Written Thursday 29 May
I have to be honest, setting up camp in the Wild West didn't really appeal to me when I researched this trip - I saw it as an obstacle which needed hurdling to get to Yosemite and the Big Sur. However, it's often the things you expect to enjoy the least that end up surprising you... With horseback riding at sunset, a steak dinner, a party barn and a stunning starry night sky, the evening we spent at Cowboy Camp comes second only to seeing Zedd in Vegas.
Riding a horse through the desert was incredible - the barren landscape, flat topped mountains carved into crazy formations by the wind and the piercing blue sky administering an injection of colour into a sandy orange scene that could have been exported straight from the big screen. Followed up by a steak dinner (cooked for us, yay) and the most amazing brownies I've ever had in my life, Cowboy Camp has already way surpassed my expectations.
Party barn time! It was SUCH a fun night: pool, flip cup, karaoke, getting tipsy under a jet black sky bursting with bright white stars (some shooting) and playing dirty Jenga - an awesome game which I'm definitely bringing back to England with me. Each block has instructions written on either side, ranging from tame (All Brits take a drink) to relatively racy (Give the person to your left a lap dance - guess who got this one? And our tour leader was sitting to my left... Luckily the option on the other side was more feasible and less embarrassing/awkward (Convince the person on your right to marry you). Mega fun!
The other reason today was a highlight is because we made a stop that - for me at least - topped the Grand Canyon. Horseshoe Bend is a huge oxbow lake on the Colorado River framed by steep orange slopes about three quarters of a mile off the main road. The walk there in the blazing afternoon heat was pretty tough going but our reward made the hard work worth it - and then some. Horseshoe Bend - a quick half an hour pit stop on our three week road trip - literally took my breath away. I don't know whether it was the vastness, the medley of many different shades of blue or the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere - an unexpected oasis almost buried by long stretches of desert - or a combination of all three, but I was utterly awestruck. Could have stayed there well over the brief snippet of time we had at our disposal but I'll have the image etched onto my memory for years to come - this one's definitely a keeper.
