Labor Day 2018 - Grand Canyon, Zion and Page Arizona

Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Grand Canyon North Rim, and Zion National Park

This trip was literally a last minute plan. We had plan to visit Glacier National Park, but due to wild fires we had to cancel that plan. Thanks to Southwest Airlines we were able to change our travel plan.

Day 1 - Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe bend, Page AZ

We landed at Las Vegas at 7.45 am, picked up rental car and started driving north towards Page, AZ. It is about 4.5 hour drive and goes via St George, Utah. Drive from St George to Page is very scenic drive, but when you drive near sunset. The road crisscrosses state border between Utah and Arizona a couple of times. We reached Page at around 1 pm. After grabbing lunch we headed to lower antelope canyon.

Antelope canyons are on an Indian reservation and there are 2 different canyons – Lower Canyons and Upper Canyons. If you have time to visit only one canyon, then visit the upper canyons. But you have to buy tickets ahead of time. Since this was a last minute trip for us, we visited lower canyons. For lower canyons you have descend about 90 feet below the ground in a narrow canyon. The tour operators have put steel ladders, but it can still be little tricky. But going down in the canyon is worth it. The tour takes about an hour and you can see one of the best works of water and wind!

View at the entrance of Canyon. People can be seen descending ladders

Shape of Mountain peaks

Sea Horse Shape 

We visited Horseshoe bend after antelope canyons. Horseshoe bend is part of Grand Canyon east rim – Glenn Canyon. Parking lot at Horseshow bend can fill up fast on long weekends – especially near sunset time. The viewpoint is about 0.5 mile walk from parking lot and is a good hike. Carry water and wear closed toed shoes.

Day 2 – Grand Canyon North Rim

We drove from Page to Grand Canyon North Rim. This is a very scenic drive. It takes you via Glenn Canyon and gives some of the breathtaking views of American West landscape. I will highly recommend this drive – it is worth driving every mile on this drive. It takes you from Colorado Desert environment to mountainous environment of North rim which is at 8,000 feet.

You won’t see as much traffic on this route. Also, there are fewer gas stations along this 100 miles drive. So make sure you fill up gas tank at Page, AZ. There is town of Jacob Lake about 30 miles north of the park where there is a gift shop, café and gas station.

Drive from Page to North Rim

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Near Navajo Bridge

View from Navajo Bridge

At Navajo Bridge

Navajo Bridge

Change in Vegetation near North Rim 

Meadow and Pine tress near north rim  

Due to heavy snowfall north Rim of park is open only from Mid-May to Mid-October. Seasonal hours coupled with remoteness from a big city is reason why this is lesser visited part of this park. Only about 1/10^th of people visiting Grand Canyon visit North rim. We were pleasantly surprised to see only 2 cars ahead of us while entering the park! Visitor Center is about 15 miles drive from Park entrance. North rim has only a handful of viewpoints and one scenic drive. North rim is a much smaller than south rim when it comes to rim circumference. Apart from 5 viewpoints along the scenic drive, one has to hike to see Canyon rim.

Visitor Center is at Western end of road inside the park. Famous Grand Canyon lodge is near visitor center. This is only lodge/hotel inside the park north rim and is open from Mid-May to Mid-October. Plan really ahead if you want to stay at the lodge. People plan as ahead as 1 year to get canyon facing rooms at the lodge. Bright Angel point is at visitor center and is a short hike from parking lot. Don’t forget to carry water and sunscreen. You are at 8,000 feet and this trail is exposed to sun. You can get really great views of Grand Canyon from this point. This point shows vastness of the canyon and one can get idea of width of canyon from bright angel point.

Bright Angel Point

After spending an hour at Bright Angel area, we started driving on scenic drive. Don’t get too excited with words scenic drive. This drive is beautiful, but doesn’t live up to expectations of a scenic drive. There are 5 points along the way with last point being Cape Royal.

Cape royal is where you can see Angels Window – famous feature of North Rim. All along the way we barely saw 5-6 people at every viewpoint. So we got an opportunity to soak in the views of canyon. It was a very serene experience with nobody obstructing views or causing noises! Everyone visiting this rim was traveler than a tourist. Hardly anyone was flashing their Digital Cameras. Rather people were carrying hiking poles. This showed that people were interested in exploring the canyon than just taking pictures – what typical tourists do at any national park! This was a pleasant experience.

Point Imperial (8,803 Ft)

Point Imperial - 8,803 ft

Point Imperial 8,803 ft

Vista Encantada (8,480 ft)

Vista Encantada

Vista Encantada

Vista Encantada

 Roosevelt Point (8,470 ft)

Roosevelt Point

Angel's Window and Cape Royal

Angel's Window

View from top of Angel's window

Wotan's Throne -  Cape Royal

View From Cape Royal (7,865 ft)

Vishnu Temple - From Cape Royal (7,865 Ft)

Things to remember –

1)      North Rim is open only from Mid-May to Mid-September. If you want to stay at GC lodge, then plan really ahead. As ahead as 1 year!

2)      North Rim shows width of this canyon, whereas south rim shows depth of canyon. You can see Colorado River from only one point on North Rim – which is near Angel’s window.

3)      Definitely visit this rim if you want to experience serenity of a national park. Fewer tourists, unobstructed views and opportunity to soak in the canyon! North rim is an experience in itself– drive from Page to Park, canyon itself!

4)      There are only 6 viewpoints on this side. You will be disappointed if you want to take a lot of pictures and see different views of canyon. For first time visitor to the park – Go to South Rim.

Day 3 - Zion National Park

We drove from Page to Zion and entered park from eastern entrance. From there we drove to visitor center just to realize that the parking lot was overflowing. We parked in town of Springdale and walked 0.75 miles to visitor center. There is also a free shuttle from Springdale to visitor center, but we decided to walk instead.

There is a park shuttle from visitor center which takes you across the canyon. Temple of Sinawawa - last stop of the canyon, where famous narrows start.

Zion Shuttle Map - Springdale shuttle + Canyon Shuttle

Start of Narrows is a  1 mile walk from shuttle stop. Walking in the narrows is a unique experience in itself. You will come across a lot of tourists for first 15-20 mins of walk, but number of people reduce as you go deeper in narrows. Walking in water is no easy feat! We explored narrows for 30 mins and then started retracing our way back to shuttle stop.

We decided to return to visitor center since Angel's landing was closed due to landslide. Angel's landing is yet another feature of Zion which is a famous hike in United States. 

Things to remember -
1)  Avoid long weekend to visit this park! This park is not designed to have the crowd which visits on long weekends.
2) If you go on long weekend, then plan to arrive early. Preferably before 7am. That way you can get parking near visitor center. Later you arrive, farther away you have to park in town of Springdale.
3) Make sure you carry closed toed shoes for Narrows. People often go bare feet to avoid wet shoes, but that is not recommended.
Virgin river water is cold even during peak summer. Make sure you carry jacket when you go to narrows.
4) Go to Narrows early in the day and then retrace your way back to visitor center one stop at a time - if you want to go to all spots. It gets really crowded at narrows in the evening and there are long lines to get on the shuttle bus.

Yellowstone National Park - May 2018

I wanted to visit Yellowstone National Park (YS) for more than 2 years. Finally things worked out in early 2018 to plan this trip on Memorial Day weekend 2018. 

Yellowstone is first national park in the world, a super volcano and very diverse landscape. Yellowstone has more than half of world's active geothermal geysers. A very diverse national park with geothermal geysers, mountains, meadows, lakes and plenty of wildlife including bisons, black bears, grizzly bears and elks to name a few.  

Closest airport to park is Jackson hole, Wyoming. But flights to Jackson hole are very expensive. So we flew to Salt Lake City on May 25th evening and stayed near Salt Lake City Airport. Salt Lake City is little farther away from YS, but one gets cheaper flights to Salt Lake. 

Day 1 - May 26th

We left Salt Lake City at 8.40 am to head north to national park. West entrance of the park is 320 miles / 4.5 hours from Salt Lake airport and is a pretty straightforward drive. This drive is very scenic as we near the park. A lot of mountains and meadows along the way. 

Also there are plenty of gas stations (Petrol pumps) along the way - all the way till West Yellowstone village which is at the west entrance of the park. 

We entered park at around 1.30pm. After driving  couple of miles we were greeted  by long line of cars. It took us almost and hour to cover next 5-6 miles. Later on we guessed that the traffic was due to wildlife on the road. 

First lesson about YS - Be patient, be very patient! 

Map of YS National Park

Map of "8" shaped loop inside YS national park

Lower Geyser Basin - 

After reaching Madison Junction we started driving south towards Old Faithful. We reached lower geyser basin after driving 3-4 miles south of Madison junction. There was a line of cars to find parking spot in the parking lot. Did I say the first lesson we learnt - Be Patient! 

We lucked out and got a spot quickly. There are several geysers in this basin and a wooden walkway goes around basin. Notable features here are Morning geyser, fountain paint pot and red spouter (Pics below)  

Lower Geyser Basin

Lower Geyser Basin 

Fountain Paint Pots - Lower Geyser Basin

Fountain Paint Pot - Lower Geyser Basin

Red Spouter - Lower Geyser Basin

Morning Geyser @ Lower Geyser Basin

Midway Geyser Basin Pics- 

We headed further south after visiting lower basin. We reached midway basin after driving about 3 miles south. Grand Prismatic spring, a well known feature of YS, is here at midway basin. Firehole river runs right between the road and basin. This spot was very crowded and we decided not to struggle for parking in the lot. We parked on roadside just outside parking lot and walked towards spring after navigating through crowd of people. 

Firehole River

Firehole River

Excelsior Geyser 

Crowd on the way to Grand Prismatic spring

Grand Prismatic aerial view (pic from national park services website)

Grand Prismatic Spring

Vibrant colors of Grand Prismatic spring

Upper Geyser Basin -  

Black Sand Basin 

Old Faithful Geyser

After visiting black sand basin we headed south to Old faithful geyser. Old faithful is the most popular feature of YS. This geyser erupts every 90 minutes. It is known as "faithful" due to its dependable eruptions. Eruptions last 3-5 minutes and geyser can go as high as 180 feet!
We reached geyser area around 5.30pm. There was already a big crowd waiting for eruption. We joined them. There is plenty of seating around the geyser - it is more or less like an amphitheater. The geyser erupted at 5.50pm after some false alarms for 20 minutes and making us wait patiently for it. The eruption geyser was totally worth waiting.

Crowd waiting for Old Faithful to erupt

Old Faithful - before eruption

Old faithful eruption 

We grabbed dinner at cafe in Old Faithful lodge. The food here can finish quickly, so it is a good idea to grab early dinner. There are food options for vegetarians.
We were staying at old faithful lodge cabins, so we called it a day after dinner.


Day 2 - May 27th

We got ready and left the cabins at 7.45am. We had a lot of places to visit today and had to drive a lot. That's why we had aimed at early start. Early start was also helpful to beat traffic and crowds.
We drove up north from old faithful towards Norris geyser basin. On the way to Norris we took a short break at Gibbon falls.

Gibbon Fall

Gibbon Fall

@ Gibbon Fall

Norris geyser basin
After Gibbon falls we continued further north to Norris Geyser basin. Norris basin is about 30 miles from Old faithful and took us about 2 hours to get there (With one break at Gibbon and delay due to Bisons on the road)
Norris geyser basin has multiple geysers and from high up it looks like a land on fire. There are 2 trails in this basin. We explored porcelain basin trail. Pics and video of basin are below -

Tower Fall 
From Norris fall we continued east towards Canyon village visitor center. Took a short break at visitor center and continued north towards tower fall. There is a short trail from parking lot to the overlook. The fall is much away from this overlook and I was slightly disappointed due to that. None the less we crossed off one more place from the list.

Lamar Valley 
From tower fall we drove 2 miles north to Tower Roosevelt junction. Here we started driving east towards north east entrance of the park. This road drives through Lamar valley - probably the most scenic drive in this park (And also one of the most scenic drives I have seen in 21 national parks that I have visited till date! ). Don't miss this drive. It is totally worth it!
Lamar valley is also known for spotting wildlife. As soon as we started driving in the valley we came across a wolf which ran across the road. Further east we also came across a crowd which had spotted a grizzly bear and cub on a far hill. We didn't have binoculars, so we could just listen to people explaining the scenes on the hill.
We drove about 18 miles into the valley and turned around to retrace our way back.
This is very scenic drive - No matter you see wildlife or not. Pictures cannot capture beauty of this valley!

Wolf with his prey 

Elk crossed the road 

Crowd of photographers trying to spot a badger 

Bisons along the road 

Grand Canyon of YS
After exploring lamar valley, we retraced our way back to Canyon village junction. A mile south of junction is trail for Grand canyon of YS. This trail is about 3/8th of a mile and drops 600 feet in elevation to reach top of lower falls ( One of the three falls on Yellowstone river - Upper fall, lower fall and crystal fall) . The view from this point is breathtaking.

Grand canyon of YS

Mud volcano and Dragon's mouth spring 

On the way from Grand canyon to west thumb is mud volcano. Its a good spot to visit if you have time. You can skip this spot if you are short on time.  

Mud Volcano

West Thumb -

West thumb is another geyser basin which is on west shore of Yellowstone lake. Its a nice trail with some scenic views of geysers alongside lake.

West Thumb Geyser Basin - With view of Yellowstone lake

Back to Old Faithful 
After exploring west thumb we returned to old faithful. We grabbed dinner at Lodge cafe and got to see one more eruption of geyser while having our dinner - at around 7.30pm.
We came back again at 8.50pm to see next eruption and the faithful did not disappoint us.

This was a very productive day. We drove almost 80% of the park's 2 loops and had covered all major spots except Mammoth hot springs by end of the day. We could see 2 more eruptions of old faithful to end our day.

Old Faithful Eruption at 7.30pm - From Lodge dining area 

Eruption at 9pm

Day 3 - May 28th 
We left old faithful lodge at 8am after having breakfast. We left early to beat traffic of long weekend and it worked out really well. We were out of the park in 45 mins and by 1.30pm we made it to Salt Lake City! It was a trip well planned and executed! Everything went smoothly and we made the most of 1.5 day that we got inside the park.


My Tips for planning the trip

1. Plan really early. It is never too early to plan a trip to Yellowstone. People plan this trip as ahead as 1 year. We planned it 6 months prior and somehow managed to get last available rooms in the old faithful lodge 
2. Plan to stay in one of the lodges in the park - preferably Old faithful inn or lodge. This is a huge park and you will end up wasting a lot of time and energy if you stay outside the park. (If you stay in West Yellowstone town then you add 60 miles to your daily trip which can take anywhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours depending on traffic. 
3. There are plenty of gas stations along the way to West Yellowstone entrance (about 1 gas station every 25 miles). There are gas stations inside the park as well - at Old Faithful, Canyon visitor center, Mammoth hot spring, Lake village and west thumb. So no need to stress over availability of gas. 
4. There are cafes at every lodge inside the park. Although food options are limited if you are a vegetarian. Moreover the food may finish quickly on long weekends. So good idea will be to pack your own food as a backup. 
5. Be patient! - specially during crowded time of the year. This is a popular national park and can get crowded in late spring / summer. Wildlife on road can result into mile long traffic and it can take up to an hour to drive 4 miles ( Been there, done that!). So be patient 
6. We covered most of the park in 1.5 days, but ideal will be 2.5 days. That way one can explore all the points and may be do a hike or 2 to explore the park like a traveller. 
7. Lamar valley - a must go! Do take time to drive to Lamar valley. Its a very scenic drive. 
8. Carry a binocular to see wildlife in Lamar valley. 
9. Visit popular spots like Grand Prismatic spring, Lower geyser basin in early morning. That way you can beat crowds of people, and don't have to struggle for parking.