The Grand Canyon
Going to The Grand Canyon has been on my lifelong bucket list. I can't even begin to explain the grandeur and the speechlessness I experienced when standing there for the first time.
We decided to go camping for a couple nights at Mather's Campground and it did not disappoint. You will need to make a reservation (even if you are tent camping), something I didn't realize until it was almost to late. We were originally supposed to stay the first night we arrived in Arizona for a couple nights, but because of lack of availability we had to adjust our plans slightly. We booked through Recreation.gov and rented a spot for $18 a night and paid $35 to enter the national park. Well worth it! Be prepared for when you enter the park to wait a long time to enter during popular months--which isn't surprising for the most awe inspiring landscape that gets over 5 million visitors a year. We went in October and waited in line for about an hour which was super hard for my overly excited self!
The campgrounds were absolutely lovely. The campground is huge and has an area for tent camping, RV camping, and lodges for a variety of comfort levels. We chose to rough it and brought our own backpacking tent. Each tent camping spot had a fire pit, a picnic table, a parking spot, and a designated area to pitch your tent. We were in walking distance to a clean bathroom, trash receptacle, and sink to wash any dishes you may have used. We were in walking distance of the general store where you can buy just about anything you need. I would recommend getting what you need prior to getting to the campground as everything is crazy overpriced. We did stop in to buy some firewood which was like, $10 for maybe 6 logs. We carried a two-person backpacking tent from REI and it held just fine in the rocky ground. We also had a couple 20 degrees or below sleeping bags--highly recommend needing considering it was so insanely cold that night. (In fact it got so cold we ended up at about 2:30 am going back into our SUV to sleep because there was no getting warm despite the amount of layers and warm sleeping bags we had). The blanket you see on the below right picture is an aluminum emergency blanket we left out to soak in some warm daylight rays before nighttime, but it only helped part of the night. Another note to self is that we did not bring appropriate cushioning for under our sleeping bags. Anytime we finally did get warm from whatever body heat we shared we tossed and turned from the hard ground. The ground is hard and rocky and we definitely could have benefited from having some better cushioning. Now we know for next time!
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| Home for the night! |
After setting up, we set out to hike the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The park offers a free shuttle bus system to see all of the scenic overlooks, but we decided to hike. I believe the South Rim Trail is about 13 miles and we hiked almost 5 miles to and from our campsite. The number of times I said, "This is amazing", or "I can't believe we're here", or "This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life" was too many to count. The pictures I took don't give it justice for how amazing the views were.
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| The most beautiful view I have ever been blessed to see! |
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| My better half and me ❤ |
I posted just a few pictures and videos of my trip to The Grand Canyon, but as I said before, they don't do it justice! As one of The Seven Natural Wonders of the World, this is a must see bucket list trip everyone should make. I can't rave more about how beautiful it was!
We headed back around sunset to make our fire and cook our gourmet meal of hotdogs, sun chips, s'mores and bougie Fogo de Chão Malbec wine.
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| Literally the biggest Raven I have ever seen in my life. You could hear the flapping of their wings underneath you and it was wild. Definite Birds vibes. |
We toasted to a beautiful day on the biggest wanderlust high thinking of all the trips we had left to take in our lifetime. We weren't prepared for the view the night brought us. The sky was so clear. I have never seen so many stars in the sky. Michael tried to take a picture of the sky but you could only see 4 small specs of light when there were more like 4 billion shinning down on us. It was magnificent. It truly is humbling to recognize that we are such a small part of such a big life. I feel so fortunate that I was able to be a part of this moment and this experience. ❤
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