Our Family Trip to the Grand Canyon – 2014

What an amazing start to our road trip! We packed up the RV and headed out.

The RV is really nice. There are some hiccups, as there usually are, but it’s a really nice vehicle compared to the last one we rented. In great condition, it doesn’t redline when we go up the hills, and it’s super comfortable! To live in… not really the beds… but what can ya do 🙂

I managed to snap a photo of the Arizona sign!

I was pretty pleased at how the kids did on the ride. The first leg, they didn’t look up once from their iThings. The second leg, they did great for the first 3/4’s and then the last hour they got a little antsy. We started hearing the ‘are we there yet’ and ‘I feel sick’ and ‘I want to sit with you’ but then we arrived, so all was well.

We booked a spot at Trailer Village which is exactly what it sounds like… a village filled with RVs. 🙂 No showers, which is a bummer because our hose did not hook up right and leaks and the shower is REALLY small. It’s okay for me, but not the men. Kids had a BALL scootering around and playing with other kids.

It’s a pleasant 3 minute walk down to the front section where they pick up for the tram that takes you all around Grand Canyon. Super convenient. They also sell ice there which we needed since our fridge refused to get cold.

The first afternoon we were going to hang around and have dinner and then go out to a night time Jr Ranger program but we realized the programs didn’t start until the next week. WHOOPS! Darn! So we decided to get out and go to the Visitor’s Center and check things out.

We immediately picked up a Jr Ranger packet for Sam and she was super thrilled at the whole thing. She immediately started filling it out. Griffin did not want to do it at all and turned into a little crazed man and flipped out.

We did the short walk over to Mather Point to see the main view of the Canyon.

Really amazing. I’m so glad we stopped here on our way to Yellowstone because I had never been.

Not pictured: Griffin because he flipped out about not wanting to do the Jr Ranger packet. 🙂

It was gorgeous! Not the best family picture but I have to start somewhere. A smile from G… impressive!

At this point, G started to calm down. I gave him my camera and he had fun taking pictures and doing what he wanted on his schedule. We saw this little guy. Can I say how annoying people are who FEED THE ANIMALS. The fact that they run right up to you is terrible. They are super fat on people food too.

We then took the shuttle bus to the lodge area and had a nice dinner at Arizona Room. It was okay. They had fish that was not marinated so I was fine on my special diet but the salads were nothing special (iceberg lettuce) and everyone wasn’t too impressed. The view during dinner was great though.

Lookout Point was right outside and these two Condors were just chilling out on the ledge. I brought my zoom lens and was able to capture their tags! Meet #87 and #F3! Someone next to me had been to the Ranger Condor talk that day and mentioned that #87 was tagged back in 1998 which was two years after they started the tagging program. It seems sad that these birds have these annoying tags but on the other hand, it’s great that they are no longer endangered.

The next morning we were up bright and early for a hike! We wanted to explore the whole Canyon and see what it had to offer. Again, it was very easy hopping on the tram and the tram operators were all VERY nice and gave us a lot of great tips.

I had to post this picture because my teeth look awesome. Ha 🙂 My gums always show in my smile and they are not in this one! Also our hats are ridiculously funny. 🙂

We couldn’t decide where to start. First we were going to start at Hermits Rest but you have to take a transfer bus out there and Bright Angel had better reviews with bathroom and drinking water so we started with that trail. It was pretty awesome. Especially in the beginning walking downhill the whole way (you see where I’m going with this, don’t you?).

The first cave, which is just a short walk down.

Sam was incredibly frightened by the drop-off, so if you have super young kids I wouldn’t recommend it. We held their hands most of the time. Until my hands got too sweaty and then I just told Sam to walk on the inside. 🙂 Griffin kept forgetting and wanted to wander around the path. The husband has always walked faster than me and I refuse to keep up… and Griffin was in a running mood so they took off.

I hung back with Sam and walked a bit with Sharon and Truck. They were going to stop at this point, which is when Sam and I walked farther, but they actually kept going (which I didn’t know until later!).

We started at the top. The blue arrow is where we took the husband and G’s photo and about where I thought Truck and Sharon left off. The pink arrow is where Sam and I decided to stop and the purple arrow is where the husband and G stopped. We met up with them around the pink arrow though and were able to take a family picture.

Family picture!

It is REALLY hot walking back up. 🙂 That should be accompanied by a ‘duh’ but just a note that you should have extra water. I don’t know if it’s because of my health issues or just regular old me.. but when I get overheated and don’t drink enough water, it’s really overwhelming. I drank my bottle, half of G’s bottle and already had a heat headache by the time we got halfway up to the top.

But we made it! We had packed a lunch so we had that at the top of the trail.

The husband then wanted to take the Hermits Rest tram and see the rest of the sights. The tram operator was so friendly and said his favorite spot was the first bus stop at Trailview Overlook. We were SO HAPPY we stopped! Best views of the day!

Maybe because we were so impressed with looking at where we hiked? haha – The picture of that hike is in the diagram above but here is the rest of the hike that keeps on going down. You can see the little path going back and forth and it goes even further than that. We actually met a ranger on her way down who was going to camp there for four nights.

The point to look out was great though.

With several picture opportunities and it wasn’t too busy

We might have to blow this one up in a 20×20. We climbed out onto the ledge and a nice person snapped this for us.

After Trailview Overlook, we hopped back on the bus and did the next stop.

And the next stop…

And the next…

And the next!

The husband was really into it. 🙂 I think there are 10 or 11  stops on the way to Hermits Rest? Around the 7th he finally took pity on us and said we could hop to the 2nd to last one where we had a nice view of the Colorado River at the bottom.

I was fascinated by these beautiful amphitheater rocks though.

Since Sam was really into the Jr Ranger program – at this point she was declaring that she wants to be a Ranger when she grows up (which was making the husband SO HAPPY) – we decided to go over to the Yavapai Museum and hear the geology talk at 3PM so Sam could complete her Ranger badge.

Ranger Ty was very nice and funny and did a good talk on geology, basically the Grand Canyon was made of a lot of rocks.

Here Sam is waiting to get her paper signed and reviewed.

 

Here is a video of the pledge they did to make Sam a Jr Ranger!

It was the cutest thing, she is so proud of her badge. She was carefully taking it off each shirt and putting it on the side to put on her new shirt the next day. She was making sure everyone saw it and commented on it.

At that point, I had downed another bottle of water and had a huge headache still (I suck on hikes apparently) and I just wanted to go back to the motorhome and take off my contacts and sit in my comfy chair. Sam wanted to go back with me and the rest headed back to the Lodge for dinner.

As Sam and I went back, we saw a huge Bull Elk and instead of getting a picture, I was on video so I got a 2 second video of the Elk.

We arrived back at the motorhome and Sam scootered around a bit, I downed 44oz of more water before pouring myself a glass of wine. I made her a chicken wrap and I had some chicken salad sandwich and we relaxed outside enjoying the outdoors and watching all the kids play.

The next morning we got up and drove out of the Grand Canyon and went to Page, Arizona to go on a rafting trip.