The Grand Canyon in late November-early December was wonderful. I knew we would get the most out of a Grand Canyon trip when it wasn't blazing hot, when we weren't surrounded by crushing crowds, when we didn't have to spend most of our time in a car fighting through traffic, and when we were not constantly vigilant about covid. It turned out that late November-early December was the sweet spot. Mornings and nights were cold, probably 30-40 degrees, but the sun warmed things up and so our time outside during the day was pretty ideal--between 55 and 70 degrees while we were there. The boys all got their first covid vaccine shots at the beginning of November and the omicron variant hadn't been discovered yet so we felt very safe. The trip was actually the first time we had eaten in a restaurant in almost two years. About six weeks before our trip, when I booked our flights, I was able to secure a hotel room in the park. I had heard that sometimes rooms sell out more than a year in advance. We had a totally serviceable room that was a 5 minute walk from the rim at the Bright Angel trailhead. We had a whole huge restaurant dining room overlooking the rim to ourselves at noon for lunch.
"It was great! There was no one there!" That's my new Syracuse refrain and it totally applies to this Grand Canyon trip.
Some highlights from the trip:
The Shoshone Point trail, which had no sign on the road, parking lot, or at the trailhead. It wasn't on any park maps, but I had read about it in a guidebook. I wasn't sure we were actually on the Shoshone Point trail until we arrived at the rim and it was everything I had read about. We had a huge point overlooking the Grand Canyon to ourselves. It was probably a mile flat hike through the woods and scrub to get there, nothing difficult. There was a narrow path out to the point and even around a pinnacle but none of us wanted to walk out on the point.
Hiking down into the Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel trail. I wanted to experience hiking down into the canyon, and I chose the Bright Angel trail because it's the widest and flattest. I had no intention of walking all the way down but I thought even an hour would give us a different perspective. It was spectacular and amazing. Theo and Beckett are so aware of their bodies and their footing that I did not feel nervous about them being close to the edge. Reed can be more careless with not looking where he is going so I held his hand all the way down and Jeff held his hand all the way up. We lucked out to run into some desert bighorn sheep along the way, so we got to quietly observe them navigating the terrain and fearlessly hopping up and down the cliff walls.
Sunrise alone at the rim. I went to Mather Point at first light, before sunrise, to watch the sun come up. It was magical to be in the presence of others quietly awaiting the opportunity for reverence. The magic really is before the sun comes up, as the light creeps over the canyon edge and bathes different parts of the canyon in light.
Taking the shuttle bus out to the scenic drive. Again, very few people were out and about so we could catch any bus we wanted (they go by every ten minutes) and linger or walk between shuttle stops as we wanted to. We were there the last day or two before they open the road to private cars for the slow season but I liked being able to walk as much as we wanted and then pick up a bus. My favorite part was walking between lookout points, and someday I'd like to return and walk the length of the scenic drive. I loved the different perspectives on the canyon from different points along the rim. Another highlight was getting chipwiches from the last stop on the drive, Hermit's Rest, and eating them looking over the rim.
The Desert Watchtower turned out to be a big bust because it was closed (maybe for covid? not sure) and the first level was just a gift shop. We did buy some fun things to remember the trip but we were excited about being able to climb up it and see the canyon from a different view and it was our last stop on our way out of town so it was disappointing.
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