Grand Canyon

 The second leg of our western journey took us to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  It was just over a 2 hour drive from Sedona.  We left by 7:30 am to arrive at the canyon by 9:45.  It's not as hard to get your family up and moving early when you have traveled from east to west.  7:30 am Arizona time felt more like 10:30 am eastern time.  We only planned to stay about 24 hours in the Grand Canyon, so we had to get an early start to make the most of our time.

Our first view of the canyon was at Mather Point (just by the Visitor's center).

After taking in some of the scenery at Mather Point, we took the orange shuttle to the South Kiabab trail head.  We hiked from the trailhead to "Ooh Aah" point.  It's steep, but doable (just under 2 miles with app. 700 feet of elevation gain).  Abbie's legs were tired from all the switchbacks.  Remember all the climbing is going back up at the end.  You can view the alltrails link HERE

I really wanted to do a little bit of hiking below the rim while we were here.  This hike was a win in that it provided beautiful views for a modest amount of difficulty.  There was even some leftover snow at the top of the rim from a storm the week before!

After the hike, we returned to the Visitor's center via the orange shuttle.  From there, we were able to hop on the blue and red shuttles to see more viewpoints toward the western side of the canyon.  These viewpoints allow you to see a bit more of the Colorado river which I loved.

Our first stop was Hopi Point.  We had the most picturesque spot for a picnic lunch!

We walked from Hopi Point to Mohave Point along the rim trail.  The rim trail truly goes right along the rim.  There were some points where a fall would have been bad.  It wasn't anything super dangerous, but rather a situation where we repeatedly reminded our kids to go slow and watch their footing.

Mohave Point was probably my favorite viewpoint.  It had the best river views (at least of the viewpoints we saw) and the views in general were expansive and impressive!

After Mohave Point, we returned to the Visitor's Center area in search of ice cream.  You will notice a theme on this trip.  We hike a lot and then reward ourselves with ice cream or acai bowls etc.  We stayed at Yavapai Lodge.  It is the only lodge I could find inside Grand Canyon National Park that could house a family of 6 in one room.  I wish I had taken a picture of our room.  It was small, but nice and clean.  It had 2, twin over queen bunk beds.  It was more than sufficient for one night. With 6 person rooms being so scarce here, I booked this lodge 8 months in advance!

Checking in at Yavapai Lodge was all the more interesting due to the elk meandering around!  Abbie decided to get a souvenir elk stuffy to remember the moment.

After an early dinner at Yavapai Lodge, we headed back over to Mather Point to watch the sunset.  Mohave would have been a better sunset destination, but we simply didn't have the time to take the two shuttles required to get over there.  Yavapai Lodge is much closer to Mather Point.  

While you don't have views of the sun setting over the canyon at Mather Point (views are obscured), the light that the sunset cast over the canyon to the east was very beautiful.

Charlie and I actually got up early the next morning to catch the sunrise.  Mather Point is great spot to see the sun rise over the canyon.  The kids decided they would rather have some extra sleep, so they did not join us.

After the sunrise, we went back to the room.  We collected our kids and our belongings and headed Zion.