Grand Canyon!

This is one place that Reece had on his list, and Claire and I had never been before, and Matt went when he was really young, so we were all looking forward to going here.

Since Phoenix is under 2000 feet in elevation and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is around 7000 feet in elevation and they are a little over 200 miles apart, we figured there would be a decent amount of elevation gain. So to take it easy on Moby (the van), we decided to leave Richard (the camper) in Phoenix. We dropped him off at a storage facility on the east side of Phoenix and headed north.

Matt was on a work call for most of the drive up, but the rest of us enjoyed the scenery and hills. When we left Phoenix is was about 90 degrees, but when we arrived in Flagstaff there was snow on the ground (although the air temp was close to 60). We were running a little late from things just taking longer than we realized, so we didn’t get to Flagstaff until late afternoon. We stocked up on supplies at Walmart and ended up getting a 4 person tent (for car camping), new camp chairs (Matt had been wanting them), and groceries for the week.

We started on our way, but then realized we had forgotten to get shoe spikes. (Grand Canyon’s website suggested those and trekking poles for trails at the top of the canyon.) We had researched and discovered that Walmart in Flagstaff carried them, so we actually ended up at the other Walmart in Flagstaff to get the shoe spikes.

By this time, it was almost dark and we were quite a bit later than expected, but we made the drive (which I’m sure is beautiful in the daylight) past the AZ Snowbowl, got gas at a town south of the rim, and then dinner at another town since we realized we wouldn’t be making dinner at camp that first night (unless we wanted to eat at 10:30 pm).

But we made it.

We started setting up the new tent for car camping and realized it didn’t have a rain fly. It was supposed to have one, but this particular tent did not have it included… So Matt and I slept in our tiny 2 person backpacking tent instead.

The nights were chilly (low 30s), but the days were in the 60s and sunny. As one ranger put it, “an April week in February.” And we were grateful there weren’t April crowds!

On our first morning there we went to the backcountry information office to see what our options were for getting to the bottom of the canyon and the CO river. He suggested doing some day hikes and then coming back before the weekend to book permits/campsites.

From there we hiked the rim trail around to the Yavapai Geologic Museum. We listened to a ranger talk about the geology of the Grand Canyon – fascinating. The rock at the bottom is older than any living thing that was ever existed. After the talk we continued on to Mather Point and the main visitor center. We watched a great video on the history of, and continued connection to, Native Americans in the Grand Canyon. We also got some souvenirs and made some plans for the week. Then we took the shuttle back to our van and returned to our campsite.

The next morning we shuttled out to the South Kaibab Trailhead and did a day hike down into the canyon. It was pretty incredible. We made it a little over 2 miles down the trail before we decided to head back up. We saw mules and a number of other hikers. It went well and we didn’t even need the spikes we had purchased because most of the ice had melted or become slushy.

After the hike we relaxed back at the campground for a bit before heading to Powell Memorial point for the sunset – which as you can guess is pretty amazing.

The next day we took it easy in the morning. We worked on some school, enjoyed watching the elk and the deer walk through our campground, and visited the Shrine of the Ages. The shrine is nothing too exciting, but it does have a cemetery outside of it. There were old and new graves, but the one that caught our attention was the memorial to the 128 people that died in a plane crash over the Grand Canyon in 1956 (36 years after the start of flight). You can read more about it here. It was part of why the FAA got started.

After the Shrine, we ate lunch and headed to the backcountry office to get permits for the weekend. Next, was the Desert View Tower near the east entrance. It was a tower built for tourism to attract people coming through the area. It’s a really unique build and has an incredible view of the beginning of the canyon and the Colorado River running through it. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the top of the tower, but we enjoyed the views and some ice cream!

Then we headed over to Lipon Point to watch the sunset. We were there a little early and were able to get some packing done for our backpacking trip and cook some dinner. We waited for a while after sunset to do some stargazing before returning to camp.

The next morning we finished packing for backpacking and packed up our campsite. We parked at the Grand Canyon Village and headed out with our packs on the Bright Angel Trail. We hiked 4.5 miles into the canyon to get to Havasupai Gardens where there is a campground, toilets, a ranger station, and a lending library! We set up camp for the next couple nights and enjoyed warmer temperatures down in the canyon. We even borrowed a couple books from the library – including The Emerald Mile, which we started reading aloud down in the canyon. It’s a fantastic book – I had read it before and highly recommend it! We currently have the audio book and are continuing to listen to it as a family.

The next morning we woke and saw helicopters circling to pick up/drop off supplies at the pump station near the Gardens. Although not a typical backcountry sight, it was pretty cool to watch (and we saw many more of them throughout our time there). They are replacing the water line that runs from the north rim to the south rim that was originally built in the 60s. It provides all the water on the south rim. It’s a project that was started in 2023, but should be done this year. The aquifer on the north rim is of unknown depth and amount, but it seems to provide sufficient water so far!

After breakfast we headed another 3 miles down to the CO river. Unfortunately Matt fell and sprained his ankle within the first mile of our hike. He toughly/foolishly pushed through to make it to the river with us and then back up the 3 miles to camp. It was an amazing hike though, and it would have been a bummer if he had missed it. The entire scale of being in the canyon, is mind-blowing. It is awesome to see it from above, but when you get down into the canyon, you realize the sheer magnitude of some of the single features in the canyon – huge cliffs, spires, etc. It is awe inspiring.

We all made it safely back to camp and went to bed early. We packed up the next morning and prepared for the slog up and out of the canyon. We took it slow, enjoyed the majority of the trail in the shade, and made some friends along the way – one friend being an 81 year old man from CO who started hiking the Grand Canyon back in 1965 and has done it numerous times since then.

Then we celebrated with pizza and garlic bread before heading to Prescott, AZ and a hotel room for the night. We unpacked in their parking lot and enjoyed hot showers and soft beds. (And returned the tent and shoe spikes to Walmart!)

The Grand Canyon was for sure a highlight of this trip!