Our Grand Canyon Adventures
The Grand Canyon has been on my bucket list since I was a kid. It’s probably on everyone’s bucket list. We came at a good time of year (end of October) when it wasn’t too busy with visitors.
We realized we were close to the Grand Canyon and we had a few days of flexibility. And we were lucky to score a campsite at the Grand Canyon campground. Lucky us!
It was a dream come true exploring the Grand Canyon! We hiked the Angel Bright Trail, which is 1.5 miles down and then straight back up. We were faster going up than down. It’s carved into the side of the canyon and has no guard rails, just warning signs for sheer terror.
We met a 70-year-old trail volunteer. He tries to prevent people from having heart attacks and he gave us some great hiking tips. Did you know if you lengthen your stride by 4 inches you can save 10 minutes per hour on your hike?
The Grand Canyon is hard to capture with my camera. It just doesn’t do it justice, not even close. We saw mules coming up the Angel Bright Trail.
SO Much To Do!
As you can see from these photos, the Grand Canyon is magnificent! We weren’t able to stay more than 2 nights since it’s a coveted spot, so we tried to fit as much as possible into one day. At first, we only had one night, but Jeff got us another night!
Really you can spend weeks in the Grand Canyon, although the admission ticket only covers seven consecutive days. There are so many hiking trails, plus whitewater rafting, donkey rides, helicopter, and hot air balloon rides, and endless vistas to take your breath away. The Grand Canyon even has a train. If you’ve never been there, do yourself a favor and plan a trip.
We biked to the IMAX theatre and watched the movie on this history of the Grand Canyon. It didn’t feel socially appropriate to the Native American Indians if the film was made today. It seemed like it was filmed in the 80’s or something. On our way back, we saw a tarantula crossing our path. Of course, I had to stop and take a picture of it.
Making It a National Park
The effort to designate the Grand Canyon as a national park started in the 1880s, but at first, Congress kept failing to pass a bill that would do that. But President Teddy Roosevelt loved the area so much that he finally declared it a national monument in 1908. The bill that finally made it a national park was signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. The Grand Canyon is cared for by the National Park Service, the Hualapai Tribal Nation, and the Havasupai Tribe.
It was great to bike at the different stopping points to Hermits Rest. It was a climb so stopping to view the Grand Canyon gave us chances to catch our breath.
Elk and a Tarantula
Faced with the magnitude of the Grand Canyon, we really had to focus. We biked our little hearts out during our short stay. The challenge is that you’re either going up or down, but the Grand Canyon is super bike-friendly. We did their Hermit Bike Trail and also biked to the IMAX theatre to see the Grand Canyon movie.
On the way back, there was a tarantula crossing the pavement, and we saw a few elk and mule deer. The elk are around, but there aren’t nearly as many as we experienced in Estes Park.
It was good to get back on our regular bikes, even though the seat felt hard! We need to get back into bike shape again.
Our view out our window was quite serene. It was so quiet and we got a 10-15 degrees warmer than the Grand Canyon. It was so nice to stop and rest here for 3 days.
Boondocking
A little RV lesson: two terms are mooch docking and boondocking. Moochdocking is parking and using someone else's water and electricity. Boondocking means parking your RV in a spot without any hookups to electricity, water, or sewer.
After the Grand Canyon, we tried our hand at boondocking. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management allows people to boondock for 2 weeks at a time for free. We did it for 3 days.
We booked our Boondocking time through Hipcamp and stayed on someone’s property. Her property didn’t have any properties on the land, in fact, there were no dwellings for miles. We had perfect weather conditions and it was so serene as we were out in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to be quiet and rest. One of the biggest challenges is dealing with water management. Having enough water and then having a way to deal with it. Some places don’t like you dump your gray water which is your shower water and sink water. Fortunately, this owner didn’t mind us leaving our gray water with her.
I took some dark night photos of the stars and our camper.
We were in the middle of Nowhere, Arizona, in the desert. Fortunately, we had the good solar panels Jeff installed, but those are only useful as long as you have sunny weather.
It really brought home to me: that everything is temporary. Even situations that seem like they’re going to last a long time always end and you move on. So whatever might be bothering me, I know it won’t last long.