Arizona: The Grand Canyon

I know it's early but if you want to get a room inside the canyon, which I suggest, make plans now.  I started late - February for a August trip.  There were no rooms available at the time however with persistance I checked regularly and sure enough a cancellation for 2 nights showed up.  It was not in either of the big name hotels, Bright Angel or El Tovar, no matter, it was on the edge of the canyon - I grabbed it.  The advantage, we were able to get up at 5 am and grabbed a shuttle to the trail heads and start our journey down.  We didn't go down far and we are making plans to visit again in 5 years to try rim to rim.

Some tips, make reservations early, make reservations early, make reservations early.  If you want to stay in the Grand Canyon and near the edge, make reservations early.  Think a year early.

If you want to hike down into the canyon, try to go early in the morning.  It's cooler, less crowds and the sunlight slowly rolling over the canyon is magnificent.

If you have kids and you are there for a couple of days - pick up the junior ranger book.  The kids learn something, they have fun doing it and they get a pin at the end.

The main visitor center is crazy busy.  Bus loads of people come to have a look.  The further you go away from the visitor center and the earlier you go, the less crowds.  One morning we left at 5 am.  There was only 6 other hikers on the bus and they did not get off the same place we did - heading to Hermit's Rest.  We had the canyon to ourselves.  It was our canyon. :)

Lastly, we went in August and although the southern part of Arizona is hot, the Grand Canyon gets chilly on the top.  I ended up buying long sleeve shirts for my girls because it was colder then I expected.

The cliff side we hiked down and then back up

Our decent below the canyon's rim.  Only 15% of visitors go below the rim, only 1% make it to the bottom.

A view of the canyon as the sun rose

First stop on South Kaibab Trail, we made it down to Cedar Ridge.