Day 12 – Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend

Destination: Horseshoe Bend, Page, AZ 3 hours, 160 miles)

Our day started at 5am (thanks Beckett) and no hot water for Jaclyn’s shower. I guess living off the grid isn’t really THAT cool. The night before I had run to the corner store to grab some beer, cereal and milk (aka the essentials). As I was leaving the store I thought…hmmm….that seemed kind of expensive. Well, at breakfast, I saw the price tag on the back of the cereal box….$12.50!!! We probably paid a quarter per Froot Loop!

After finishing breakfast we hit the road and headed to a general store for some supplies. One would think I just learned my lessons with the Froot Loops but I didn’t. We bought a bunch of $5 kids pouches (woof!). So much for saving money by not eating lunch in the park.

Our first stop was the Grand Canyon and we entered through the south entrance. There was almost no traffic since it was so early which was great! We parked and then went to Mather Point. We tried walking some of the rim trail but Beckett was refusing the stroller and moving at a toddlers pace lol. Brooke was also being a grump so we decided not to push it.

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We headed back to the car and Beckett fell asleep before we could even get to the next stop. Again, not pushing it, we decided that since we have seen the Grand Canyon yesterday that we’d just get ahead and head for Page, AZ, which was about a 2.5 hour drive.

On the drive we encountered a road that we named roller coaster road since it was constantly bouncing us up and down. It was fun for about 5 minutes, the hour after that wasn’t as fun lol. The silver lining was that most of the drive had beautiful mountains alongside us. As we approached Page we drove up and through some gorgeous red mountains. These views were totally unexpected!

We arrived in Page with some time to kill (and money to save) so we hit Wally World to stock back up. We filled up the cart with supplies, which ironically cost the same as we spent at the general store that morning. With a little more time to kill we found a DIY car wash (thank god!). We had traveled around 3,500 miles and killed at least 3 times as many bugs. Not to mention some big glob of brown something right on the front grill of the car. The kids (and Jaclyn) were all entertained when I sprayed their windows.

After that we checked into the AirBnB and had a few hours of downtime. We cooked a dinner, which we missed, and then drove to Horseshoe Bend for sunset.

We arrived at Horseshoe Bend around 6:45 and hiked in the short hike. It was a pretty spectacular view. And the sheer height of the cliffs is crazy. Especially since most places don’t have railings and people are climbing everywhere to take pictures. Brookes favorite part was playing with the red sand on all the rocks lol. Beckett slept through the whole thing.

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We hiked out, went back to the AirBnB and then went to bed. The early morning and short drive today seemed to take its toll on us.

-Jay