Grand Canyon Three Day Trip with HikingOC

Photo by Bob Pasadena

The HikingOC Grand Canyon trip features sightseeing and an option hiking with one of our groups or following your own custom itinerary.

1. Sightseeing: drive or take a shuttle on the scenic roads: Desert View Drive and Hermit Road (spring guide page 7)
http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/upload/desert-view.pdf 

2. Meteor shower viewing: peak time on earth day midnight April 21 to dawn April 22. http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide

3. Hiking Trails: Bright Angel trail, Yavapai Point and South Kaibab trail (spring guide pages 8 and 9) http://www.nps.gov/grca/parknews/upload/2012SRspring-guide1202.pdf

(Tentative schedule is subject to change due to weather condition and unexpected emergency)

 

The first day is a travel day; it is almost 500 miles from Orange, CA to Grand Canyon Village, AZ. Travel time by car is approximately 8 hours. Even though it may be a long drive, it is a great chance to spend time with friends and share your excitement of the upcoming journey together. Upon arriving to the Grand Canyon (GC)

, some of us will check in at the Yavapai lodge and some of us will check in at the Mather group campground. We meet up together at the GC visitor center and drive (or ride a shuttle bus) to Desert View Drive for a scenic drive, and later for viewing the sunset.

Photo by Krai

 

Desert View Drive is a scenic route that covers 25 miles of the Arizona Hwy. 64 along the South Rim of GC. Driving across this stretch of land will take us 800 years back in time. Along the scenic viewpoints, we may learn the different ways people found food, water and shelter back then. We also have a chance to experience the "ever-changing seasons of Grand Canyon" that is accompanied by some breath-taking and inspiring landscapes.
We time ourselves for two hours to finish the scenic route before 6:15PM, and then we will head back to Yavapai Point for sunset. Since Yavapai point is known for its spectacular view of the canyons at sunset and usually is less crowded than other viewpoints, we will try our best to make it there before sunset time, which is at 7:04PM. Otherwise, we will stay at Desert View Point to view sunset.

Dinner and night time activities:

Majority of the HikingOC group members will be camping, so we will gather at the campsites for dinner and campfire before calling it a night no later than 10 PM.

Photo by Bob Pasadena

We usually have a great view of the night sky in dark places, away from the city lights, such as the deserts. April is also a peak time of the Lyrid Meteor Shower, so we are up around 3 AM to witness this spectacular night sky full of stars--many shooting stars. As we are busy looking at the stars, it is likely that we won't realize the upcoming sunrise.

Sunrise time is at 5:45AM, so we may have another "show" of the canyon in the early morning light. This begins the second day for the group, which will be divided up  in smaller groups for different hiking levels and interests: 

• Group 1 does an all day strenuous hike to the river and back for 17 miles round trip.
• Group 2 and 3 do a moderate hike to the inner canyon from 7-14 miles.
• Group 4 takes the short easy hikes at different viewpoints on the rim trail.
• Some of us will like to be on our own, take the shuttle bus and stop by the viewpoints for sightseeing the park.

If you join any of the above hiking groups, we will have detail trails description for each group on another post. You can find it on: http://hikingoc.com/ "Day Hikes of Grand Canyon South Rim Trails". If you are into sightseeing, photography or with family and friends that are not interested in hiking, there are still so much to do on the top of the park. Besides taking pictures at different times of the day, you can stop by Yavapai Geology Museum; attend Geology talk, and Geo-Glimpse to hear the story of how Grand Canyon formed.



Photo by Van Paris

Strolling from point to point around the park is another great thing to do. You can take the shuttle bus to the South Kaibab trailhead and hike a little bit on the rim trail. The trails are listing on page 12 (spring guide), but the other two recommended trailheads are Yavapai Point and Bright Angel trail. From these trailheads with short hikes 1-3 miles combination, you will have a view of the inner canyon, views of the Colorado River and Phantom Ranch.

On the second day, viewing the sunset will be at a viewpoint on Hermit Road, another scenic drive. Hopi Point attracts many visitors, or you can choose a different viewpoint while taking a scenic route on the shuttle bus on the scenic route.



Photo by Dich

Afterwards, we will have another dinner and campfire with the group at the campsites. Tonight is your choice of staying up late. The third day is your optional day. You can wake up late, have breakfast with the group and drive home; you can tour more of the park, or you can get up early and leave. Have a safe drive home!