Making the Most of One Day at the Grand Canyon

Travel date: July 11, 2017

Here is the sun setting over the Grand Canyon, as seen from the Desert View area.

And here’s Gus, a few minutes later, mocking one of the many, many others we shared that view with: a woman in a bright yellow jacket who posed enthusiastically and ridiculously on the rim as her boyfriend snapped 400,000 or so pictures of her.

And I think that pretty well sums up the south rim of the Grand Canyon in July: it’s crazy crowded and crazy beautiful, and, if you happen to find yourself driving cross-country, you really have to stop and see it.

Anyway, that was what we thought. I’d love to make it to the Grand Canyon sometime when we can stay longer, when it’s less crowded, when we can visit the North Rim, when Abe is old enough for more intense hiking, etc. etc…..but I wasn’t about to pass within a couple of hours of the Grand Canyon and not go see it.

And the verdict is that it’s absolutely worth it to visit, even if it’s July and even if you only have one day (and even if you accidentally messed up your reservation for inside the park and have to stay over an hour away).

We were determined to pack as much into our day as possible, and I think we did a pretty good job of it. Parking is the first ordeal of a Grand Canyon day. We got there pretty early and found a parking space in one of the lots reasonably close to the main visitor center. And we left it there all day and used the shuttles to get around. I definitely recommend this, with the caveat that lines for the shuttle can get very long, so be prepared for some waiting.

Visitors Center/Mather Point

We walked over for our first view of the canyon from Mather Point. It lives up to the hype.

I spent…several years before this trip worrying about a kid falling into the Grand Canyon. But it really wasn’t (quite) as terrifying as I’d thought it would be. Maybe just because I got all my worrying out before we got there. Anyway, no one fell in!

We picked up Abe’s Junior Ranger book and looked around the visitors center a bit. I was surprised at how dated all the built up tourist areas seemed at Grand Canyon compared to Yellowstone. Yellowstone is full of shiny new or refurbished buildings with fancy museum displays inside, but the Grand Canyon’s visitors center and restrooms and whatnot looked, overall, kind of tired. They can get away with it, though, because they’re at the Grand Canyon.

Bright Angel Trail

We wanted to go down into the canyon a little, even though we knew we didn’t have the time (and Abe, at least, didn’t have the stamina) to do a very ambitious hike. So we took the shuttle over to the Bright Angel trailhead and walked down the trail for a few minutes–no more than 1/2 a mile or so. Looking at the NPS info about the trail, I think we might have turned around at the first switchback at .45 miles, which is what they recommend for people with small kids. We didn’t even read that, yet we did it exactly right. We’re pretty incredible:

This was the scariest part of our Grand Canyon visit for me (and for Gus, who inherited my fear of heights), but it was not too bad. And I’m very glad we went below the rim, even though it was just for a little while; it’s a totally different perspective.

We had to move over for mules one time, so that was fun:

Historic Kolb Studio

I was excited to check out the Kolb Studio after Bright Angel Trail. This is a house and photography studio built right into the side of the canyon by the Kolb brothers in the early 1900s. You can learn all about their terrifying canyon photography inside and see some of their equipment.

I was worried we’d be dealing with oppressive heat for our Grand Canyon visit, but, surprisingly, we had the opposite problem. It was lovely in the morning, but in the afternoon it turned stormy and downright chilly. We spent a lot of time dodging thunderstorms (and we weren’t really dressed for the weather, most of us), but I was happy to take that over 110 degree heat.

Lunch at Bright Angel Lodge

The first wave of rain came through just after our Kolb Studio visit, so we ducked into the Bright Angel Lodge for lunch at the Harvey House Cafe:

We’d originally planned on eating a picnic lunch here and avoiding high priced NPS food, but our picnic lunch was way back at the car, a shuttle ride away. So we decided to save it for dinner and eat at Bright Angel. We had to wait awhile for a table, probably mostly because the rain gave everyone else the same idea we had, but once we were seated we had a good experience here. Nice beer selection, reasonably priced food that was good if not amazing, and it was nice to take a break in the middle of our very busy day.

We also got to get a look at the historic Bright Angel Lodge. We picked up some t-shirts in the gift shop and checked out the room with exhibits about the history of the lodge.

Rim Trail/Trail of Time

From here, we decided to head back toward the main visitors center along the Rim Trail. We passed some more historic buildings along the way, like the Thunderbird Lodge:

…and Hopi House. We went inside Hopi House, but it was full of really expensive artwork for sale, so we didn’t stay long with Abe.

We posed for pictures:

The canyon posed for pictures:

And we walked the 1.7 mile Trail of Time that makes up part of the Rim Trail. They have rocks displayed all along here showing you different phases of the canyon’s history.

This was a pretty cool display and would have been a very nice, relaxing walk….except that the skies always looked very ominous and we were racing to make it t the next indoor location and/or shuttle stop before we got soaked and/or struck by lightning.

We were a little wet by the time we made it to the Yavapai Point Overlook. There’s a geology museum here, and it was pretty cool, but, since EVERYONE was in here escaping the rain, it was too crowded to really enjoy.

We hung out in here for a little while until the rain let up a bit and then headed out to the nearby shuttle stop. This is where we learned that people lose all their manners when it’s cold and wet and the shuttle buses are crowded. They’re very quick to shove their way to the front when the bus approaches and board in front of people who have been waiting much longer AND are holding cold, tired, wet four year olds.

Desert View Sunset

But we eventually got on a bus and made it back to the Visitors Center. We turned in Abe’s Junior Ranger book and then got back in the car to drive out to Desert View for the sunset. We hoped to also climb the Watchtower here and get some ice cream, but both the tower and the store had just closed when we arrived.

Oh! On the way we saw this elk right next to the road!

And I’ve told you the rest, about the beautiful sunset and the hordes of people we shared it with. The light sure did make for a pretty canyon:

And with that, our Grand Canyon day was over and we made the long drive back to Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. See you again soon canyon (we hope)!

maybe you would like to pin this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

SaveSave

SaveSave