Grand Canyon National Park

Driving to the Grand Canyon didn’t look or feel like we were driving towards a canyon. It was just a lot of desert. When we got our first glimpse on our drive through the park, it was unbelievable. I had never been to the Grand Canyon so it was exciting to see the incredible landscape.

We got to our campsite as soon as we could because we were excited for full hook-ups and actual showers. Our site was a pull through site so it was nice and easy. We just had to get on 2 boards to get leveled.

We hooked up and got the fridge going. Jared started to get the sewer set up but he came back into the trailer with some bad news.

Apparently, our new sewer hose we bought from Walmart that we used 3-4 times now had a leak in it. It wasn’t pretty.

It’s not exactly what we wanted to deal with.

We had to find a store, quick. We wanted to be able to use a sewer hose so we could take showers. With no internet access, it would be a little harder. Luckily, we got some paper maps and figured out where to go. The general store was less than a 5 minute drive and it was right next to the Yavapai Lodge (nearest wifi spot). We got in the car and headed over.

The store had its own small rv section with some easy fix solutions like a new hose! We bought a couple of items and started heading for the checkout counters and of course it was just pouring outside.

The clouds had moved in fast. It was monsoon season after all.

We ran to the car and still ended up drenched. We decided to check out the wifi situation in the lodge before heading back to camp. It didn’t work very well so we ended up heading back to camp with nothing downloaded (Netflix shows and Kindle books).

The rain was still coming down while we sat in the trailer and we were hoping that it would let up but that didn’t happen. The thunder made our hearts race and the lightning seemed to get closer. It was definitely one of the worst storms we’d both been in. We noticed a small leak coming from the skylight in the bathroom . With the amount of rain we were getting, we were surprised we didnt have more leaks.

By the time it let up, it was too dark to do much besides fix our sewer problem.

We finally got to take real showers!

After the sand and heat, we were happy to be clean.

Our first look at the Grand Canyon National Park was early the next day (about 10AM) and we were excited.

We headed to the visitor center to get some information like we always do and watched the welcome video.

Mather Point was incredible and close to the visitor center.

We checked out the Geology Museum which had some interesting information regarding the canyon. It’s incredible how much history the Grand Canyon holds.

We then headed out on the shuttle again towards Yaki Point and a few others to see the canyon.

By 3 PM, we saw some dark clouds in the sky so we knew there would be another storm. While waiting for the shuttle, we heard thunder and saw streaks of lightning and knew we should head back to camp.

It was a 45 minute shuttle ride back to camp. When we got off at our stop and started to walk back to Aljo, it started to rain. Luckily we got indoors before it really started to come down.

Luckily, the storm wasn’t as bad as the previous day.

The next full day, we went a little further into the park.

We started off at the Bright Angel Lodge for the hike down the canyon. We found out this lodge had way better wifi so we stayed a few minutes to play on our phones and download so books.

The Bright Angel Trail takes you down the canyon to a lodge at the very bottom. We didn’t plan on getting close to the bottom. Going down is always the easiest part so it didn’t take us too long to get down 0.8 miles.

We got some great views of the canyon.

We were feeling good and thought about doing another 0.8 miles down but when we peaked around the corner, the trail looked even steeper. We vetoed that thought and started our ascent back up.

Oh man! The climb up was hard but we took our time.

By the end of it, I guess I looked so haggard that a stranger asked if I had spent a night in the canyon. I guess it didn’t help that I forgot my deodorant that morning.

After the climb up, we checked out the Kolb Studio. It was a photography studio ran by the Kolb brothers. They took photos of visitors coming down the canyon on mules. It was amazing to hear about how they developed the photos and got back to the rim before the riders got back to the top of the canyon.

We continued on to a few other stops and points along the rim towards Hermit’s Rest.

It was so amazing!

We were exhausted so we headed back to camp.

It was a grand adventure through the Grand Canyon.

 

(Side note: We lost our camera’s SD Card so there were some photos from this trip that did not make the blog.)