1st Anniversary Camp Trip : Havasupai Point, Grand Canyon NP and Zion NP

[Ryanmb21]

To celebrate our first anniversary my wife and I decided to visit the Grand Canyon and Utah over Labor day weekend. From Los Angeles we planned to go straight to Havasupai Point, as rather shockingly, neither of us had ever been to the Grand Canyon. The long drive went by quickly because we were blown away by the areas beauty.

Off highway 180 before entering the Grand Canyon national park, we left the highway at FS road 328. It was smooth sailing till we got to the closed gate marking Havasupai reservation land. The guard shack was pretty creepy, burned out mattresses, empty bottles, cattle skulls, lots of trash and an atv on blocks with no wheels. Fortunately nobody was there to take our $25 so we continued on, the beautiful meadow changed to forest and the road narrowed a bit. At this point we hadn’t gotten a glimpse of the canyon yet but our patience paid off big time, we reached the point the view of the Grand Canyon was spectacular! Wow, what a place! To my surprise we had the whole place to ourselves, in face we didn’t see anybody else the whole time we were there. We snapped some pictures of the sunset, made a great dinner, woke up for the sunrise and packed up with the intent of stopping by the Grand Canyon NP and heading to Toroweap.

 

[Ryanmb21]

Grand Canyon NP seemed un-crowded so we decided to hike a few miles for Bright Angel trail. What a great trail! We had enjoyed the park so much we decided to forgo Toroweap (for this trip) and got a very nice campsite in Mather’s Campground with the national park. We saw a ton of Elk and caught the tram to Hopi point for the sunset which was an east facing perspective. Of course, a great sunset. We really enjoyed Grand Canyon NP.

 

[Ryanmb21]

On Saturday morning we drove east around the rim on highway 64 where MORE incredible views were abundant, really an outstanding drive and continued into Utah to Zion NP. Luck was on our side and we scored a campsite in Zion’s South campground. On Saturday we hiked “The Narrows” and on Sunday “Angel’s Landing” (well most of it till the heights got to my wife a bit). I feel like we only scratched the surface, Zion NP is so incredible!

We spent Sunday our wedding anniversary night at Zion Mountin Resort and it too was great. We had bacon wrapped filets and custom cake from their chef, I recommend their restaurant highly.

Every location, activity and drive exceeded my expectations. This area is so much fun, I look forward to going back.

 

[DNTL740]

Very nice!!! Am hoping to make it out that way sometime next year!!