A Grand Roadtrip

We had an eventful long weekend. Since Alison and I both had Monday off of work we decided to go on a road trip. We left on Friday night after work. Getting out the door was tough. Alison was out of town the entire week working in New Hampshire. We wanted to get out the door as close to 5pm as we could. We were out closer to 6pm. It was fine. Despite the potential for snowy weather, the roads were clear. We drove to Kanab and stayed at the La Quinta Inn. We like La Quinta hotels because they are dog friendly, which is a must when we bring Tex along with us. 

We slept in more than we expected on Saturday morning. Good thing we were not in a hurry. We ate a great breakfast and did a quick workout before hitting the road. We brought along breakfast, lunch, and snack food on this trip. That way we can eat most of what we want to eat and only have to figure out dinners. It worked out really well and gave me a new appreciation for all the work Alison puts into eating healthy and nutritious food when she is traveling for work. 

Our first stop on the trip was Horseshoe Bend. This is a beautiful viewpoint just past Page, Arizona. It is a short hike – only a mile or so off the highway. We have seen some amazing pictures of this place and we were excited to check it out. We had a good time hanging around for half an hour or so. I was a little surprised by how many other people were there. It is the off-season for this area so we thought it would not be crowded. It was actually hard to find a place to park and there was quite a crowd at the viewpoint. One interesting observation was that it seems this area attracts a significant number of international travelers. There were a lot of people from Europe and Asia visiting the viewpoint. After we enjoyed the scenery and took a few pictures we got back into our car and headed to our next destination. 

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon. Neither of us has ever visited the Grand Canyon before. This year it was one of my goals to visit so we decided to knock it out early. Plus we love going on adventures to nearby locations in January. We find they are less crowded and more accessible than during peak season. We chose to visit the South Rim because the North Rim was closed for the winter. We arrived at the Desert View gate and entered Grand Canyon National Park. There was a ranger manning the station. He gave us a map and some advice about visiting the park, but because of the Federal Government shutdown, they were not collecting fees. Despite the shutdown, this national park did not seem worse for wear. We saw plenty of park rangers, the facilities were clean, and the restrooms were fully functional. I believe Arizona provides some funding during shutdowns. The park ranger noticed Tex was with us and told us the rules regarding dogs at the Grand Canyon National Park. We had done our research and already knew them, but the refresher was good. I want to dispel a myth we heard a couple of times while we were wandering through the park. Dogs are not allowed in most national parks, but they are allowed at this one (a couple of people we met were sure dogs were not allowed in ANY national park, but they were incorrect). The rule is dogs need to be leashed and they cannot go on any of the below-the-rim trails. We met a few people who thought we were breaking rules because of the shutdown. We respect our national parks and we went out of our way to follow the rules during our visit. 

The Grand Canyon is very aptly named. It is grand. Our first sight of the Grand Canyon was at the Desert View overlook and it was breathtaking. Particularly at this time of year, the rich, vibrant colors of the rock contrasted with the white, bright snow. We loved the Grand Canyon. After exploring this overlook we headed to the main visitors center where we picked up the Rim trail. This is a 13-mile trail that follows along the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We spent the rest of our day walking along this trail. We watched the sunset on the Grand Canyon as we walked and got back to our car right around the time it was getting dark. We drove into Tusayan, the closest town to the Grand Canyon, where we spent the night. 

Tex was excited to have his own bed

The next morning we got up and picked up the Rim trail right where we left off. The morning light and the change in viewing location gave the Grand Canyon a completely different look. We walked around 6 miles on the trail this day. Whenever we were near a viewpoint there would be lots of people (the viewpoints are accessible by car). On the trail between the viewpoints, there was hardly anyone else. It was peaceful and serene. Similar to Horseshoe bend many of the people we met seemed to be visiting from other countries all over the world. 

We returned to our car and drove to the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. From the time we left the Grand Canyon National Park through our arrival at Monument Valley we were driving through the Navajo reservation. It is an extremely beautiful area. There are sweeping desert plains, vibrant red rock, and striking monuments jutting from the earth. All of this made it a very enjoyable drive. 

We loved visiting Monument Valley last year in January. When we saw it was more or less on our way we decided we stop again this year. We are glad we made it part of this trip. Arriving at Monument Valley from the Arizona side is even more beautiful than from the Utah side. We arrived around sunset and we headed into the viewpoint and watched the sunset on the monuments. The monuments were still there and looked the same as last year. This year there were no rez dogs around so we felt comfortable getting Tex out and letting him come with us. When the sun was down we headed back to Goulding’s lodge and had Navajo tacos for dinner. They were exceptional. 

The next morning we woke up and watched the sun rise over the monuments. This sunrise was not as vivid as last year, but it was still beautiful. We soaked in a few more moments in this incredible place before heading back to the lodge. We packed our bags and hit the road. We were pretty nervous because there was a major winter storm moving across Utah. We left ourselves plenty of time so that we could drive safely. In the end, we only hit one really bad patch of weather when we were crossing through the Fishlake National Forest. Other than that the roads were clear. 

Living that hotel life 

We did not head straight home, instead, we made a detour through Ephraim. Alison’s cousin, Kerry, was holding a scuba diving certification class. Since this was also one of our goals we decided to attend. We spent the last 5 hours of our day learning to breathe underwater. It was a lot of fun. I was extremely nervous, but it ended up being easier than I expected. In fact, it was really fun. I am really excited to scuba dive on some of our upcoming trips. 

It was snowing in Ephraim when we left, but fortunately, it stopped shortly out of town and the roads were clear. This was such a fun road trip. We had fun adventures every day and saw some incredible sites. Most importantly we made some great memories.