After we left Mexico, we wanted to do a bit of shopping before heading north so we checked into our favourite Tucson campground …. Gilbert Ray and then spent the day shopping at Target, Costco, Ross and the liquor store. Both of us also wanted to spend time staring at the Saguaro Cactuses…..this campground is in the middle of the Tucson Mountain Park and full of cactuses and we can’t get enough of them! On the Wed morning (Apr 23), it was already 28C outside but we packed up and departed Gilbert Ray around 8:30 and headed towards Prescott, AZ to the Costco for diesel before our final destination bookdocking at Long Jim Loop, just outside of Grand Canyon village (currently sitting at 17C). This was a 5.5 hour drive but also included a stop at Costco for a diesel fill – which can be 20-30 minutes, quick run into Costco for groceries we needed and a last pitstop at In N Out for lunch! In hindsight, we realized an 8:30 departure was a little late when the drive was a long one and so many pitstops.

We arrived at Long Jim Loop later than anticipated…just before sunset (6:45pm). All the treed, lower spots were already taken and we didn’t have a great backup plan (retrace our steps back down the highway 15 km and hope for a spot). We parked Ruby off the road, disconnected the car and drove 150 meters up to the end of the road to a mostly flat, but empty boondock spot and figured this was the best option at this late in the game. Todd pulled Ruby up to our spot and we settled in quickly. Todd was exhausted – not only was the day a long one but on the drive through a construction zone, he came really close (6-8”) to hitting a road biker and it shook him to the core. There was no place to pull over on the highway after it happened until we got to Costco. Once we got Ruby settled in, we pulled the memory card from the dashcam to see how this road biker thing unraveled and in the end Todd’s driving skills are incredible and I’m thankful he is such a confident driver. That road biker though…..what an idiot. Todd was exhausted, his lights were out by 9 pm!  Drive-to-grand-canyon.html

A little side note for anyone who likes to boondock….This location at Long Jim Loop is less than 5 minutes to the Grand Canyon Park gate, and less than 10 minutes to the actual national park. There are also other boondock locations that are a bit closer but we were very surprised this is available so close to the national park! Also walking distance to the town of Tusayan.

We were up and out the door ready to explore the Grand Canyon by 9 the next day. The lineup at the park gates was about 25 minutes at 9 am; we paid our $35 for a 7-day pass, got our pocket map and headed to the Visitor Centre. Over the course of the next 5 hours, we walked the south rim path and hopping on/off shuttle buses to get to different areas. The first viewing of the canyon is spectacular and after that, all other views of the canyon are exactly the same, but from a different point of view! A big hole in the earth with colorful rock formations; 6 hours later, we were back at the bus, exhausted after 15,000 steps and so many pictures of the grand hole! Grand-canyon-day-1.html

An interesting tidbit of information we learned from a volunteer on our first hike. We noticed there were a lot of airplane con trails in the sky, and we mentioned that to this volunteer. He said that back in the 40’s and 50’s when they were planning airplane routes, they planned many routes to fly over the Grand Canyon in the event emergency contact was required for anyone rafting on the river. The pilots would turn the airplane radio to the emergency station and rafters had a short wave radio to the pilot’s when they flew over to get them to send help. This is why there are still so many airplanes flying over the canyon.

Day 2 we decided to hike the busiest and most well-known trail called the Bright Angel Trail; in total it is 8 miles down to the Colorado river (4460 feet to descend), but there are also rest stops at 1.4 miles, 3 miles and 4.5 miles. The trail  passes through Havasupai Gardens before you get to the River. There was no way we were going to the River – that is a backcountry/overnight camping experience that we weren’t doing! We hoped to get to the Gardens, but by the time we got to the 3-mile rest stop (the halfway point @2230 ft), we determined that was our turning point.  It was a 2-hour descent, so now its time to turn around and ascend back up, which was another 3 hours; the entire hike should be completed between 4-6 hours and we finished in 5 (almost to the minute). The last mile up, we kept passing and then resting with the same group of people. At one point, a lady in one of the groups said to her friend Damn you Rachel…I’ve had just about enough! Both Todd and I laughed and agreed that we too would never follow Rachel’s hiking plan again!  We were back at the bus having a celebration beer around 3:30. You can imagine that after 21,800 steps and some food, we were both sleeping by 8:30! Grand-canyon-day-2.html

Day 3 started a little slower….as we needed to do some laundry (UGH! We haven’t done our own laundry in over 5 months!) but it was time. Headed to the campground to get a few loads done and when we were finished, figured we should check out the Red shuttle bus and go see all the 9 viewpoints on that route. The shuttle bus system here is great; they are efficient, and people are moving. We hopped on and hopped off for 4 stops, then realized we could actually hike them as well on the rim trail OR you can put your bike on the bus and then ride your bike along the route too. So we made the executive decision to leave the final stop to a different day (Monday) where we will put our bikes on and then ride the rim trail back. Another early night….we were asleep by 9 pm.  Grand-canyon-day-3.html

Day 4 started with a drive on the Desert view highway (east) to see the Watchtower view, then work our way back to check out the 5 main viewpoints, all with historical information, a handful of other small pullover viewpoints and a museum and ruins. The view difference on this side of the canyon was a bit more color in the rocks and you could actually see large portions of the Colorado river. We were hoping to “beat the crowds” and it worked in our favour. Our 9 am departure had us back to the bus for lunch by 11:30. We packed some snacks, changed our footwear and headed back to the Orange shuttle bus to checkout the hiking options on the Kaibab/rim route. We had prepicked the OOH-AHH trail that leads to the Cedar Ridge trail. It was an overcast and cooler day, perfect for this hike. It also wasn’t as difficult at the Bright Angel trail. We were down and back in a little over 2 hours. Grand-canyon-day-4.html The views here were stunning! Here is a hyperlapse back up from OOH AHH to Red Gulch/Cedar Ridge (Grand-canyon-red-gulch.html )It was only a 14,000 step kinda day…I think we stayed awake until 10.

Day 5 also had a slow start since the overnight temps were frigid! We weren’t in a hurry to get to the canyon before noon! Today was the day we were putting our bikes on the red bus and taking it to the end of the line (Hermits Rest) and biking the 15 km back, stopping at any of the overlooks we missed. We caught the noon bus and we were on the bikes by 12:30 heading along the rim to the next lookout. I lost track of the number of lookouts and viewpoints we stopped at there are just so many. It was a solid trek of up and down…more up than we anticipated, but there was a solid km of down the final km; we arrived back at the car by 3. Grand-canyon-day-5.html Stopped at home for a quick snack before finishing off our Grand Canyon trip by going to the IMAX for the 3:30 showing of the Grand Canyon Rivers of Time show WHERE JILL GOT HER FIRST SENIORS DISCOUNT!! – the guy didn’t believe me and I had to show him my ID.

At the IMAX with our double senior discount ticket!

All in all, our trip to the Grand Canyon was amazing! I was pleasantly surprised to report that there is enough to do here, and 5 days went by very quickly. There are so many walking, hiking and biking options….good thing we had been active in Mexico for the last 5 months or we probably would be way more sore! For the most part, the National park is a pretty efficient machine, but we aren’t in prime / peak season. It was busy enough while we were there (last few days of Easter break). The bus / shuttle systems are great within the park. There are also free parking locations in the town of Tusayan and shuttles from there. There are 2 campgrounds in the national park and so many paved biking trails. We could have ridden our bikes right from Ruby’s boondock location to the shuttle bus stations to go hiking (it was 6 miles each way, we didn’t do this…but if it was a bit warmer, maybe we would have)

The weather wasn’t as warm as we originally hoped, it turned on us the second day and it was way cooler than we expected. But it also prepared us for coming home. We will be leaving early tomorrow (Apr 29) to empty and fill our tanks (a free option at the national park campground!) before we head northly towards Salt Lake City.

Thanks for coming along with us on our adventures, we will see you all soon!