Grand Canyon Trip with Friends

Highlight Photos

Highlights Map

Day 1: Drive to Grand Canyon via Williams

We leave around 1 PM today from Phoenix as we first pick up our friend from the resort she was staying at. Given the late our we decide to only stop in Williams today and explore the historic town and leave Grand Canyon and Sedona for the next days. We park in downtown Williams after our four hour drive and first make our way to the historic train station, it looks quite deserted as we approach it.

Inside the train station however we are surprised at how many people are buying tickets and browsing for gifts in the shop. We take our time exploring the shop and then continue outside where we find an old locomotive parked nearby.

From the train station we return towards downtown Williams passing by the historic “Red Garter” building, a beautifully restored 1897 saloon and bordello which is now an inn.

Next we see something that we didn’t notice before, a gas station museum. We decide to visit it, there are two rooms, one with exhibits and one with a gift shop. It is free to visit and interesting enough.

We continue along the main street and enter in a few more shops looking at antiques and souvenirs before starting to consider what to buy for dinner.

There are some interesting buildings here and some outdoor exhibits with a bit of dark humor, which fits quite well with Arizona.

We turn around from the end of main street and enjoy the historic buildings while looking for a restaurant.

We find a very good Mexican restaurant and we buy takeout as we have an special AirBnB reserved and we think it would be better to eat there. Also we want to make sure we arrive during daylight as last time we had issues entering the AirBnB.

This time there are no issues entering the AirBnB just finding it would have been difficult if we wouldn’t have received such good directions. It is on top of a mesa at the end of the road quite scenic. In fact the whole interior is quite roomy with two bedrooms and two baths.

We go outside to enjoy the sunset and eat our food as the sun sets in an explosion of color.

We stay as the darkness continues to fall but it is getting cold so we retreat to the house to prepare for something we wanted to try for quite some time. We brought with us a telescope and we mount it outside while watching the stars from inside on our phones. Technology….We also look outside and see a few satellites but otherwise nothing special and soon the cold makes us retreat with the telescope back inside. It is also late so we go to sleep as we have a long day planned tomorrow.

Day 2: Grand Canyon

This morning we wake up to the song of birds and to some panoramic views from the top of the mesa. We enjoy watching the birds and wildlife both through windows and directly while exploring outside. We think we saw some oriole but it was just a glimpse so we are not sure. For certain we see Woodhouse’s Jays and Say’s Phoebes as well as a couple of jackrabbits enjoying the area.

After a quick breakfast it is time to drive to the Grand Canyon and wait half an hour in line just to enter the park. There has to be a better way to handle this especially for passholders it makes no sense to mix them with the ones paying entrance fee on the spot which takes a much longer time period.

Finding a parking spot near the Hermit’s Rest shuttle proves also to be more difficult than we expected but we find some spaces near Maswik Lodge that we visit briefly before walking to the shuttle stop.

On the way we have a close encounter with a very people-indifferent elk. The only thing that seems to get its attention is the dog with two tourists that come close to it but the dog cares little about the elk and simply turns around.

We see also a Rock Squirrel running like crazy and as we follow it to see where it might be going with such urgency we find out it is dirt bath that he was really missing.

At the shuttle stop we wait for quite some time for the next shuttle which we see parked but seems to wait a specific time to come to pick us up. Therefore we have time to enjoy the great views of the Grand Canyon from the shuttle stop for quite some time. And they are quite impressive.

The shuttle is quite full and no one wears a mask anymore really, quite a difference from a year ago. Also for whatever reason it stops at all stops on the way out but only a select few on the way back. Somehow it feels it would be better the other way around but I guess they analyzed this and found it to be more efficient.

We go to the end of the shuttle route and exit at Hermit’s Rest, an interpretation by architect Mary Jane Colter on what a hermit’s cabin would be. It was built in 1914 and is still open housing a gift shop and snack bar.

We explore a bit more enjoying the views and even find upon our return the Hermit’s Rest sign not mobbed by people for a few seconds.

But then it is time to start on our hike. The plan is to hike as long as we enjoy the hike on the Rim and then use the shuttle to return to the car. The first section is paved and has quite a few bicycles which makes it slightly more dangerous than we expected as the bicycles always seem to go at full speed.

There are however some great views along this stretch which make up for any inconvenience created by the bicycles. We are not sure if we visited this area before, but even if we did it was at least a decade ago. Later we checked and yes we visited the viewpoints more than a decade ago….but we didn’t hike as we were here in the winter.

The first official viewpoint on the trail and a shuttle bus stop is Pima Point. The views are quite impressive and we walk around trying to find the best of them.

In our opinion this was one of the best views, with the badlands of the Grand Canyon visible far in the distance.

A bit after Pima Point the hiking trail separates from the bicycle trail and becomes unpaved. This section is less visited and explored and not having the bicycles to worry about is a nice bonus.

The views continue to be impressive and we enjoy the views even though most of them on this stretch involve looking back towards the sun. We also see some Northern Arizona cacti specialties including the Mojave Kingcup Cactus.

In this section the trail can be less level and it even has some stretches with stairs. You can use them or you can go on the road which is closed for anything other than shuttles (and a few cars for whatever reason that have a special code). Here we also see our first helicopter of the day flying over Grand Canyon. It seems there are quite fewer helicopters than during our last visit which is nice.

We continue either using the road and the trail as we make our way towards Mohave Point where we decided to take the shuttle back to the car.

We wanted to arrive at Mohave Point as supposedly it is one of the best places for an afternoon or evening photo of the Grand Canyon and it certainly doesn’t disappoint, the view is magnificent.

As we wait for the shuttle we continue to wildlife-watch and we notice another elk resting beneath a juniper in the shade. The shuttle ride is much faster this time and as we exit we notice a bluebird which is quite used to humans so we can take some nice photos, cool.

On the way back we stop at a gas station to fill up the car. Nearby is an interesting location which seems abandoned but has some cool sculptures outside that we explore for a bit.

After returning to our accomodation we eat dinner while enjoying the beautiful sunset outside. And then we do a spot of stargazing seeing multiple galaxies and nebulas from the warmth of the house while the telescope suffered outside in the cold before going to bed.

Day 3: Sedona

Today we have to part ways with our AirBnB that we quite enjoyed these days. We take one more walkabout around the house trying to areas that we didn’t the previous days.

We find the water tanks that provide the water to the house, we were wondering where they are located. We explore also the access road for any birds.

And today we finally see the orioles we just glimpsed the day prior. They are a pair of Scott’s Orioles that seemingly consider the house as being part of their territory.

First we drive to Williams for a brief stop to get some coffee and find an ATM to withdraw some money. Both are easily accomplished on the main street with the coffee shop being quite a surprise.

A good surprise that is, it has many different options and we choose a frappe which is quite good.

The plan is the to continue towards Sedona but on the way we stop at the Oak Creek Vista. This is to stretch our legs, see the Native American Shops and also show our friend the views.

For anyone that hasn’t been here before the views are quite impressive. You can see how to road snakes down the mountain towards the bottom of the canyon and then along the canyon towards the Red Rocks of Sedona.

From here it is a short distance to Sedona but first we have to descend the switchbacks while being stopped twice due to construction on one lane roads. Then in Sedona finding a parking space is not a given but we manage slightly of the main road. Then we follow a bridge to an elevators or stairs that lead down to the main shopping street.

One of the fun things we notice is the addition of the colorful javelinas. There are a few of them but we really like the pink ones. How fun it would be if they would look that way in real life?

We walk for a couple hours the main drag of Sedona entering stores, buying souvenirs and enjoying the views of the red rocks. But then it is time to leave as it is quite late in the day.

The first option we already crossed off as the West Fork parking lot is supposedly full (even though we could see visually it wasn’t). The second option, a Native American ruin, is closing in one hour so we decide on our third option the Devil’s Bridge.

We are confident that we can drive to the parking lot as the road is considered easy 4WD and our SUV should handle it easily. However we give up almost immediately, the road is in horrible shape ,and we even scrape a bit the bottom of the car, luckily we have a skid plate. Back home we read that the forest service has given up on maintaining it, likely to increase the profit of the Pink Jeeps that are bringing tourists up the road and do not want competition.

So we are stuck with the fourth option that we didn’ even discuss prior to visit Cathedral Rock on the way out of town. The parking lot is supposedly full but this time we enter and there are plenty of parking places. As usual in Sedona area everything is done to discourage tourists that want to to drive their cars instead of using the tour options that they make money off.

It is relatively hot so we decide on a short hike to, hopefully, a viewpoint along Cathedral Rock Trail. They going is up and up and we really hope it is not a long hike.

In fact it is only 0.3 mile when we arrive at a plateau with some beautiful views of Cathedral Rock and the surrounding area.

We stop here for some time and eat some snacks while enjoying the exceptional views. And then it is time to return to the car and then to Phoenix so our friend can relax for the night at the hotel before her flight back home. We arrive earlier than usual home after a great trip to some beautiful areas.