Help me plan Grand Canyon trip

[WatchinCaptKangaroo]

I went camping at the North Rim in August. Our warmest day was about 78 while on the South Rim it was 120. The North Rim is beautiful and the camp ground was amazing. There are full service restrooms and pay showers.

 

[Kristina]

I love the Grand Canyon and have been twice, plan to go back too! The last time we went we stayed 2 nights then drove on to Page, Arizona for a half day rafting trip on the Colorado River as it runs through the amazing beauty that is the Glen Canyon! It was like floating through the Grand Canyon itself, all red rock and gorgeous and I highly recommend it to anyone! There were wild horses and a few Eagles flying high overhead as well as ancient Indian petroglyphs on the rocks.

We bought our tickets through Wilderness River Adventures and they have even have white water rafting trips as well, although that would have been a bit wild for me!

Best of all, back then the 4 hour trip cost something like 29 dollars, an amazing deal. You board your raft from the mouth of the Glen Canyon Dam, and that alone was really something special!

 

[Imzadi]

The last time we went we stayed 2 nights then drove on to Page, Arizona for a half day rafting trip on the Colorado River as it runs through the amazing beauty that is the Glen Canyon!

<Sigh!> This thread really makes me want to go back & explote the areas I missed. I never got to make it over to Page. I wanted so much to see Antelope Canyon. I see it on commercials all the time. I think it would be incredible to see it in person.

http://www.amwest-travel.com/awt_antelope.html

http://www.americaswonderlands.com/Tumbleweed_main.htm

 

[golfgal]

Just some photos to get you in the mood!

 

[funhouse8]

Do you have kids. If so I think you should stay at a area hotel with a pool. this is what I did and the kids were very happy to go back and swim at night. I also went to Sedona. It was so beautiful there also. My DH and DD went on a plane ride there and loved it. I also am a fan of Vegas, Just to look around the hotels is so much fun. Have a wonderful Vacation.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

If you plan on going north I highly recommend Zion National Park. We went in September of 2004 to Grand Canyon North Rim, Zion, and Bryce. Zion was by far our favorite. http://www.nps.gov/zion/ Be prepared for all types of weather...we had mid 90's in the Grand Canyon (the hike from hell), and below freezing when we were at Bryce. If you decide on Zion, try to get reservations inside the park at the lodge. Well worth the money. The hike down the river (I mean you hike in the river) was absolutely gorgeous.

I did the same trip flew into Salt lake drove down to Bryce , the North Rim of Grand Canyon and Zion flew home out of Las Vegas it was one of the best trips I ever had spent a night in SLC a night in Bryce, 2 nights GC and 1 night in Zion and then 2 in Vegas.

Bryce

Grand Canyon

 

[Mom2R&D]

And, finally, you must go to Winslow, Arizona and stand on the corner. It's such a fine site to see. They even have a girl in a flat bed Ford. . .

And let me say that this little spot is nearly impossible to find!

 

[KarenB]

Here is what we (DH, DSs age 15 and 17, me)did this past summer, late June.

Flew into LAs Vegas-stayed 3 nights-explored the city, took a day trip to Lake Mead and Fire Rock State Park.
Drove to Zion National Park (about 2 hours), stayed 2 nights in the Zion Lodge in one of the cabins.
Drove to Bryce Canyon (another 2 hours) stayed 2 nights in the Bryce Banyon Lodge
Drove to Grand Canyon South Rim (about 6 hours) stayed 2 nights in El Tovar
Drove to Sedona, AZ, stayed 2 nights there and went to Slide Rock State park, explored the town, did a Pink Jeep tour.
Flew home from Phoenix. We made a question mark path.

It was a wonderful trip. We did a lot of hiking and came home feeling so fit, tan, and lost weight. If I had to sum it up in one word I would say 'cleansing'. One thing though, we made reservations as early as possible for the national park lodges. El Tovar was well worth the money-simply wonderful. PM me if you would like more details! You will have a wonderful time! I would love to go back again. Don't let these hard core DISers know this, but I would really have a tough time decidine between this trip and WDW.

Karen

 

[KarenB]

Mom2R&D-We went through Winslow-Oh how I wish we knew about that spot. I guess we will just have to go back.

 

[KarenB]

okay-will all of you PLEASE stop posting those wonderful, beautiful, memory making photos. I want to go back. whhhaaaahhhhh-as I sit here and look at my pics from this summer. I wish I knew how to post them here.

Karen

 

[maryliz]

Went once
got lost
befreinded a small native American boy
we shared hot dogs and beans I had in my flashilight

Bobby??? Cindy ???

We just watched this episode about 2 weeks ago, and I was telling my kids that someday I wanted to go there. And then you people are posting these amazing pics! I'm from Ontario Canada, and was wondering just how long it would take to drive there And what's better, North Rim or South Rim? We live about 2 hours from Detroit Michigan.

TIA

MaryLiz

 

[Imzadi]

BTW, I took a helicoptor tour over the G.C. It was well worth it!

 

[golfgal]

okay-will all of you PLEASE stop posting those wonderful, beautiful, memory making photos. I want to go back. whhhaaaahhhhh-as I sit here and look at my pics from this summer. I wish I knew how to post them here.

Karen

Photos here are easy if you know how to do it . Go to photobucket.com http://photobucket.com/ and open an album, free registration, no nasty spam emails. You load your pictures from your computer to that site, click on "browse" at it will open your photo file on your computer. Open the picture you want an it will fill in the rest, hit submit.

Once you have the photos you want there, click under the photo on the url address, highlight and copy. Then open a reply here and see that mountain picture up there ^ that looks like a postcard sort of, click on that and copy the url address there. That is all you have to do. If you want to copy a picture from another website, just right click on the picture and select properties, copy the url address and paste it into the mountain picture pop up thing.

There is someplace here that you can do the same thing as photobucket, I think, look under your smilies for "my pictures".

 

[ncbyrne]

I am the original poster. DH and I are 60. We are still commandos when it comes to WDW, but I'm not sure we could be classified as "hikers". So many of the posts here and the AZ websites discuss the hikes. We can obviously do lots of walking, but will we find lots of interesting things to do without hiking for miles?

 

[ahutton]

I am the original poster. DH and I are 60. We are still commandos when it comes to WDW, but I'm not sure we could be classified as "hikers". So many of the posts here and the AZ websites discuss the hikes. We can obviously do lots of walking, but will we find lots of interesting things to do without hiking for miles?

Absolutely!!! We took a trip to Sedona when I was 7 1/2 months pregnant. We went to the state park and hiked around for 3-4 hours. It was very easy hiking, not a lot of hills, more like walking around on well established trails in some of the prettiest areas in the world. I am not what anyone would call in shape, and even pregnant I did fine there. We also did a lot of that kind of walking around in GC, and we selected trails that had not much elevation change and did great there too. Just make sure you have lots of water with you, as it is very dry and that will dehydrate you more than you realize.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

And what's better, North Rim or South Rim? We live about 2 hours from Detroit Michigan.

TIA

MaryLiz

Hmm it depends on what you are looking for I liked the North Rim better its very secluded and quiet and the only thing there is the cabins the campground and the Lodge.

 

[WatchinCaptKangaroo]

Hmm it depends on what you are looking for I liked the North Rim better its very secluded and quiet and the only thing there is the cabins the campground and the Lodge.

I agree. North Rim is amazingly quiet. 2 hours from the nearest *town*. There is a small general store at the campground, a gas station and another small general store. The "hikes" we did were really long walks on trails. We did some off-roading too, but if you don't have a 4x4 don't even think about attempting it.

 

[Disneymaddness]

We did a Phoenix/Grand Canyon/Sedona/Disneyland trip in July 2001. In Sedona we did a Pink Jeep Tour through the desert. It was awsome!! There is so much to do out west. Have fun planning your trip!