Amazing road trip with my dad this winter break. Started out from Bakersfield and first stop was in Oatman an old gold mining town. The road was filled with roaming donkeys and I immediately felt transported back to Nepal. Next big stop was an unbelievable helicopter ride in the grand canyon. Breathtaking. We started out on the South Rim and went almost to north rim but stopped a little short due to a snow storm rapidly approaching. Amazing. Theres a few crappy videos you can watch of it. Then back to the road. Our only real hard snow through Flagstaff, saw a cool old hotel in Albuquerque and finally stopped in Santa Fe. The city was lively and filled with adobe buildings topped with luminaries, this time reminding me of an old city in India. Such a cool feel walking around the plaza and enjoying all the people roaming around. Next did an afternoon in Taos which was a smaller less bourgeois version of Santa Fe. The best part was the trip to the earthships a sustainable community 15 miles outside Taos. It must have been 30 outside with a good wind chill and about 80 inside growing giant tomatoes. All done with no electricity and heat from the sun. Wow. That is good design. Then the final destination to Denver to meet Uncle Paul. Had a wonderful visit with him and Grandma in Louisville. We all had a real family Christmas and even got to read these life stories my grandma and grandpa had written years ago. Hit the road xmas night to beat a storm and just like the movie the christmas story ended up with some good fried chinese food for christmas dinner as they were the only one open. perfect memory. Continue on the road and pitstopped somewhere in Utah to see petroglyphs. somehow i had never seen any before so this was just eye opening. sure looked a lot like some alien encounters. passed through moab and had a great pork chop breakfast at this funky little cafe. just outside moab entered to arches national park. this was the motherload. just as we got out of the car to see our first arch the most magical snowfall began to drop. it was a true winter wonderland. we spent the most time here and my poor dad practically had to drag me out. was just like nothing i had ever imagined. afterwards, just a long day of driving to make it back home. very strange to see all of baker and a little of barstow flooded with huge lakes from all the rain. all in all, a spectacular trip