RAMBLIN ROSE: The Grand Canyon

“Do nothing to mar it’s grandeur… keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight every american should see.”

Theodore Roosevelt

As our great Southwest sendoff we saved the trip to the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We only live about 3 hours away from the Park and when we first moved we thought we would fit in several trips, but alas, this area of the country had far more to see then we ever expected.

This is the first National Park we were able to get a camping spot at and it made all the difference. First off, we only had to pay $18 a night! If you have a camper you know this is a steal of a deal. Second, it allowed us to go back to camp eat dinner and then experience the sunset every evening without having to wrangle hungry kids. Last, we met really fun people from all over the world at the campground. It was awesome and I totally understand why spots fill up so fast in National Parks.

We saw Elk everywhere!

We arrived at the Park in the early afternoon on a Sunday. We set up camp and immediately headed to the visitors center. We watched two different videos about the park, picked up our junior ranger packets, and went to a ranger talk about javelinas, which was extra interesting to us because we had a family of them living in our yard in Show Low. Surprisingly, we decided to not take the short walk to the canyon rim from here. instead, we headed back to the campground and ate some dinner. Finally, after dinner we went and had our first sight of the Grand Canyon, just in time for sunset. We went down to Mather’s Point and walked around until we found an empty rock to sit on and enjoy the show. It was a magical experience and I am pretty sure I would have been a weeping mess if the girls weren’t there to bring me back to reality by acting like wild children! It was the perfect first day and made us REALLY excited about the rest of the trip.

I love the rain in the distance in this shot.

Mat said she needed a better view

Brent working his magic with the camera

Day two was our ‘big’ day hiking wise. We decided to do the Kaibab Trail down to Cedarcrest Point. Kaibab is a trail that you can get a permit to hike to the bottom of the canyon, camp and then hike over and up the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We did a 3 mile section of the trail with the fist half straight down and the second half straight back up. We knew going in that it is the steepest trail in the park so we prepared the girls accordingly. It was a very scenic hike and it was fun to get below the rim a little bit. We had a picturesque lunch when we arrived at Cedercrest and spent some time just enjoying the views. We took our time on the hike back up, stopping pretty much every time we found shade. Even with all the stops it was still a hard hike for the girls. After we finished that hike we caught one of the free shuttle buses and headed to the Yavapai Geological Museum. We spent a bit of time inside looking at the exhibits then we started the Trail of Time walk, which is a section of the Rim Trail that has geology exhibits and informative stops about the formation of the Grand Canyon. It was a really cool trail and we learned a lot. The girls loved being able to touch rock from each different time period; I feel like it was one of the best science lessons they have ever received. We only finished half the walk before we decided to head back. Brent really wanted to photograph the sunset and we still needed to eat dinner. We headed back to the campsite, ate dinner and even had enough time to fry some donuts over the campfire for dessert! We headed up to Grandview Point on Desert View Drive to catch the end of the day show, and we were not the only people with this idea. This look out was packed and we arrived too late to get a good spot which was a bummer. The view was stunning though; it is so popular for good reason.

beginning of the kaibab trail

picnic views

rain on the North rim of the canyon

Sunset views away from the crowd

Day three led us back to Desert View road this time headed to the Watchtower. What a spectacle the watchtower is, not because it is gaudy but because it fits so nicely on the outside yet the inside is such a work of art. We loved this stop and would consider this a must see location at the Canyon. We made some lookout stops on the way back to the campground, ate some lunch and rested a bit. We headed back out mid afternoon for a short mile and a half hike down to the second tunnel on Bright Angel Trail. I have definitely added that full trail to my bucket list. The decent of the trail ends at Indian Gardens, this beautiful lush green area of the canyon. But the hike back up is no joke. We watched someone puking on the trail back up… yuck! After we got to the top we immediately started to walk the Rim Trail on Hermit’s Road. The beginning is paved and so scenic. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll to a few lookout spots and then we hopped on the bus out to Pima Point to catch a closer look at the Colorado River and watch the sunset. As we road down Hermit’s Road we regretfully realized we should have spent more time in this section of the Canyon. The views were far more diverse than any other part we had explored. It was beautiful country. Brent and I both agreed that, besides our first glimpse of the canyon, Maricopa Point was our favorite view. Honestly, it brought me to tears all over again.

the watchtower

The second tunnel on Bright Angel trail.

maricopa point

down the trail some from Pima point (the Colorado River)

Pima Point

We swung by the visitor center to turn in the girls junior ranger books on the last day then headed out of the park. Since this was our last trip in this area we made all the stops we had been putting off on the way home. We stopped in at meteor crater and paid a small fortune to go look at the world’s oldest and best preserved meteor crater. It was an interesting learning stop. It definitely would not be worth a trip all on its own but it was cool to place to hang out at for a couple of hours and the girls LOVED the movie there. Finally we swung into Winslow Arizona to take our picture at the Standin’ on the Corner Park, a tribute to Jackson Brown’s song “Take It Easy.”