Grand Canyon - weekend trip
 

I am trying to plan our first trip to the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, we can only go for a weekend and it will have to be Labor Day weekend. We live in the San Diego area and are thinking of flying to Phoenix or Flagstaff. I am looking for suggestions for easy ways to get around, must sees, and lodging. It will be my husband, me and our 13 year old.

I very recently visited GC and Sedona that's in your path to GC.

I placed GC at the bottom of the sights I visited. This is most likely because it was the only stop where I didn't hike into the attraction.

From the viewpoints you just can't get a perspective of it's size. The Colorado River looks like a little stream.

What I'm saying is that even if you're there a day or two, go at least part way down into the Canyon.

Even if it's an hour or so each way down the Bright Angel trail. In retrospect, I should have stayed a few hours longer and done that.

Lodging at the site, books up well in advance so your options may be limited, especially on a long holiday weekend. There is a parks dept webstie (i'm sure if you google or search this board, you'll find it) for the grand canyon where you can check for available lodging.

We would like to go down into the GC. Where is the Bright Angel trail located?

The Bright Angel Trail is right in Grand Canyon Village. Depending on how much time you want to spend, you can just head down as far as you want. For instance, the 1.5 mile bathroom is a turnaround point that you could use as a destination, that would get you down into the canyon a bit.

Is it at all comfortable to hike that 1.5 mile down in the middle of the day at this time of year? We are spending the night there in a Bright Angel cabin, but want to leave first thing in the morning for Page to catch the mid-day Antelope Canyon tour.

To try for in-park lodging go to:
Xanterra.com

They handle Bryce, Zion and GC.

Better still call them.

I was missing several nights of in-park for my recent trip and called them at least daily and sometimes more often. Eventually the nights I wanted opened up.

I think tour companies book blocks and then release them in the last month when not filled.

I was on a first-name basis with the Xanterra operators. Unless they have a lot of cancellations, they'll never be placed back on the web site.

Call, Call, Call.
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If you have the opportunity to go to Antelope Canyon during high sun, do it.

Also, you'll be passing right by Horseshoe Bend (free) on Route 89 about a mile south of the Route 98 cutoff.

Don't miss that either. Allow about an hour for horeshoe Bend since it's a 3/4 mile walk from the parking lot to the edge of the cliff.

You can see my photos of both at:

www.travelwalks.com

and select the Bryce, Zion, etc 2007 trip on the bottom, right of the page.

Is the Bright Angel Trail comfortable this time of year? Just there in July and it was not too hot. We hiked to the first water spot which is 1.5 miles, I believe. Used plenty of sunscreen and wore a ballcap.
I would recommend the North Rim. It took us exactly 3 hours to get to North Rim from Desert View. It was cool compared to South with daytime temps in the 70's except at one overlook which was in a "desert-type" climate. Most of the North Rim was in a pine/aspen forest. The most people I saw at any overlook was one other vehicle. There were lots at the North Rim Lodge however. Since time is short, google the Grand Canyon Lodging and see if Xantera has any rooms available for September. There are very limited rooms at the North Rim inside or outside the park.

We stayed at the Cameron Trading Post in Cameron, Arizona (about a half hour from Grand Canyon). We loved it. I've heard they have the nicest rooms. The rooms are immaculate. They have a great restaurant and store and beautiful surrouding property. And they have air conditioning!