Road Trip Through Arizona

Karlee
Feb 20, 2018
3 min read

Updated: Dec 13, 2019

My father and I were on an epic 1,700-mile road trip that started in California. We planned to make our way through Utah while visiting some National Parks then over to Arizona. Our First Stop in Arizona was Lake Powell and Glen Canyon. We drove through the night and slept along the side of the road in the car waking up to Glen Canyon. The canyon was incredible and such a beautiful place to wake up and eat breakfast. Later we headed to a nearby Lake Powell visitor pull off and took in the views. There are many hikes and day time activities you can do around the lake and the surrounding area. I recommend taking out jet skis or paddle boards for the day or just taking a swim if you are visiting in the hot summer months! Some great hikes in the area are Navajo Canyon, Aleson Arch, Rainbow Bridge, and Labyrinth Canyon.

Our next stop was Page, Arizona! It was a bucket list goal to pay a visit to the iconic Horseshoe Bend off Highway 89. It is only a short (and depending on the time of day) crowded hike to the bend overlook. Horseshoe Bend is best viewed late morning and mid-day to avoid shadows for photographs. But viewing the bend at any time is amazing and will never disappoint!

Next on our Arizona exploration we headed towards the famous Grand Canyon.

Because of the direction we were traveling we decided to head to the North Rim entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park. This side of the Grand Canyon is only opened during the summer months because of the higher elevation and snow fall. Some perks for exploring this side of the Grand Canyon is that the odds of getting a campsite is way more likely, and it is always way less crowded. We stayed at an awesome little campsite a few miles outside of the entrance of the park called Demotte Campground. We spent a few days hiking around various trails. Originally we wanted to backpack down into the Canyon and then back out the following day, but it is better to take the South Kaibab Trail because it cuts off many strenuous steep miles and there are more water locations. Some great day hikes to do around North rim are the Bright Angel Trail, it is about 1 mile or so round trip to a spectacular view point. One of my favorite hiking trails was the Cape Final trail. The views are so incredible and it is a great place to spend the afternoon eating lunch and taking in the 360 degree views and is only 4 miles. My second favorite hiking trail was Widfross Point trail. It is ten miles round trip and a very moderate hike. After a few miles into the trail you are along the ridge and get many photo worthy viewpoints until you reach Widfross Point. The best sunset hike we did was to Cape Royal Point and you also get great views of Angels Window and the Colorado river below. Another trail we enjoyed was the Point Imperial Trail, this trail also offers great views of the canyon. To get down into the Canyon and into the Colorado river, you take the North Kaibab Trail. This trail also offers great views after only a few miles into it if you only have a few hours to explore!