Grand Canyon National Park {with kids} Part 2

It's time for another Traveling Tuesday post. I'm starting off with documenting some of the amazing places we visited last summer during our vacation out west. In July of 2015 we set out on a grand vacation through the southwest. We traveled for 21 days and over 6,000 miles, visiting 5 states and 9 National Parks. We explored new places and met up with old friends. Overall, it was an incredible journey and everyone learned so much. You can view all posts about our wild west adventure here. I divided my information about Grand Canyon into two separate posts, you can read part 1 here.

Destination: Grand Canyon National Park

Date of Visit: July 2015

Kids: Cole (age 8) & Kiley (age 5)

Length of Stay: 3 Days

As I mentioned in my first post about Grand Canyon, we entered the park on the East side of the South Rim and started by exploring the Desert View Watchtower. Our second day in the park, we started off by exploring Grand Canyon National Park. The kids were up early and it was amazing because it felt like we had the entire canyon to ourselves. We decided to hike a little into the canyon and while we were down there the kids completed some items from their Junior Ranger books. The rest of the day was spent visiting the main visitor center, and the Geology Museum. We finished with dinner at El Tovar in their spectacular dining room.

The early bird gets the best view.

Bright Angel Trail will lead you all the way to the bottom of the canyon. We didn't go very far, but we did venture down a little for a great view.

Getting sworn in as Junior Rangers at the Grand Canyon.

The kids agreed that Grand Canyon had the best gift shops of all the parks we visited. They had been waiting to spend some souvenir money and were excited to find some good treasures. Cole picked a deck of Night Sky Constellation Cards and Kiley picked a "Ranger Andy" doll. It's a park ranger doll that just happens to look like my good friend, who is a park ranger.

Highlights: Staying at El Tovar was by far one of the highlights of our visit to Grand Canyon. We loved getting up early and having the canyon all to ourselves. Rooms at hotels and lodges inside the canyon fill up fast so be sure to make your reservations early.

What We Would Change: As I mentioned in my Part 1 review, Grand Canyon was our least favorite park on our trip out west. It was the most crowded and had the largest number of tourists and trash on the ground. I'm glad we went and saw it but I really don't feel the need to ever go back. 

Recommended Reading: I highly recommend the Foder's guide to National Parks of the West, we used it when planning our trip and it was a great resource. I liked that there were plenty of suggestions to exploring the parks with kids.

Grand Canyon National Park {with kids} Part 1

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for my Traveling Tuesday post. I'm starting off with documenting some of the amazing places we visited last summer during our vacation out west. In July of 2015 we set out on a grand vacation through the southwest. We traveled for 21 days and over 6,000 miles, visiting 5 states and 9 National Parks. We explored new places and met up with old friends. Overall, it was an incredible journey and everyone learned so much. You can view all posts about our wild west adventure here. I'm dividing my information about the Grand Canyon into 2 seperate posts so that I can include a little extra information. You can read my second post about Grand Canyon here.

Destination: Grand Canyon National Park

Date of Visit: July 2015

Kids: Cole (age 8) & Kiley (age 5)

Length of Stay: 3 Days

For the next leg on our trip, we left Mesa Verde and headed towards Grand Canyon. Cole had requested a stop at Four Corners and since it was on our route I was happy to make that happen for him. The kids had a great time playing in all 4 states and it was a nice way to break up what was our longest drive so far this trip. 

I want to take a second to talk about the Four Corners area since many people will come across it driving to or from the Grand Canyon. The only reason we decided to stop here was because my kids had read about it in a guide book and really wanted to visit. Four Corners monument resides within the Navajo Nation, it is $5 per person to enter (under 6 are free) and they only take cash. There are no gas stations, grocery stores or other amenities within 30 miles of the landmark. The bathrooms were pit toilets (although it did look like they were adding some additional ones). I'm glad we stopped because it was important to the kids, but there really isn't much to see or do there other than the actual cement landmark. It's not some place I'd go out of my way to visit, and we probably won't make it a point to go back next time we're out west.

We entered Grand Canyon from the east and our first stop was at the Desert View Watchtower. The view was spectacular (of course) and the kids loved climbing all the way to the top of the tower. After looking around we checked in to our hotel. We decided to stay inside the park at the historic El Tovar lodge. We loved it there and we literally stepped out our door and were right at the rim of the canyon.

Staying at El Tovar was a splurge for us, but we were impressed by how big the rooms were even though the hotel is very old. Getting to see the stars over the canyon as we walked back from dinner and being the first ones out in the morning was worth it. The kids loved the games they had at the hotel for guests to play. Jr. RangerLand was our favorite but we also enjoyed National Park Monopoly.

Highlights: The Desert View Watchtower was really fun to climb and both kids enjoyed it. This area of Grand Canyon was less crowded than what we would later encounter along the South Rim so I'm glad this was our first experience in the park. There is also a small grocery store near the Watchtower so it was nice to stop and stock up on some snacks. We loved staying at El Tovar. Worth every penny, if you ask me.

What We Would Change: Ok, I might get hate mail for saying this, but Grand Canyon was our least favorite park on our trip out west. It was the most crowded and had the largest number of tourists and trash on the ground. I'm glad we went and saw it but I really don't feel the need to ever go back.

Recommended Reading: I highly recommend the Foder's guide to National Parks of the West, we used it when planning our trip and it was a great resource. I liked that there were plenty of suggestions to exploring the parks with kids. I also recommend the two games we played at the hotel, Jr. RangerLand and National Parks Monopoly.