National Park 2/59
The Grand Canyon | 3.13.17 | Arizona | 35.976814° N, -112.125030 ° W
The Grand Canyon (GC) is enormous. We're talking 277 miles long, 10 miles wide, and 1 mile deep. The Grand Canyon (GC) draws about 4.5 million visitors every year. This place is crowded so prepare yourself.
Regardless of the people its easy to find a piece of the park all to yourself. Don't be afraid to break away from the crowds and do your own thing.
The first time I had been to the GC 1 was in elementary school and my parents were pulling me back from the ledge the entire time. Rightfully so- around 12 people die in the park every year.
This time around I was in Arizona with my friends from college on our first big trip without our parents. We were in Arizona for 1 week on spring break from school. To say we jam packed our trip was an understatement. We had originally planned for one day in the park but after experiencing it we knew we had to come back.
Thus is why this is a two part post:
Day 1
Day 2
Day I
The GC was the first national park we were tackling on our trip and it was all we could talk about since booking the plane tickets. It was the second day of our trip. The day before we had gone to Sedona to warm up our hiking legs with a 4 mile outing at Devil's Bridge.
We weren't entirely sure about what we wanted to do while in the GC ... but we knew we wanted to hike. Bright Angel trail was the one we decided to do so after parking the car we loaded on the bus to head out to the trail.
For those who weren't aware (aka us) you are extremely limited in where you can drive your car in the park. The park uses a bus system that's completely free to shuttle you throughout the park. To learn more about the bus system before your trip check it out here.
The bus will bring you to the trailhead but before you start your hike make sure you fill up on water! The mornings are cool but as soon as the sun comes over the canyon it gets hot.
Keep in mind that it takes you twice as long to hike out as it does to hike down! Pace yourselves especially if you have limited time in the park - there's a lot more to see.
The hike down was amazing. As a result I took close to 500 pictures. To see some more from the hike down check them out below. Otherwise keep on reading!
A couple hundred feet past the bathroom (stop here there's only one bathroom on the trail) there's a lookout that's great for pictures.
After stopping for pictures, using the bathroom, and eating snacks it was time to hit the trail again. It was a hell of a climb back up. Hiking in the Canyon is like reverse hiking.. you do the easy part first and the hard part last.
After hiking out from the canyon we stopped for a while, chugged water ate some food, and then headed back out. This time we took the rim trail.
After doing two hikes we were wiped. We hopped one of the shuttles back toward the car to reload on snacks. We ate, took some down time to stretch our legs and hang out. After, we threw more layers in our packs and headed out for our last destination of the day- Sunset at Hopi Point.
Hopi Point is one of the most popular spots in the park to watch sunset - it's truly breathtaking. But it gets crowded! Make sure you hop on a shuttle early enough before sunset to snag your spot.
"Why is she posing with shoes?" Weirdo.
These are the best shoes on the planet @bangsshoes I love them so much I became an ambassador for them! Seriously go check them out. They're the ultimate adventure shoes. If you want a discount use the code: bangsfam for 15% off.
If there's anything we learned on this trip, it's that we all really suck at jumping in the air for pictures.
Day 2
Saying we were excited to go back to the park was an understatement. We had an amazing day the first time around and we were ready for more. We arrived at the park without a plan and ended up splitting up so everyone could do what they wanted.
Of course we couldn't start the day off without some candids
We started early from the visitors center and took the orange line to the South Kaibab trailhead. We walked around the rim for a while and then and took the bus back to the visitors center and headed out the other way to Hermit's rest. We took the buses for as long as we could stand and then got off and started walking back.
We stopped for a late lunch/dinner break and took out the hammock to enjoy the views.
The Grand Canyon gave us the time of our lives and amazing views. We did what we could to repay them.
After, we kept walking the rim as the sun was setting. Every turn we made led to better and better views. They say the best sunsets are at Hopi point but I think we got the best of it.
