BEABOY

First half of Trip Report to Arizona!

Day 1: Arrive in Phoenix around 3:00 in the afternoon. Since we knew we were going to be on the road for a long time we rented a Jeep Liberty that fit the bill. Had no problem getting out of Phoenix and arrived at Sedona in plenty of time to stop and take pictures at the Sedona National Park coming in and then drive up Airport Rd. to take in the sunset. The lookout at Airport Road was quite busy, so we did not stay all the way until sunset. Ate dinner that night at a cool Mexican place called Oaxaca and called it a night.
Day 2: Because of the time change we were up super early!! Ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove out along some of the back country, taking in the scenic Red Rocks and stopping to take pictures. We then headed back to town, where we took the Pink Jeep Broken Arrow tour at around 10:00. The tour was fun, but our guide was a little on the boring side. Overall, I would recommend it, but I think it could have been better with the right guide. After the tour, we took a recommendation and ate lunch at the Cowboy Club across the street, where I had cactus for the first time, I also has a buffalo burger, it was pretty good and the restaurant is a must stop if you like exotic foods (they had rattlesnake on the menu)! After spending an hour or two perusing the stores in Sedona we headed off to the Grand Canyon. The drive to the Canyon was uneventful, but we got there in plenty of time to check in (Bright Angel Lodge) and then we hiked about 3 miles round trip around the rim to the Yavapi? Observatory that was closed. The hike though, was good as we stopped to watch the sunset and was a good afternoon cap on our day. By the time we got back to the Lodge area, we were both starving, but the wait for the Bright Angel Lodge dining room was long (atleast an hour). We waited (the food was pretty tasty and reasonable), but on second thought we should have walked over to the cafeteria at Maswik.
Day 3: My favorite day of the trip! We got up early and set out to hike down Bright Angel Trail, it was around 38 degrees when we set out at the top, but quickly rose into the 80’s in the first few miles. We had originally planned to only hike to Garden Valley (4.5 miles down), but because of suggestions we got and because we felt good, we hiked all the way to Plateau Point (6 miles down). The extra 1.5 miles were definitely worth it, as we got to each lunch and see awesome views of the Colorado. If you can do it, I would definitely recommend hiking into the Canyon as far as possible, it gives you a totally different view of everything. We completed the hike down in approximately 3 hours and the hike back up in about 4 ½ hours. The hike back up was definitely tough the last few miles and stop were much more frequent, but the whole hike (a little over 12 miles roundtrip) was definitely worth it. Make sure to take plenty of water and food though. After getting out of the Canyon we ate dinner that afternoon at Maswik Lodge and crashed for the rest of the afternoon and night.
Day 4: Again we got up really early; we did this today to see the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. We drove out to Mather Point to see the sunrise, this was cool, but so was the temperature, so we did not stay very long after the sun was up. We then went back and packed up and headed out of the east side of the Grand Canyon National Park, along the way out we stopped at one or two of the overlooks and at the final overlook which had an observatory. By the time we got out of the Park we were ready for breakfast, but with nothing around we drove for a while until we finally stopped at the Cameron Trading Post. The breakfast here was outstanding and there is a huge amount of Navajo pottery, rugs, souvenirs, etc. for the shoppers. After breakfast we drove for a while until we reached Navajo National Monument. Since it was only 15 minutes out of the way, we decided to visit this. We took the mile hike to see the ruins, this was not extremely exciting, but definitely worth the stop to break up the trip. After leaving the National Monument, we continued our drive to the Gouldings Lodge, where we checked in the early afternoon. Since we still had motivation to see stuff and had the afternoon, we set off on the hour or so drive out of Gouldings to Natural Bridges National Park. On the way we stopped at Mexican Hat and saw the cool upside down Sombrero Rock that the town was named after. We also had to drive up the Moki Dugway, which has a speed limit of about 15 mph and is about 3 miles straight up on a dirt road. You constantly feel like you are going to go over the edge, as it was one of the coolest roads I have ever driven on. Once we got to Natural Bridges, we drove around to see the 3 bridges at the park and actually hiked about a mile down to one. The park has 2 of the 3 biggest Natural Bridges in the US and was worth the visit. After the park it was getting late, so we drove back, but instead of heading directly back, we went to Bluff, Utah for dinner where we had dinner at the Twin Rocks Café. Overall, today was probably the most tiring (we crammed in everything we could), so we headed back to Gouldings and we both crashed!

utahtea

Nice trip report. I'm impressed that you hiked to Plateau Point. In my much younger years we only made it to Indian Garden. It was in August so the heat was a big factor...that and I was getting blisters.

BTW, There is no such thing as "Sedona National Park".

Utahtea