This spring, I went to Arizona for the first time! My uncle moved to Anthem (north of Scottsdale) during the pandemic. My dad was going to visit for some flight training, so I decided to spend a week there as well.
Since we were in Arizona, I really wanted to see the Grand Canyon, which is located in the North part of the state. My dad and I planned an overnight road trip since it was about 3 hours away.
DAY 1: WEDNESDAY, MAY 3
We left my uncle’s house around 7:45 am. I had researched restaurants in Grand Canyon National Park on Yelp, but nothing looked that good. There are usually only a handful of restaurants in national parks, they usually get full and they’re always over-priced. National parks are also usually somewhat remote out in nature (except Acadia National Park, check out my Bar Harbor restaurants post here), so in general there are usually just slim pickings in terms of food when you go. I decided we would bring a little lunchbox cooler and just stop at Subway and share a foot long.
We got to Subway around 10am, bought lunch, and then drove into the small downtown area of Williams. This is where you can get on the Grand Canyon Railway. We had looked into taking the train, but you only get 4 hours in the park before it departs back to Williams. The cheapest tickets were $67 round trip, and they went up to $226 round trip for a “luxury dome” with windows, comfy seats, and snacks. I didn’t want to be rushed during my first time at the Grand Canyon, so we opted to drive.
Dad wanted coffee so while there was a Starbucks nearby, we went to Brewed Awakenings to try a more local spot.
After another hour of driving, we arrived at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park! If you’re coming from Phoenix, Scottsdale, etc. Google Maps will likely route you here. I bought an annual American the Beautiful national parks pass from the entrance booth, which is $80 and then we parked in one of the main lots near the Visitor Center (which was closed on Wednesdays). You can get a discounted pass if you’re a senior citizen 62+, federal lands volunteer, active military, permanently disabled, or a 4th grade student.
One thing I immediately noticed when we arrived was the change in temperature. It was reaching 95° back in Anthem, but it definitely looked colder passing Flagstaff, and it was about 68° with a breeze at the Grand Canyon. I just expected it to be hot in May, but I’m grateful it wasn’t. The North Rim of the park wasn’t even open because of snow!
The park was pretty busy, it was interesting to me that it was mostly old people and foreign tourists. We walked along a short paved trail that took us to Mather Point. This was my first view of the Grand Canyon and let me tell you, it was indeed grand!! It is crazy to see such a vast canyon that stretches on for as far as your eyes can see. It’s like a big crack in the earth and you can see all the layers in the rock. The colors changed based on the lighting, so I bet it would be so cool to stay and explore all day.
After taking some photos, we went back to the car and ate our lunch before hopping on the shuttle. I don’t know about the North rim, but the South rim was very easy to get around with their free shuttle system. I didn’t know too much about the shuttles before getting to the park, I just knew they existed.
The shuttles come every 10-15mins between March and November. They are just little buses (like the ones you’d take from the airport to a rental car place), and there are several lines.
We got on the Blue Shuttle at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center around 12:30pm and rode it to the Hermit Rest Route, where we transferred to the Red line to go on Hermit Road. It takes about 80 minutes round trip to ride the whole line 9 stops out and 9 stops back, which is what we saw many old people doing, since you can see good views of the canyon without leaving the shuttle. We skipped the first stop, then got off at Maricopa Point at 12:45pm. For some reason, very few people got off the bus so we were basically alone at this stop, which was cool.
Then we hopped on the shuttle and went to the next stop, Powell Point.
Most of the stops are about a mile away from each other, and there is a gravel path so you could in theory hike the whole loop. We met one group that did that. Hopi Point was less than a mile, so we walked to it.
After, we got back on the shuttle and skipped a few stops. In my opinion, the canyon looked kind of the same since the stops were so close to each other, so I didn’t mind skipping a few, plus we were on a schedule. At Pima Point, you could see the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon, so that was cool. Next, we got back on the shuttle and rode it the whole way back, transferred to the Blue line and got back to the car.
I think it would’ve been really pretty to see the Grand Canyon at sunset, but we didn’t have time to stay all day.
Next, we drove along Desert View Drive and arrived at the Desert View Watch Tower around 3:40pm and took some quick pictures. We didn’t get tickets to go inside, but we just walked around.
Then, we were off to Page, Arizona. In college, I had seen people I followed on Instagram go to Horseshoe Bend and I assumed it would be close to the South Rim, but it is actually like 2 hours north of the park, right near the Utah border.
We got to Page, checked into the Hampton Inn & Suites around 5:30pm. For dinner, we went to Gone West Restaurant which was a very kitschy, touristy Western themed place. A big tour bus arrived at the same time as us and filed into the restaurant’s back room. The food was good, but nothing special. My dad and I split a salad for #health and then I really liked the Philly cheesesteak sandwich. We shared cobbler for dessert.
DAY 2: THURSDAY, MAY 4
We had another long day of driving (shout out to Dad for driving the whole way), so we started the day off early and went to breakfast in the hotel around 7:15am.
Then, we drove to the Glen Canyon Dam Overlook and took photos.
At 8:20 it was time for coffee, so we checked out Hot n Sweet Coffee and Donut Shop. It was a pretty popular spot. The donuts were kind of small and were cake donuts. I got a fun fruity pebbles one. The workers were extremely friendly and you could tell this was a local favorite.
Next we went to Wahweap Overlook and took photos of Lake Powell. It was just a small road and there wasn’t a ton to see, but it was still pretty.
We parked at Horseshoe Bend by 9am. It was already pretty crowded. While it’s technically part of Grand Canyon National Park, it is located on land in the city of Page and was an extra $20 parking fee. It was a good mile walk into the canyon and while it wasn’t that hot in early May, I could see it being very brutal a few weeks later since there’s no shade.
It’s really hard to get a good shot of the full Horseshoe Bend unless you had a very wide angle lens or got on the verrryyy edge of the cliffs and I was not about to risk my life, but plenty of people were lol. We also saw some people canoeing in the water, which would be an awesome experience.
After that, we headed to Sedona for lunch on our way back to Anthem. The drive was beautiful and the red rocks and lush greenery, it’s definitely not what I usually think of when I think of Arizona! We stopped at the Shops at Piñon Pointe. There were a few restaurants, and we went to a Panera-like place called Wildflower. Everything was good! I unfortunately caught some sort of food poisoning/norovirus from eating there (pretty sure it was the ricotta toast) and was ill the next morning, but I would still recommend it for a quick healthy lunch lol. The restaurant is on this little plaza across the street from Snoopy Rock, red rock structure that supposedly looks like Snoopy? I didn’t see it.
Our last stop was Montezuma Castle National Monument, which was covered by the national parks pass since it’s a national monument. An elementary school class was just leaving from a field trip, so I’m glad it wasn’t too crowded. It was a very quick little stop, we just walked down the gravel path and there it was, carved into the rock above.
Overall, I was content with the amount we got to see on this quick road trip, and was so blessed by the good weather! We were so close to the Utah border in Page that I would have loved to have had enough time to go see Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument or Bryce Canyon National Park, but I will just have to go back and make it a separate trip. I think it would also be fun to one day go back and do a little hiking in the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset.
Here’s a map of everywhere we went!
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