Grand Canyon National Park

Highlights:

–   Night time ranger talk

–   Beautiful campground (with laundry!)

–   Shuttle buses

–   Extremely accessible

Of all the parks on our trip, the Grand Canyon seemed like one of the most important parks to visit, due to its iconic status. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing, but it also was not one of our all-time favorites. Because this park is so iconic, it feels much more touristic than some of the others. The plus side to this is the amazing amenities available in the park: shuttle buses (including a sunset shuttle specifically timed and arranged to take you to the best sunset points on roads that close to visitors in the evening), paved walking paths for strollers and wheelchairs, beautiful lookout points, restaurants and lodges in the park, coin laundry machines in the campground, mules to ride into the canyon, and regular/frequent ranger programming. This park is great for families!

From Death Valley to the Grand Canyon is about 6 hours and goes directly through Las Vegas. We didn’t spend time in the city, but stopped for an obligatory In-and-Out Burger before continuing onwards towards the Grand Canyon. Because we had spent the day in Death Valley, we left late in the afternoon without a campground reservation in the Grand Canyon, and decided to camp in Kaibab National Forest, on the outskirts of the park, for free before heading into the park the next morning.

We arrived, once again, without a campsite reservation, but the campground was nearly empty this time of year, and we had our pick of many beautiful, forested campsites. After setting up our tent, showering (unfortunately, the showers were coin-operated and left much to be desired), and cooking a quick breakfast, we headed to the main Visitor’s Center to pick up our Junior Ranger books. The visitor’s center has boards outside listing all the different hikes and their difficulty level as well as the various ranger programs offered throughout the park, so if you arrive outside of opening hours, you’ll be able to find most of the information outside.

We spent the day exploring the South Rim, driving along the main park road and stopping at the many viewpoints to stare in awe at the canyon. It’s actually quite hard to describe how massive and impressive the canyon is, and photos certainly do not do it justice. In the afternoon, we hiked partway down the canyon via Bright Angel Trail, which visitors can hike as much or as little of as they desire. There are also mules that you can reserve to bring you down the canyon, if hiking is not of interest to you.

In the evening, we hopped on the free shuttle service to the various sunset points, and enjoyed the sunset from Mohave Point before returning to the campground for an open-fire dinner.

The highlight of all highlights, though, was the evening ranger program hosted right by the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. Visitors were guided to an open area via red lighting to an area set up with multiple high-power telescopes trained on different celestial objects. [SIDE NOTE: if you attend any kind of nighttime programming in a park, do NOT turn on white flashlights! If you need extra light make sure to ONLY use the red setting on headlamps, as the white light quickly destroys night vision and disturbs other visitors.] After peering through each of the telescopes at different planets and galaxies, a ranger gave an amazing talk about the constellations and the night sky, answering questions and directing our eyes to the myriad constellations. The Grand Canyon is a designated Dark Sky Zone, meaning that light pollution is at a minimum and stars shine brighter than many places on earth. I would highly, highly, highly recommend attending this free program at the Grand Canyon or at any other park that offers a similar one!