Group tripping on the road to the Grand Circle

It was planned to be a fun-filled journey all the way for me and some friends but the journey to Grand Canyon started as a hot mess. We flew from Lagos with Virgin Atlantic and were informed of the need to find our way across town to another airport in London just to get on our connecting flight to Las Vegas. Say what now? This was a bit of a shocker; imagine the horror that would have ensued if neither of us had the right documents to enter British territory? I was livid, and was able to get the airline to give us a complimentary bus transfer pass. Win!

When we finally got to our destination in Vegas, we picked up our 7-seater rental van and I could not wait to find the nearest bed to crash on. Our road trip was going to start the next day and my body had to adjust to the big shift in time. Truthfully, I was nervous going on this trip. I love my girlfriends, but five days in closed quarters with four other women gave me mental hives. Relationships have been destroyed when people learn too much about each other while traveling.
Five women, five days, in one van; that could be the beginning of a horror story. Luckily, our love and respect for each other kept us from pulling each other’s hair like kindergarten kids when emotions boiled over. I was tempted a few times though.

Key lesson to avoiding jetlag is to stay awake until around 11pm, local time. This way, the body is forced to adjust and when 7am creeps up, your body is right on schedule.

Lesson No 2, travel sanely with people that you respect and who also respect you.

On day one of our official road trip, we drove out of Las Vegas filled with excitement and with our van loaded up with so much junk food that lasted beyond the trip. We had a travel plan but also tried to give ourselves some room for flexibility to visit random places along the way. The plan to be flexible quickly failed when we noticed how early restaurants close and how pitch-black it gets at night.

By midday, we reached our first park stop, Zion National Park, and I was immediately overwhelmed by the view. Without even going into the park, the rock formations along the road already made the road trip worth it. It was comical how often we kept saying, ‘oh wow, look at that!’ At a point, my neck developed a whiplash from trying to soak up more than my brain could properly process. I also found myself captivated by the critters roaming the park, and ended up with more pictures of critters than of the beauty of nature standing before me.

Lesson No 3, out in the west, there are barely any street lights, it gets dark early, and restaurants close very early.

We got a bit sidetracked by trying to take in more view that by the time we got to our hotel in Bryce Canyon city, Utah, we had only 10 minutes to run across the street to grab dinner at the only restaurant still opened in the city. We begged our way into their doors and ate the best biscuits and gravy known to man.

Day Two: We got up early the next day to visit Bryce Canyon Park and also decided to head back into the city to see what it had to offer during the day. What we found instead was our inner child.

As usual, we got side-tracked goofing around Bryce Canyon City and had to rush off to Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah. What should have been a 3-hour road trip got doubled because we kept parking on the road side to really take in the beauty around us. We also added 2 extra hours to our travel time by driving through the most beautiful and windy route I have ever driven on, Utah’s Highway 12 Scenic Byway. For those who appreciate nature’s beauty, driving around this part of Utah would leave you gob-smacked and in awe of nature. From the yellowish flat desert-like lands to driving on red, rocky mountains with rock formations hanging way too close for comfort over our van, to four ladies screaming at the top of their lungs about how close I was driving to the edge of the mountain; the drive was exhilarating, scary, and beautiful at the same time.

Lesson No 4, you need to be a good and confident driver so as to not fall off the narrow cliffs while driving.

Day Three took us on another windy path that placed our hearts in our hands and I had to take over the driving for a bit when the fear of height became too much to overcome. A wrong turn would have led to a terrible end. There were no metal barriers to prevent cars from fallen off and because the paths were so narrow, vehicles coming from the opposite side had to yield.
By the time we reached Tse’Bii’Ndzisgaii, the Monumental Tribal Park, our level of appreciation had reached a new height and the beauty we were met with made the experience much sweeter.

On Day Four, a couple of us woke up early in the morning for an impromptu road trip to stand on the official spot where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet.

After a few pictures for bragging rights, we went back to pick up our friends before driving to the Grand Canyon!! Yes, I used double exclamation mark. Now you can get a better sense of how excited we were to finally get to the place that spurred the road trip. We got there just in time to watch the sun set over it and I wish I had more time to simply just BE to take it all in. At this point of our journey, things were slightly tense and our easy way of communicating had an undertone of snarl and bite. When we found a good spot to sit and watch the sun set over the canyon, the beauty of it caught up with our frayed emotions and everything simply clicked in that moment. Our drive back to Las Vegas was in a more reflective mood. We discovered ourselves in the wilderness and learned a lot more about each other than we ever did in our years of friendship. Our next trip together will most definitely be in much less close quarters.