Last Thursday, my husband and I drove up to the Grand Canyon from Phoenix. The drive up was beautiful through Jerome, Sedona and Flagstaff. If you have never been, I suggest it.
Right before we got to the Grand Canyon entrance, I suggested to my husband that we purchase some gas. At the time, we had about a quarter tank. Unfortunately, the gas station was advertising unleaded at $3.25 per gallon! Unwilling to shell out that much cash for gas, my husband said we should wait and get gas the next day on our way into Utah. Surely he said, there will be cheaper gas a bit further away from the entrance to the canyon.
We proceeded to drive to the entrance to the park, only to wait 45 minutes at the gate because of the large crowds. By the time we got into Mather Campground inside the park, we were noticeably lower than a quarter tank of gas. Fortunately for us (and the environment), the Grand Canyon has a wonderful bus system that carries guests around the park for free. The buses run on natural fuels and we only had to wait maybe 15 minutes (at the most) to catch a bus.
My husband and I had a wonderful evening wandering around the Grand Canyon. We walked for an hour along the rim, stopping to take pictures and gaze in wonder along the way. My only wish is that we had more time to spend on the rim- hiking and lingering.
We spent a great night in our tent with the air reaching a cool 52 degrees at night. When we woke the next morning, we packed up our car and jumped back in for the long drive up to Denver. The only obstacle in our way- our gas tank! We needed gas soon.
While driving out of the campground, I asked my husband if we should go back to the gas station we had seen the day before. He said no, explaining that we needed to take a different exit out of the east side of the park. When we got onto the proper exit road we saw a sign saying- "24 miles to Desert View". We could make it 24 miles with what we had left... I reasoned.
After a few prime photography stops, we finally reached Desert View, only to realize that it was a watchtower and not a town with a gas station! Running on vapors, we kept going. As it turns out, the next gas station was 36 miles past the Desert View Watchtower.
I remember I was praying so hard that we wouldn't run out of gas, but I wasn't trying to act scared because I didn't want to let me husband see I was nervous (which he saw right through). The Lord heard our scared pleas though, and most of the 36 mile trip was downhill and there was no need to use the gas pedal. Praise the Lord!!!
Had we run out of gas during those 36 miles, we would have been in complete desert- stranded. There was nothing, but large red rocks and several roadside Native American craft stands for miles in every direction. I believe we only passed a small handful of cars as well.
I know I was gripping the steering wheel pretty hard during that drive. In the end however, we did make it to the next gas station available and it was only $2.74 per gallon. What a scary stretch of road for us. Next time, I will listen to my dad when he says to never let the gas tank get below half a tank in the desert.
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