It was a pretty long drive from San Diego to Phoenix so we arrived at our American best value in motel quite late. The drive was through green hills, desert and then mountains. The scenery was majestic and a real surprise. It was a very interesting drive, especially through the desert as neither of us had seen that kind of landscape before. Half way through the drive i decided to stop us in a town where there was a Walmart. I wanted to do a bit of shopping whilst Cj got a McDonalds.
I decided to get us up the next morning at 5am to climb a mountain. It was one of the top things to do in Phoenix so why not. Phoenix is in the desert so it is pretty hot here, which is why i thought it would be best to do the trek in the early hours of the morning.
We got up at 5am when it was still dark outside and really cold. We trekked the Cholla trail up Camelback mountain. It is a 3 mile trek to the top.
I absolutely loved it, i actually really enjoy a bit of adventurous bouldering. Cj came around to it once he saw the view at half way point. The terrain on the mountain was rocky and at times we were walking on a narrow path on the cliff edge. It was pretty thrilling. I liked that it wasn't a man-made path up to the top. We had to climb over boulders and work out the best way to climb up.
It is quite a popular morning trek for the locals. They like to do it before work, we are so jealous they have this cool work-out in their back gardens. At the bottom of Camelback is Phoenix and Scottsdale and some very posh golf course resorts. The view is pretty cool, its not necessary green and pretty but its mysterious with a red desert setting.
We were about half way up when the sun began to rise, so we made it an excuse to have a long rest stop and watch the sun rise and the city literally light up as the orange glow of the desert sand wakens.
The last third up was quite tricky. It was just up over big rocks right to the top. It felt so good making it to the top. The chill in the wind was so fresh and felt refreshing on our sweaty skin. We stayed at the top for about 15 minutes. Going down was actually harder. Trying to slowly climb down rocks (if we jumped down we would have been off the edge of the mountain) was hard on our knees (i think we're just getting old). We finished the climb at about 9:30am and once we were back at our motel we went back to bed and watched a film. This travelling is an easy life with a bit of adventure, we don't want it to end!
Cj has some friends that actually live in Scottsdale which is up the road from Phoenix. He first met Kristin, Brittany and Chelsea in Thailand when he holidayed there a few years ago with Owen. The girls got in touch when they saw Cj was in Phoenix and they invited us to dinner that evening.
We got our best clothes out of our backpacks and Cj actually ironed his shirt ready for an evening in the very nice and posh city of Scottsdale. We were meeting the girls at a place called top golf. It is a bar/restaurant where you actually play golf. A bit like bowling, you get given a bay and you swing your club and try and aim for the targets. It was really fun.
We arrived and the girls plus Kristin's boyfriend Joel were already there. We had to wait 2 hours for a free bay so we ate dinner in the bar before attempting to play golf.
It was a really nice evening and the girls are lovely. Joel was a bit of an expert so he pretty much scored triple all of our scores. Of course Cj came second, the males get way more into it then us girls. I think i did ok, i don't think i came last but i think all the girls scored around the same.
Hopefully the girls will come to England some time in the future and we can host an evening, which will probably just be in a village country pub so it wont be as active.
The next day we were leaving Phoenix for Flagstaff to see the famous Grand Canyon.
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