Thrown for a Luepp

It all started when a search of the internet came up empty for an address to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Walker and I have relied on a GPS for our travels for several years now, and are accustomed to plugging in an address, hitting "Go", and listening to our British-accented guide Garmina (the name we have given the voice on the Garmin) lead us to our destination. There may not have been an address to the Grand Canyon South Rim entrance, but on the national park website I found the following:

South Rim Visitor Center:  36°03'32"N 112°06'33"W

I saved it in our GPS prior to our departure from Phoenix that fateful Saturday morning, and we were off! What could be more accurate than GPS coordinates? Oh my friends, this is where the story gets interesting...

After a lovely morning in Sedona, eating Mexican food, playing in the snow, and taking in the beautiful scenery, it was time to head to our final destination - the Grand Canyon.

Looking back on it, we missed about a million signs along the way. Road signs that said "Grand Canyon" pointing the opposite direction of our travels. No hint of anything grand or canyonesque anywhere in our view, even though the Garmin told us we were getting close.

Passing maybe 1 car every 15 minutes or so on the road to one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. A sign that said "You are now entering a Navajo Indian reservation". A sad football field made entirely of dirt. Dome-like communal-looking homes. I could go on...

But faith had been placed in a blond-ish navigator and a brand new GPS, and we didn't even hesitate. Claire even commented on how neat it was for this little community of people to live so close to and likely work in the Grand Canyon. It wasn't until we were supposed to turn on "Indian road 5952" (a gravel road that headed to even more desolate land) and zoomed out on the GPS that we realized the gravity of our situation. I had found confidence in seeing "Grand Canyon South Rim" written out on the map of the GPS, and knowing that we were headed right towards it. The low point for me was the moment I remembered that I had in fact typed in that name to save the coordinates of our destination, and it was not there b/c it was a part of Garmin's maps. Epic fail.

In sum, we were headed north from Sedona to the Grand Canyon (the "X"), and ended up in Leupp (the arrow), which we have decided is the most desolate and isolated location that any of us had ever experienced in our lives.

Thank goodness for easy-going travelers with a sense of humor. After a moment of hesitation, some re-working the GPS and confirming with iPhone maps, we decided there was no way we would miss out on the Grand Canyon b/c of our Leupp detour. Reid, our history-buff, immediately began educating us on this Navajo Indian population (of less than 1000, 98.1% Navajo Indian). I regret not taking more photographs of Leupp, but my embarrassment of the situation overwhelmed and inhibited me until we were several miles off of the reservation. Basically all you need to know is summed up in this photo from Google Images...

Leupp may not look too terribly far from the Grand Canyon on the map above, but what you can't see is that any direct route between the two locations would involve driving on unpaved "Indian Roads", which we just didn't think our rented HHR could handle. So this happened...

The original plan was to enter the Canyon at the South Rim (the "X"). Post-Leupp we switched to the East Rim (the star) in an effort to make it there with daylight to spare. Time required to drive from Leupp to the Grand Canyon East Rim? Approximately 3 hours. That's not including the 2 hour detour from Flagstaff. That's right. I have a very loyal, forgiving, and humor-loving husband and set of friends. 

We made it to the Grand Canyon with about an hour of sunlight left, and were able to watch a beautiful sunset, so we can't complain too much. 

We also each probably burned about 500 calories laughing about the situation. It certainly wasn't how we planned our adventure to turn out, but looking back on it, we wouldn't have it any other way. How many of the 50,000+ (I have no idea what the final number was) Auburn fans in Arizona for the game were lucky enough to cruise through Leupp, Arizona? I'd put my money on four.

I still don't know how it happened. My only guess is that when I chose which format to input coordinates on the GPS, I chose the wrong one. I gave up trying to figure it out. It was an all-star 5-hour detour that gave us endless laughs and memories. 

Don't let my blond moment scare you. I promise I will take excellent care of your children one day.