Seeing the canyon for the first time

Today was mostly set aside as a travel day to get from Moab to the Grand Canyon. We got up at our usual time of 6am. It was about a 6-hour drive to the canyon, and we were taking a slight detour through Monument Valley. The drive was pretty boring for the most part. It was just flat dessert with no mountain ranges or anything. The roads were also very straight. However, when we got to Monument Valley it was completely different. There were some huge red rock pillars coming out of nowhere. The road was still very straight, but added another feature to the scenery. It definitely added a bit of excitement to the long drive.





We then continued our drive into Arizona and onto the Grand Canyon.

We came in along the edge of the canyon, so there were plenty of opportunities to view the canyon. It really is spectacular, and HUGE!! There had been a huge storm a few days earlier that had covered a lot of the top of the canyon with snow. It just added another amazing aspect to the view and surroundings.





We really wanted to do an over night hike into the canyon the next day, however to do this we needed to get a backcountry pass. They only release a certain number a passes each day, and these are often snapped up almost as soon as they are released. We were very lucky that a few people had cancelled multi day trips due to a storm that had come in a few days earlier. We then went to the general store to buy supplies for the next few days. We really liked the store as it was the only place in the park with free Wi-Fi, and we had no phone reception!! We found a campsite and set up tents, before heading to the main viewing spot to catch the sunset. We were a little late, however still managed to get the tail end of it. The campsite for the night was in the park, and was covered in a thick cover of snow.

It was really pretty, but made for a very cold night. It was lucky that the toilets had a hand dryer we could use to warm ourselves up! It was really nice to finally see the canyon, and we were all really excited to have the opportunity to camp the night in the canyon the next day.