Last year while I was reading A Canyon Voyage by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh about the second Powell Expedition that went down the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1871 and 1872, the text also spoke of their time spent reconnoitering and triangulating throughout the strip of land that is found north of the Grand Canyon and south of Utah state line, which is what motivated me to return to the Arizona Strip this year so I could could explore some of the peaks, plateaus and highpoints of this expansive region for myself. I also figured that this would make for a great extension of my exploration of the High Plateaus of Utah by continuing south through the Grand Staircase to the plateaus of the Grand Canyon District. So after leaving the Kaibab Plateau behind, Jared and I took off south across the Kanab Plateau from Fredonia on Monday afternoon and set out to spend the rest of the week making our way across the Arizona Strip. However, with temperatures much warmer than usual for this time of the year all over the southwest, we ended up taking it easy, relaxing in the shade at higher elevations as much as possible and having to cancel some of our hiking plans that it was just too hot for. Still, this was a great introduction of the plateaus of the Grand Canyon and I look forward to returning in the future to finish the hikes we couldn’t do this time around.
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Fall Colors along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Saturday – Monday, September 28-30, 2024
After spending the preceding week on an amazing rafting trip through the Canyon of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument, our group got off the river in the early afternoon on Friday and I made it home a few hours after that. Then I spent the rest of the evening unloading all my river gear and packing up my car-camping gear into the Jeep so I could leave on Saturday morning to spend a full week along the Arizona Strip and North Rim of the Grand Canyon with my friend Jared. Although we typically spend this first week in October wandering around Southern Utah, every so often we like to change it up and venture a little further south into Arizona. Thankfully we decided to begin our trip with a couple days on the Kaibab Plateau because it happened to be very warm all over the southwest this week and at least it was a little bit cooler up at these higher elevations. Plus, we got really lucky with the timing of our trip and managed to see the peak of the fall colors on display while we were up on the Kaibab Plateau, too!
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Grand Canyon National Park | Tuesday – Saturday, January 16-20, 2024
After spending a the first part of the week in Petrified Forest National Park we stayed at a hotel in Flagstaff for one night and then drove over to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on Tuesday morning by way of Williams and Tusayan. Since this was my very first time to the South Rim we headed straight to Mather Point for my first view of the canyon from this side. Then we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon visiting all of the overlooks along Desert View Drive as we made our way out to the Desert View Watchtower and then back again.
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Veterans Day Weekend | Wednesday – Saturday, November 10-13, 2021
I can hardly believe that it’s been over three years since I last set foot on the Esplanade in 2018! Back in 2019 Diane and I took the year off from visiting the North Rim so we could finally go see the Waterfalls of Havasu Canyon on the other side of the Grand Canyon, and then in 2020 we cancelled our planned trip due to the weather forecast and other things we needed to get done at home. I’ve been looking forward to getting back and was happy to finally return this extended Veterans Day weekend with Jerry. It felt great to be back on the Esplanade! The sky was clear and the high temperatures were in the 70’s while the lows at night were very comfortable in the 40’s. We even found some water in a couple shallow potholes. As usual, I’m not going to get into all the specific details of this trip, but I will share plenty of photos below. We found everything we were looking for and had a pretty great time, until we started climbing out of the canyon on Friday…
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Braving the Crowds and Permit Process to Finally Visit Havasupai
Wednesday – Sunday, October 23-27, 2019
I typically try to avoid crowded and very popular locations when I head out into the backcountry, but Havasu Canyon is one area that I felt I needed to make an exception for. I guess I should have tried to go over a decade ago when I first learned about this place, but who knew then how popular it was going to become thanks to Instagram and other social media platforms? This year I decided it was finally time to try to obtain permits, and although the process was very frustrating when they became available at the beginning of February, I was lucky and able to secure permits for the exact dates that I wanted at the end of October! Instead of spending our annual backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon exploring the Esplanade of the North Rim, this year we would be spending that time in Havasu Canyon.
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