We visited the Grand Canyon (Grand Canyon National Park) for the first time this week.

Truth be told, I was not super impressed when I saw it for the first time on Wednesday.

I know this may be blasphemous considering the Grand Canyon is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but in my defense, I had just spent 3 days basking in the glory of Sedona, Arizona’s red rocks (for the first time).

I was awe-struck by the beauty of those red rocks (more to come in a future post!), so when I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, I was underwhelmed & disappointed by the dry, dull colors.

I was also initially disappointed in the South Rim Trail.

I thought we were going to be hiking, but rather, the South Rim Trail is a mostly paved path that allows you to walk around the South Rim where you can view different areas of the canyon. It’s kind of like being at the zoo where you walk from exhibit to exhibit. It wasn’t what I would consider “hiking.”

Here are some different vantage points as we walked around the South Rim Trail.

You could also take a free shuttle from point to point as well–which I do recommend unless you want to walk all 14 miles of the South Rim Trail.

For our first day in the park, walking the South Rim Trail was a good way to get an understanding of what the park had to offer.

For our second day, we decided to hike down into the canyon on the Bright Angel Trail. It’s a very popular trail with several turn around points. There are shady spots to rest in and the path is generally pretty smooth.

You can hike all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on this trail, but it’s not advisable to hike down and back in the same day. Getting down is the easy part. Climbing allllll the way back up is not! Plus, the interior of the canyon can be 20 degrees hotter than on the rim, so in summertime, the interior of the canyon can be well into the 100’s (it actually got to 104 degrees while we were there).

Since we are fairly new to hiking (and our 20-year-old-daughter who is with us isn’t super fond of hiking), we chose to hike to the first turn-around-spot approximately 1.8 miles from the rim. It’s a water spot with fresh spring water and toilets.

This 1.8 miles might sound easy–which the descent was–but it’s an elevation change of 1,000 feet, so climbing back up was a bit of a challenge. It took us less than 2 hours from start to finish.

BUT, the challenge was worth it to get up close & personal with the millions-of-years-old rocks that comprise the canyon walls.

I mean, there is no comparison between getting to touch them and to see them so close and viewing them from afar from the top of the rim.

Even my pictures and videos don’t do them justice.

And the views from the hike are spectacular.

On Day 3 we hiked Hermit Trail (there is no parking in the summer months for this trail head…you have to take the blue shuttle to get there).

This is considered a moderately challenging trail, and it gets pretty steep in places the further down you go. I believe you can hike to the bottom with this trail too, but we did not explore that option! lol!

Since this rocky trail is more challenging with an elevation change of 1200 ft, we chose to hike 2 miles out and then turn around (which took us about 2 hours start to finish).

This trail did not disappoint with the breathtaking views and the variety of rocks!

This trail definitely required more physical exertion and had less shade than the Bright Angels Trail, but it was 💯 worth it. It was also way less busy so we could take our time appreciating the views (which I thought were more Sedona-like).

After this hike, we shuttled back to our car for lunch.

We were then going to hike out to Ooh Ahh Point on the South Kaibab Trail, but we went to the wrong shuttle stop (Yaki Point–which was pretty, but it wasn’t the trailhead), and it was already getting late, so we just decided to begin our trek back to our car & head home.

My thoughts: when visiting for the 1st time, it’s best to walk the South Rim Trail on your first day to help you get a feel for the canyon and the park, but you MUST do a hike or two to really experience the magnitude and grandeur of the Grand Canyon. It’s like someone sliced open the earth and we get to peek inside to see how our planet was formed.

I also thought it was fascinating to learn about the different formations and what our planet was like millions of years ago and how it changed over the course of time.

And to touch rocks that have been around for millions of years??? Mind blowing.

As a final note: The cost of admission wasn’t expensive. The pass is $35 and is good for 7 days. Or, you can purchase an America The Beautiful Interagency Pass (National Parks Pass) for $80/year that gets you into all the national parks plus admission onto federal lands and a variety of other uses (we used it for parking at the trailheads when we were in Sedona). And if you are able, I suggest bringing in your own lunch/food so you don’t have to wait in long lines. We got a little hangry on the first day! Ha!

As far as camping goes, we stayed in a KOA in Steligman, AZ…a 90 minute drive one way to the canyon. We typically decide our destinations last minute, so we sometimes have to stay further out, but 90 minutes was kind of pushing it.

We did pass Raptor RV Park about 40 minutes outside the canyon (which I did not see when searching for places to stay), and they had availability, so if you are looking for an RV park, check them out! There are other campgrounds closer to the canyon, but you do need to make your reservations early!