Caveat up front: we are admittedly kind of spoiled when it comes to hiking in our little corner of southeast Arizona. There are many times when we can be out on the trail for hours and see at most a handful of other human beings … if I’m being totally honest, we’d probably rather run into a bear or a mountain lion than another person. 🤠
I had no illusions that the Grand Canyon (or any other big National Park) would be anything close to a similar experience.
But holy cow …
Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon should make you take a big deep breath and ponder the meaning of life.
Instead, my primary thought was:
Why are there so many other people here on a random Tuesday in October, pushing and fighting for a spot along the rail to get a selfie?
The Grand Canyon wasn’t on our original agenda
This is my 7th year in Arizona (I’ve also lived in California and Texas a few times), so there was probably no good reason I hadn’t already seen the Grand Canyon yet. It was always just a little “too far out of the way”, even on our previous trips up to Flagstaff. Well on this roadtrip to Page, we had already planned a little side quest over to Williams, Arizona.
It just made sense to route the rest of our drive up to Page through Grand Canyon National Park. It really didn’t add many more miles than if we’d backtracked through Flagstaff.
We drove up hwy 180 from Williams, then waited about 20 minutes at the South Gate of the Grand Canyon. The one unambiguous win of the day was flashing my (*disabled veteran) America The Beautiful parks pass at the South Gate. If the federal government is going to subject me to the Disneyland logistics of modern tourism, at least Uncle Sam comped the fee for life.
(*all veterans or active duty military can get these free passes, the advantage of the DV version is that it never expires … others have to be renewed yearly)
The parking lot at the main visitor center was a madhouse, and there were more people than I (naively) expected at the Mather Point overlooks. But we did stop and take a few pictures before heading east down hwy 64.
This route worked out well, since although this was Kelly’s 4th trip to the Grand Canyon, she’d never been to the east part of the park. We both enjoyed Navajo Point and the Desert View Watchtower, and I got a few interesting pictures.
In addition to the candid shot above, I did also capture a few images that may even be “hang on the wall” worthy after I edit them.
Overall I’m glad we made this stop, and I now no longer have to say I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon.
But we weren’t done yet …
Our next stop a little later that evening was Horseshoe Bend, just south of Page.
It was a little more crowded than might have been ideal, but Kelly was still able to take the picture that we were hoping to get when we added the stop.
More confirmation that crowds make even awesome locations worse.
The only real planned outing during our 3 days in Page was the Antelope Canyon tour that Kelly had pre-booked for us. We showed up 45 minutes before our scheduled start time, only to be told they couldn’t find our names (Kelly had the receipt with a bar code and everything). To their credit, they sorted it out in about 10 minutes. We were added to a group, and later learned that we were the only two Americans among a gaggle of Chinese tourists on a bus tour.
It was a little crowded going down the ladders into the canyon, but we figured things would thin out and get a bit more organized as the tour progressed.
We quickly realized that there were three ladies near us at the front of the group who had no interest in even pretending that anybody else was also on the tour.
Some of their poses might have been amusing had they not taken turns photographing each other individually around Every. Single. Corner.
At first we were annoyed, then we just laughed at the absurdity of the whole experience. The thing is, I’m not even sure they were being “rude”. This might just be how you have to act to even get yourself in a photograph at any tourist destination in a country with 1.4 billion people.
About halfway through, our guide noticed what was going on, so let us get out a little ahead of the pack. This allowed us to get a least a few of something pretty close to the type of shots that we had in mind when Kelly booked the tour. I’m sure she’ll share a few on her feed too once she edits them.
Funny thing is, the Antelope Canyon experience wouldn’t have felt so jarring, if just the day before we hadn’t done one of the most amazing slot canyon hikes we’d ever been on … at a location we didn’t even know existed until the previous evening (and which cost almost nothing, comparatively). Oh yeah, did I mention we only saw about 10 other people the whole time, and most of them were pretty close to the trailhead parking. 😎
If given the choice between the spectacular but popular and crowded location, or the place that’s almost as good, but with far fewer people, I think it’s pretty much always worth the effort to seek out the later.
That said …
Kelly has already floated the idea of hiking all the way down to the Grand Canyon floor someday … so I might very well have lied in my post title. But at least there aren’t usually bus loads of other people down there. 🙃
Til Next time,
Do you enjoy B&W photography?
I’ll never forget the letdown the first time I visited the Grand Canyon. My partner and I had been traveling around the country for a couple of months and we approached the Grand Canyon from the north, driving through the heart of some amazing canyonlands, so I think I was a little desensitized. Standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon just seemed like more of the same.
I’ve since visited with Jennifer and enjoyed it a little more, though there are still dozens and dozens of national parks I would prioritize over the Grand Canyon.