We finally made it to the Grand Canyon!..At 11pm on June 29th, that is too late to even attempt to set up a tent so we slept in the car. It was super comfy.. but that's only 2 times we've had to sleep in the car this trip and that's pretty good! And the good thing about sleeping in the car is that you don't have to take your tent down in the morning, that made it possible for us to wake up at 5am and drive to the Grand Canyons rim for the sunrise. That was a very cool experience, we weren't the only people that thought of doing that but it sure was a sight to see. The Canyon was very hazy and they say that is caused by smog coming over from LA. After sunrise we walked some of the rim trail to get better views of the Canyon. We drove up to Grandview point, the Natural Bridge, and Rainbow point(9000 ft up). The ravens were flying around the Natural Bridge and that was cool to see. We had to get to our next campground in Utah so we left around lunch time from the GC.
Our campground was in the middle of Bryce Canyon and Zion so that we could easily go to both parks. July 1st we went to Bryce and wow what a place! The hoodoos, rock formations, were awesome to see. The Canyon itself is not as big as others but it's nice because every viewpoint is different. We walked from Sunrise to Sunset Point, only a half a mile or so, and took in the views from there. Then we trekked on to Inspiration Point, which was wayyy up the mountain but veryyy worth it. The walk itself was only another .7 miles but the hills were steep.
July 2nd we went to Zion. Zion is a stunning park and definitely is one of our favorites. It's like Yosemite but bigger and more rocky. People go to Zion for some serious hiking and rock climbing, and it makes sense why. Those rocks are massive. We didn't realize it would be so packed but wow it was. They said they get 5 million visitors a year now! We had to park in Springdale and take the shuttle on the scenic drive through Zion. We saw the Court of the Patriarchs, Angels Landing, and Big Bend. Angels Landing is quite a hike, they have to use a chain to hike over some of the ridges, we could even see some hikers way up the mountain from the bus. We rode it all around and hopped off at the Weeping rock stop to take the .5 mile steep trail. The water is pushed out laterally from the rocks and it forms a spring that drips off the side of the rocks. The hike led us to the Weeping Rock which had a view of the Canyon. Our next hike after lunch was from The Grotto to the Lower Emerald Pools. This hike had an amazing view of the Virgin River and the Canyon on the way up! The pools are named emerald because of the algae that grows, there is lots of vegetation down there though and I thought it was because of that. We even enjoyed the 1.1 mile long tunnel to enter the park! Zion is spectacular and regardless of how busy it was, we loved it!
We finally made it to the Grand Canyon!..At 11pm on June 29th, that is too late to even attempt to set up a tent so we slept in the car. It was super comfy.. but that's only 2 times we've had to sleep in the car this trip and that's pretty good! And the good thing about sleeping in the car is that you don't have to take your tent down in the morning, that made it possible for us to wake up at 5am and drive to the Grand Canyons rim for the sunrise. That was a very cool experience, we weren't the only people that thought of doing that but it sure was a sight to see. The Canyon was very hazy and they say that is caused by smog coming over from LA. After sunrise we walked some of the rim trail to get better views of the Canyon. We drove up to Grandview point, the Natural Bridge, and Rainbow point(9000 ft up). The ravens were flying around the Natural Bridge and that was cool to see. We had to get to our next campground in Utah so we left around lunch time from the GC.
Our campground was in the middle of Bryce Canyon and Zion so that we could easily go to both parks. July 1st we went to Bryce and wow what a place! The hoodoos, rock formations, were awesome to see. The Canyon itself is not as big as others but it's nice because every viewpoint is different. We walked from Sunrise to Sunset Point, only a half a mile or so, and took in the views from there. Then we trekked on to Inspiration Point, which was wayyy up the mountain but veryyy worth it. The walk itself was only another .7 miles but the hills were steep.
July 2nd we went to Zion. Zion is a stunning park and definitely is one of our favorites. It's like Yosemite but bigger and more rocky. People go to Zion for some serious hiking and rock climbing, and it makes sense why. Those rocks are massive. We didn't realize it would be so packed but wow it was. They said they get 5 million visitors a year now! We had to park in Springdale and take the shuttle on the scenic drive through Zion. We saw the Court of the Patriarchs, Angels Landing, and Big Bend. Angels Landing is quite a hike, they have to use a chain to hike over some of the ridges, we could even see some hikers way up the mountain from the bus. We rode it all around and hopped off at the Weeping rock stop to take the .5 mile steep trail. The water is pushed out laterally from the rocks and it forms a spring that drips off the side of the rocks. The hike led us to the Weeping Rock which had a view of the Canyon. Our next hike after lunch was from The Grotto to the Lower Emerald Pools. This hike had an amazing view of the Virgin River and the Canyon on the way up! The pools are named emerald because of the algae that grows, there is lots of vegetation down there though and I thought it was because of that. We even enjoyed the 1.1 mile long tunnel to enter the park! Zion is spectacular and regardless of how busy it was, we loved it!
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