We left Kingman Wash and followed directions to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim in Arizona. All other entrances to the park are closed, and will be until the beginning of June, but the weather at the South Rim was beautiful with sun and temperatures in the 60s. While we could still see patches of snow in the pines, the ground was generally clear. As we got closer to the park we started to see more traffic, and when we reached the park entrance, we found ourselves in a five-lane wide line with a 20 minute wait to get to the booth to either pay or show your card to enter the park. Both Tom and I had been really looking forward to seeing the Grand Canyon because I had never visited and Tom was about six when his parents took the family on a vacation there, but at this point we started to wonder if we were going to end up doing a drive by because there were too many people and we wouldn’t be able to park.
We showed our card and finally made it through the gate and drove another four miles to the main parking lot by the Visitors’ Center. We were lucky; another RV pulled out of one of the limited RV parking spaces just as we were pulling in, so we snagged a spot. Regular cars had started stacking themselves in the RV spaces because the lot was so full, but thanks to Tom’s diplomacy we managed to share a space with a car and everybody was happy. The Visitors’ Center was closed, but we checked out a big map and decided to visit Mather Point and then take a walk on the Rim Trail. And then we started saying “Wow,” a lot. I knew the Grand Canyon was big, but I had no idea just how big until I saw it.
We showed our card and finally made it through the gate and drove another four miles to the main parking lot by the Visitors’ Center. We were lucky; another RV pulled out of one of the limited RV parking spaces just as we were pulling in, so we snagged a spot. Regular cars had started stacking themselves in the RV spaces because the lot was so full, but thanks to Tom’s diplomacy we managed to share a space with a car and everybody was happy. The Visitors’ Center was closed, but we checked out a big map and decided to visit Mather Point and then take a walk on the Rim Trail. And then we started saying “Wow,” a lot. I knew the Grand Canyon was big, but I had no idea just how big until I saw it.
The area around the Visitors’ Center was very crowded, but once we were about a half mile down the trail, the crowds thinned and the walk was actually very pleasant. However, we’re still not sure how that park is being managed. We didn’t see a single ranger or volunteer, and it was the dirtiest park we’ve visited so far. The bathrooms were filthy, garbage cans were few and far between so a lot of litter had been dropped on the ground, and regular trash was spilling out of recycling containers, which were more plentiful than regular garbage cans but still inadequate for the amount of people who were there. It doesn’t seem like it should be a surprise that this is a destination which will draw a lot of people, especially since it’s the only open park entrance, so we really couldn’t figure out why park management seemed so ill prepared for the crowds. We enjoyed our wander anyway, and decided to head to some BLM land south of the park for the night.
The Kaibab National Forest surrounds the park, and stretches almost all the way back to Williams, which is about 40 miles south of the park entrance. As we started checking weather, we realized that going about 15 miles south and reducing our elevation would make the overnight temperatures about 10 degrees warmer. So, we headed south with the plan to come back in the morning to hike the Rim Trail and then head south and east on SR64. We found a very nice parking place in the Kaibab National Forest, and while the temperatures got below freezing, it didn’t get cold enough to freeze any water lines.
The Kaibab National Forest surrounds the park, and stretches almost all the way back to Williams, which is about 40 miles south of the park entrance. As we started checking weather, we realized that going about 15 miles south and reducing our elevation would make the overnight temperatures about 10 degrees warmer. So, we headed south with the plan to come back in the morning to hike the Rim Trail and then head south and east on SR64. We found a very nice parking place in the Kaibab National Forest, and while the temperatures got below freezing, it didn’t get cold enough to freeze any water lines.
We were glad we went back to see more of the canyon rim, since the walk west offered entirely different views than the previous day’s walk east. We then stopped at a few of the viewpoints along SR64, and stopped at the Desert View tower. This gave us even more different views before heading towards Wupatki National Monument. We had considered going to Sedona, but after our dismay with the crowds at the Grand Canyon, we decided to give it a pass and go to some of the lesser known parks before going to the Petrified Forest National Park.
