grand canyon national park arizona

Her View

Grand Canyon - Caywood's perspective

The Grand Canyon: the biggest canyon EVER! By this point in our trip, only a day or two after Canyonland National Park, I honestly am already pretty done with seeing canyons. But the Grand Canyon is a spectacular sight, and one that is a must-see in person. Even the areal shots don’t even come close to doing it justice. We spent only a day at the Grand Canyon, and spent our time there doing a variety of the viewing spots. The first evening we arrived at the North Rim (the non-touristy part) and camped. We had a great time camping on the North Rim, and woke up the next morning to rain. Even though the rain coming down on our tent was a very soothing way to wake up, I was sad to check the weather report that told me it was supposed to thunderstorm all day. So rather than hiking part of the North Rim as our original plan, we chose to drive the 4 hour drive to the South Rim, which is actually only 10 miles south.

Once we got to the South Rim the weather had cleared up and we were able to visit a few different viewing spots. We snapped some great pictures, enjoyed the overwhelming size of this canyon, and then… saw a moose! Right on the road! The moose was my favorite part, for sure.

My advice from our experience:

1. When you go to the Grand Canyon, plan a few days in case bad weather happens. If it rains, you cannot hike down to the bottom of the canyon due to a high chance of monsoons.

2. If you plan to camp, book your space as early as you can. We learned that pretty much all year round they are booked up every night. We got very lucky with literally the last camping spot when we were there. Sorry for the guy in line behind us that didn’t get a spot, and had to drive almost two hours to the next campground!

His View

Grand Canyon - Feliks' perspective

What can you say about the Grand Canyon? We all learned about it at some point in our lives and saw thousands of pictures. In real life it is much bigger, wider, and grander than you would think from the pictures. We camped on the North Rim, which I think was a much better idea since the South Rim was nothing but tourist buses and RV campers. The North Rim is definitely better for the outdoors experience. The South Rim had many more designated scenic view spot; it was clearly designed for tourists. Not much else I can say about the Grand Canyon, except for that it is very big.

Overall, camping would be best on the North Rim. Keep in mind that it’s a four hour drive to the South Rim even though they’re 10 miles apart. Dramamine for the twisty roads. Parking on the North Rim was not a problem; be prepared for tourist drivers at the South Rim. Keep an eye out for wildlife. We saw a moose.