At The Backroads

Yavapai Observatory Point @ Grand Canyon, Early Morning

First, a Happy Easter to everyone.  

I am sorry if I had been absent from the blogosphere for a while, but now, I am back and will do catching up soon. We just got back from our week long Grand Circle road trip. The Grand Circle is a vast region in the Southwestern US, which encompasses portions of 5 States. This Great Desert region really has stunning and beauitful landscapes, it really has so much to offer. Since we only have limited time and there is so much to see in this region, we decided to limit the places we will visit instead. For this post, I decided to share our itinerary that hopefully may be hepful to those who have plans on experiencing some parts of the Grand Circle.

For those who live farther from the Grand Circle and needs to fly to the Southwest, probably the most ideal place to start the Grand Circle road trip is at Las Vegas, being almost equidistant from Zion National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. Also, Las Vegas has the largest airport closest to this two National Parks, which are the heart of the Grand Circle. Since we live in San Diego, and flying to Las Vegas from San Diego will probably take us more hassles and more time ( the waiting and checking in at the airport), our road trip started from and ended at San Diego.

Day 1:  We left San Diego for Grand Canyon National Park. Intially, Grand Canyon was not in our list, however, since my husband’s 14 year old niece from Illinois had not been to Grand Canyon before, and this amazing natural wonder is high in her priority list to see, we decided to make this our first stop. We left San Diego about 7:00 am Saturday, and we reached the park entrance at about 5:00 pm in the afternoon. Driving straight from San Diego to Grand Canyon would probably take only 7.5 to 8 hours, however, since we took many stops along the way which included a longer lunch break, it took us almost 10 hours.  Inside the park, we at first planned to checked in, but the line at the registration counter was very long, that we decided to go some little sightseeing and hiking first. We took a shuttle bus to the Visitor Center and walked to Mather Point for some sightseeing, and then, back to Visitor Center to take another shuttle bus to South Kaibab trailhead. We started our hike at about 6:00 pm.

South Kaibab Trail, late afternoon

Some parts of the trail were still icy, but over-all, the trail conditions were really good. The temperature was at 30F (slightly below freezing), but the wind conditions made it feel like 20F (or -6 C). Since the last shuttle bus leaves the trail at one hour past sunset, we decided to not go beyond Ohh-Aah point.

Ooh-Aah Point @ Sunset, South Kaibab Trail

The hike to Ooh-Aah Point from the rim is 1.8 miles round trip with 880 ft change in elevation.

Day 2:   We woke up early enough to catch sunrise at the Grand Canyon, had a quick breakfast, checked out of Yavapai Lodge and headed East to Page, Arizona through the Scenic Desert Drive in the East Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

The Colorado River that Carved the Grand Canyon, @ Grandview Point, East Rim

At Page, our first stop was at the Lower Antelope Canyon.

@ Lower Antelope Canyon

I will postpone more details about our exploration and experience of Lower Anteope Canyon and other places in my later posts. 

 Me @ Lower Antelope Canyon

Then, we drove to Glen Canyon Dam and to the trailhead for Horseshoe Bend and took a short hike to Horseshoe Bend.

Colorado River @ Horseshoe Bend, Page, Arizona

The lighting condition was not really good when we were at Horseshoe Bend, since we were directly facing the strong glare of the sun. It was not ony the strong glare of the sun that was a challenge in taking pictures at the time we were there but the swarm of small insects flying all over. Most of my pictures really showed tiny white specks all over from these small insects. If not for these small insects, we could wait for sunset when we woud have better lighting, but then, as they kept on flying all over, we decided to call it a day early and checked in at Courtyard Marriott in Page.

Day 3:    We left Page for Monument Valley Tribal Park, which is about 2 - 2.5 hours from Page. At Monument Valley, we took the dirt road to complete the loop for a tour of Monument Valley. It took us more than 2 hours to complete the loop.

Monument Valley, along Utah-Arizona Border

After completing the loop, we proceeded North to Arches National Park, which is another 2.5 miles drive from Monument Valley. Along the way, as we got closer to Moab, we saw an interesting  arch named Wildson Arch.

Wilson Arch

Of course, we took some time to stop and took the short hike up the arch. We reached Arches National Park at almost 7:00 pm, and the Visitor Center was already closed. We had no park map, but thankfully, the trailhead to the Delicate Arch was located by our GPS. We started our hike to the Delicate Arch at about 7:15 pm. The hike to Delicate Arch is 3 miles round trip with about 500 ft elevation gain, and we reached it at past sunset already.

Delicate Arch @ Dusk, Arches National Park

On our return hike to the trailhead, thankfully, we had the moonlight to help us navigate the trail. After Delicate Arch, we looked for Days Inn in Moab, where we stayed for 2 nights.

Day 4:  This is our most relaxing day in terms of driving since we were just staying in the area of Moab. After breakfast, we drove to Canyonlands National Park, which is about 33 miles from the town of Moab. I am lost for words to describe Canyonlands, it is just amazing. It is like looking at the ancient ruins.

Mesa Arch, Islands in The Sky District, Canyonlands National Park

We only spent time at the Islands in The Sky District of Canyonlands, we took the short hike to Mesa Arch, Upheaval Dome and Upheaval Canyon, and drove to many interesting places along the way.

From Canyonlands Nationa Park, on our way back to Moab, we went to Dead Horse Point State Park, which offers another amazing landscape in the area.

@ Dead Horse Point State Park, Canyonlands, Utah

Back to Moab, since we still had ample time before it got dark, we took the short hike to the Windows and Turret Arch by way of primitive trail, did more sightseeing in Arches National Park, and spent sunset and dusk at the Fiery Furnace Viewpoint of Arches National Park.

Fiery Furnace Viewpoint, Dusk, Arches National Park

Day 5: The forecast said a possible snowstorm in the afternoon, and since we did not want to get stuck in the windy roads of the mountainside going to Bryce Canyon when the snowstorm comes, we had to change our itinerary. We were supposed to stop by at Goblin Valley State Park for some sightseeing and short hike at Wild Horse Slot Canyon on our way to Bryce Canyon, however, since we wanted to reach Bryce Canyon as early as possible to avoid being caught in the snowstorm, we had to abandon our plans of going to Goblin Valley, as there would always be next time. Sadly, we only drove through Capitol Reef National Park, and did not get a chance to hike there anymore. Hopefully, next time.

The Castle, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Capitol Reef National Park is about 2 hours drive from Moab and is just along the way from Moab to Bryce Canyon National Park. One hour from Capitol Reef National Park is the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, which sadly, we only had to drive through for now. This gives us reason to go back to Utah again to explore many of its interesting geological wonders and interesting landscapes.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah

We reached Bryce Canyon National Park early enough without catching any snowstorm. Thankfully, the sky was still blue with no hints of any storm coming in when we got there, so we did some sightseeing and hiking.

Natural Bridge, Bryce Canyon National Park

Though we already had taken the Navajo Loop/Queens Graden Trail before, but since I wanted my husband’s niece to enjoy as much the spectacular hoodos, I decided to take this trail again as this is the hike that will probably enchant any kid. Some parts of the trail at Navajo Loop were icy, muddy and slippery, but I guess, that added fun to the hike.

Hikers at Navajo Loop Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park

After completing our hike, snowflakes started coming in, thankfully, the snow just let us complete the Navajo Loop-Queen’sGarden hike. We stayed at Best Western Ruby’s Inn about 2 miles from the entrance of Bryce Canyon National Park. 

Day 6:  We left the cold weather at Bryce Canyon National Park for a warmer weather in Zion National Park. When we left Bryce Canyon, the temperature was in the 20s ( -7 C) and the expected high at Zion was in the high 60s. The weather cooperated with us since we really needed good weather at Zion National Park for the Angels Landing hike.

View from Scout’s Lookout, Trail to Angel’s Landing, Zion National Park

The reason we did not hike Angels Landing on our last trip to Zion National Park was because it was raining on and off. And Angels Landing is not to be approached when the trail is wet and when it is windy. Why? Because the last half mile of the trail has vertical drop off on both sides.

Angels Landing Trail, Zion National Park

The trail becomes too narrow and on uneven rocky surface, that one has to stop and let others really pass on the trail. The trail is 5 miles round trip with 1500 ft gain/loss. The last half mile of the trail should not be approached by those who have fear of heights, as there is vertical drop off on both sides.

Zion Canyon from Angels Landing

After hiking Angels Landing, we took the easier trails to the Emerald Pools and the Weeping Rock. We spent the night at Quality Inn which is half a mile from the West Entrance of Zion National Park.

Day 7: Went souvenir shopping at Zion and then drove back to San Diego, where we were greeted by a wet weather. From afar, I saw snow capped mountains, which I did not see when we left, so I thought there may be a recent storm that hit the area, which I was correct. The storm moved North East, there is more rain and snow now in Utah, just when we left it. We are very much lucky, in terms of weather conditions.

6 National Parks, one National Monument, one State Park, two Navajo Indian Parks, Glen Canyon and Horshoe Bend in one week. And there were a lot of places in the Grand Circle area we have not covered yet.  

Hiking informations on the places we visited will soon follow, for now, I will stop my report here. Again, a happy Easter to everyone.