parks and Resorts. If my memory serves me correctly, we had about 2-3 days to spend in the park, which is enough to cover the major vistas and include a couple of small hikes. On our first day in the park, we used the free bus shuttle (Red Line) to visit the vista points on the Hermit Road. You can hike along the rim trail from one stop to another. The panoramic vistas, brilliant colors of the red limestone, the varying colors in the canyon due to sun rays and views of the Colarado river carving the canyon will surely blow you away. Let me tell you, it is all great and mesmerizing, but 6 vista spots later, and you might start feeling that it is pretty much the same.

So on our next day in Grand Canyon, we decided to take half day tour with a National Geographic tour guide. You can sign up for one of these at the visitor center. Our tour involved a sneak peak into Grand Canyon’s geological history, the flora and fauna found around the park and a 2 mile mini-hike into the canyon on the South Kaibab trail. This was the best part of the trip (and the sunrise too but I’ll get to that later) because while the lookouts are a great way to SEE the canyons, the tour enabled us EXPERIENCE it up-close :). I highly recommend this because it was so much fun. And the South Kaibab trail would definitely make for a great hike!

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Things you don’t want to miss while you are at Grand Canyon
1) Sunrise: We went to the cliched Mather point to view sunrise and it was unbelievably splendid. No wonder the spot is cliched! If you are going to Mather point, go early to get a good spot because it is surely going to get crowded. The colors of the canyon are so surreal that it makes waking up at 4 and driving to the spot absolutely worth it.

2) Sunset: Yes, even if you have seen sunrise, I suggest watch sunset too since the colors are totally different. While sunrise lights up the canyon with shades of yellow and orange, as sunset dawns, you get to see the canyon in shades of blue and purple. My notes on where we saw sunset are not very clear, but I believe we enjoyed sunset at the Desert View point.

3) The short introductory movie about Grand Canyon screened at the Visitor Center’s IMAX Theater: I loved it so I put this up here. An adventure filled 20 minute feature film describing the mysterious canyons.

Sunrise at Mather Point

And there’s lots more:
The Grand Canyon train runs from Williams to Grand Canyon. Although we did not take the train, this should be a great way to experience the journey into the canyons. There are a few museums in the South Rim and they have amazing architectural exhibits by Mary Jane Coltor. Check out the Navajo paintings while you are the museum.

A toast seems to be a perfect way to end my grand post: To the grandeur of the Grand Canyons 🙂

Maui, Hawai’i: The volcanic crater and upcountry

As promised, here I am with my second Maui post. In continuation with my previous post on Maui, this post talks about Maui’s volcanic crater and lush green upcountry of Maui. From dramatic and extravagant beaches to colorful volcanic lava

Haleakala National Park: Apart from the beaches, people go to Hawai’i for its volcanoes. Maui does not have any active volcanoes, but Haleakala is CLAIMED to be the world’s largest DORMANT volcano and the top of Haleakala is one of the most visited places in Maui.

Haleakala is known as the “House of the Sun” and I’d like to narrate a small tale associated with it. It is believed that in ancient times, Maui, the Demigod’s goddess mother Hina complained that the sun moved across the sky too fast every day. To please his mother, demigod Maui climbed Haleakala’s summit before dawn, and lassoed the sun, stopping it from moving. Maui only agreed to let go the sun if the sun allowed more time for light during the day. The sun agreed. And so this legendary tale is the secret to why the island receives more sun and sunlight!!!

Haleakala crater - Maui's dormant volcano

Now that you know the reason behind Maui’s mystical sunrises and sunsets, do try to make it for either at Haleakala’s summit. We had decided on giving one whole day to Haleakala because of the time it takes to drive there from West Maui. At the base of Haleakala is a gem of a flower farm called “Sunrise” farm. This farm grows the famous Hawaiian Protea flowers. It only takes 20-30 minutes to visit the farm and is on your way to the summit, so if you get a chance, do visit it for the exotic and pretty pink proteas. Some great photograph opportunities here.

From the exotic flower farm, we headed for some adrenaline rush. What better than a 5 course zip line at the base of Haleakala. We had joined the Skyline Eco Adventure Zipline tour for an amazing adventure. Great instructors and 2.5 hours of guaranteed fun. It was my first time zip-lining and I throughly enjoyed it. The ziplines gradually increase in length and depth as you go from the first to the last one. We headed to the top of the summit after ziplining.

Top of Mount Halaeakala: The road to the top of Haleakala is one of the world’s fastest ascending roads to go from 0 ft (sea level) to 10,000 ft. in a mere 37 miles. Lots of elevation gain so take a break at the visitor center and at the overlooks to get yourself acclimatized with the thin air as you go higher. You are literally above the clouds in no time. It is a surreal feeling. To get ourselves acclimatized before reaching the summit, we took the short hike at Lelewei overlook at 8000 ft. Gusty winds of 50 mph made our hike extremely difficult, but it provided us with exhilarating views of the Maui coastline.

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Haleakala is also home to the rare Silversword plant, which is ONLY FOUND in Maui over 6000 ft and to the endangered Nene or Hawaiian goose. We were lucky enough to spot both of these. The visitor center at 10,000 ft has a nice glass view that offers a panoramic landscape of the vast crater. Extraordinarily colorful sand! If weather and time permit, do the Sliding Sands trail which takes you to the bottom of the crater. We could not do it due to adverse weather, but I am sure walking down the crater would be one helluva experience.

Iao State Valley Park: From shades of orange/red/brown of the volcanic crater sand we headed to land surrounded by varied shades of green. In central Maui is Iao valley park – a lush green mountain landscape that SCREAMS the word SERENITY. Paradox right? But the drive makes you fresh. We took a hike in the park that is also home to the Iao Needle and numerous water streams. This state park is a good spot for a relaxing picnic.

Road to Hana: Considered to the be most celebrated road in whole of Hawai’i, we decided to dedicate a day to our journey to Hana. The road to Hana is all about the journey and not the destination. Clichéd but IT IS WHAT IT IS. 637 curves (yes, someone counted them) and uncountable one-lane bridges (actually we tried to count but lost count after 12) make this tropical rainforest a nature lover’s dream. We blindly followed the book Maui Revealed on this road so that we did not miss the great waterfalls. We definitely saw more than 10~12, but the ones that really impressed me were the Three Bears Falls, Paihi Falls, Hanawi Falls and Wailua Falls.

Three Bears Falls on Road to Hana

There are a lot of wonderful beaches in East Maui on the road to Hana. We stopped at a lot, but my best picks are 1) Black Sand Beach for its magnificent sea rock arches and the blowhole, 2) Hamoa beach for watching wind surfing and 3) Hana beach for relaxing and swimming. Most people drive past Hana to go the Seven Sacred Pools or O’heo O Gulch, which is part of the Haleakala National Park. O’heo O Gulch is a series of waterfalls that eventually merge with the ocean and is definitely worth the stop and the hike.

And oh, did you know that there were fruits called “strawberry guava” and “pineapple guava”?? Well, I did not before we ventured upon the road to Hana, but now I have tasted both and were the highlights of my trip. Stop by at the fruit and food stalls on your road for some amazing fruits and banana bread. Your road to Hana is incomplete without these food stops. More on food to follow in my next post dedicated to Maui’s dining, shopping and night life!

Maui: The Valley Isle of Hawai’i – Beaches

Happy New year readers!! Its been over a month since my last blog post. But now that I am back from 2 amazing vacations, I’ll try to make it a point to be a little more active in adding new posts!

We visited Maui, Hawai’i during Thanksgiving 2010 and here’s my take on all the cool stuff you could try out if you ever plan a Maui vacation. We were only there for 6 days, so obviously we couldn’t get enough of this island but I am still going to pen down my experiences at Maui into 3 different blog posts. The first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Hawai’i is beaches and so this blog post will talk about Maui’s beautiful beaches and water activities. A second post on Maui’s volcanic crater and much talked about Road to Hana and a third one on Maui’s dining and shopping are available too, so read on 🙂

Swimming with turtles @ Black Rock in Maui, Hawai'i

We stayed at a resort on Kaanapali beach in West Maui. You will read a lot about Kaanapali being “THE” place to be in Maui. I believe the prime reason for this is its proximity to a lot of places. This gorgeous stretch of white sand beach has a lot to offer from world-class resorts to amazing views of blue water and the distant islands of Molokai and Lanai. Kaanapali was rated as America’s best beach in 2003. Well..that’s a long time back, but it is a still great beach if not the best. If you are staying in West Maui, I highly recommend staying at Kaanapali. If West Maui ain’t your pick, South Maui is also a good option. Pick Wailea for the 5 star resorts or Kihei if you are on a strict budget. But I wouldn’t prefer it over the West Maui any day. Before I go into describing my picks for the best beaches, do want to know the highlight of my trip??? It was SWIMMING with TURTLES 🙂 🙂 :). Let me jump into describing Maui’s snorkeling options first.

SNORKELING: There are a lot snorkeling tour options available but since we had snorkeled before at other places and had all the gear, we decided to visit Black rock (from the Sheraton side) on the first day and see if we really needed to opt for a tour instead. Surprisingly, snorkeling at Black Rock lives up to all the hype. Absolutely delightful and fantastic. It was our first time swimming with the turtles in the ocean though. And I have been bragging about it ever since. But trust me, overcoming the fear of water and swimming with those gentle creatures is truly a memory I will cherish for a lifetime :). Lots of colorful fishes near the rock make it an incredible experience. Check out the slide show below in this blog to view few of our snorkeling photographs. Some tourists don’t get to see so many fishes even if they opt for expensive tours. So, if you have all the a gear and have been snorkeling before, don’t waste too much money on the tours everyday. There are a lot of places close to the beach where you can explorer your snorkeling options. That said, snorkeling at the crescent-shaped Molokini islet is renowned and scuba on the outer side of Molokini is world-famous. Some other options are taking full or half day trips to the distant island of Lanai.

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BEACHES: We did a lot of beach hopping in Maui and here is a list of few of the best beaches in Maui. In West Maui, Kapalua and Napili (north of Kaanapali) are good options. Though Kapalua is an extremely small beach. Kaanapali of course, is good for anything and everything. In South Maui, we started exploring beaches from the town of Kihei. Kama’ole Beach Park I tops the list of great beaches in Kihei. This beach is fabulous for swimming and has reasonable snorkeling options at the 2 ends. The only downside is that there is no shade on this beach, so it can get very hot in the afternoons if you are not in the water. Wailea beach near Fairmont Kea Lani has the most hep crowd. If you just want to read or relax on the beach, this is the beach. But snorkeling and swimming at Wailea were a big flop when we visited the beach. May be it was the wind that day because Wailea is known to be great for swimming. We spent sometime relaxing on Wailea and then headed to further to explore other South Maui beaches. Next stop was Makena Beach State Park or Big Beach. I LOVED LOVED LOVED this beach. Very less crowd and a huge stretch of white/golden sand. Couldn’t get better than that! May be it was the sun or the time of the day we visited the beach, this was the bluest of all beaches I visited in Maui. Makena/Big Beach was my favorite of all Maui beaches we visited.

Sunsets at Maui are definitely not to be missed. Kaanapali beach is probably a good place for an evening stroll and watch the sunset. But my favorite beach to watch sunset was Kahekili Beach Park. Public parking near Westin provides easy access to this beach. On a clear day, you get amazing views of Lanai and Molokai from this beach. We saw sunset from Kapalua beach too, but it was raining slightly on that day and so it was not anything great.

Makena State Beach or Big Beach

Other water activities: Snorkeling and scuba are not the only options you have. There’s everything from a banana boat ride to an aqua submarine ride adventure. Go explore an activity that suits your liking.

Books to read: If you have read my previous posts, I have mentioned that it almost always pays off if you read travel books about your vacation spot beforehand. We did quite a bit of research and here is a list of books we read: Fodors Maui 2009, Frommer’s Maui 2009 and 2011, but a true gem was Maui Revealed: The ultimate guide-book. Please read it and you will not regret it! More posts on Maui COMING SOON!!!