Good Sam Camping Blog » Grand Canyon, Here We Come!

Grand Canyon, Here We Come!

Posted By Jeanine Kennedy On April 22, 2010 @ 9:11 am In Campgrounds & RV Parks,Family Camping,Kid-Friendly Trips,Nature & Wildlife,Outdoor Recreation & Hiking,State & National Parks | 2 Comments

Sorry I have not been posting over the last couple of months. Our lives have been extremely busy, and it seems winter finds us keeping to ourselves more.

^[1]

Mohave Point, Grand Canyon — courtesy of the National Park Service

But spring is now upon us. The windows are open, the grass is turning green. And now’s the time to prepare for those summer camping trips.

Every year, we try to plan at least one bigger camping trip. We’ll usually take a week-long road trip to a place we’ve never seen before.

This year, we’ve opted for a trip to the Grand Canyon. We’ve wanted to do this for a while, but it wasn’t until this year that our youngest (age four) is finally displaying enough maturity to not bolt off the nearest cliff.

Our trip is planned for the second week in June. We figured it would still be somewhat cool at that time. And yes, I know cool is a relative term when traveling to Arizona.

We’ve mapped out our itinerary and it looks like this:

We’ll begin by heading west to Moab ^[2], Utah. Here, we’ll spend our first two nights. This is a great haven for mountain biking, hiking and sightseeing, along with Arches National Park ^[3]. We’ll be staying at the Moab KOA ^[4], so the kids will be able to enjoy a pool and other amenities while we’re there.
Then, we’ll head due south to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Since this is our first trip, we decided on taking in the sights from this area. We opted for the Mather Campground ^[5] inside the park. Our preference has always been space and privacy over amenities, so this was a good match. Our trailer – which measures a little over 27” – just made it under the length restrictions of this campground. If you have a larger rig or prefer amenities such as full hookups, you may want to consider Trailer Village ^[5] or some of the private campgrounds in the surrounding areas.
From the Grand Canyon we will head back to Colorado via Four Corners and Cortez ^[6]. We’ll spend a couple of nights in Cortez as we take some time to visit Mesa Verde National Park ^[7]. I haven’t been there since I was a kid, and still have extremely fond memories of our visit, so I’m hoping the experience will be a good one for my children as well.

^[8] Mesa Verde National Park, courtesy of the National Park Service

After that, we head back home, where will undoubtedly start talking about our “big” trip for the following year. We have about a month and a half to get the trailer out of storage, prep it and get ourselves ready to go. With each passing day, I feel the excitement growing. It’s been two years since our last big trip, so everyone is ready.

Our camping trips – especially the long ones – have been such wonderful opportunities to spend quality time with the kids. We find ourselves doing things we normally don’t have time for at home. Even our teenager gets in on the action – and if you have or every have had one of these, you know firsthand that this is no small feat. I’ll be sure to report back after the trip (or even during) to let you know how it goes.

Greetings From Moab! ^[9]
Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: Yup, that’s a really big… ^[10]
Trail of the Ancients: A Journey worth Taking ^[11]
Peace in Pike National Forest ^[12]
Untamed, Unforgettable: Canyonlands National Park, UT ^[13]
Powered by Contextual Related Posts ^[14]

Last 5 posts by Jeanine Kennedy

Greetings From Moab! ^[9] - June 13th, 2010
Our Camping Season Begins at Cheyenne Mountain State Park ^[15] - June 2nd, 2010
You Want Me To Go Where? Camping With Teens ^[16] - May 11th, 2010
Weekend Escapes in Colorado -- Mueller State Park ^[17] - February 14th, 2010
The Best of Both Worlds ^[18] - February 7th, 2010

^[19]

^[20]

^[21]

^[22]

^[23]

^[24]

^[25]

^[26]

Article printed from Good Sam Camping Blog: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com

URL to article: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/04/grand-canyon-here-we-come/

URLs in this post:

[1] Image: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/04/grand-canyon-here-we-come/d7498-2/

[2] Moab: http://www.moab-utah.com/

[3] Arches National Park: http://www.nps.gov/arch/

[4] Moab KOA: http://www.woodalls.com/campground/campgrounddetails.aspx?campgroundid=41034600&index=3&type=PlacesToCamp&subtype=RVCamping

[5] Mather Campground: http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/cg-sr.htm

[6] Cortez: http://www.woodalls.com/campground/default.aspx?type=PlacesToCamp&subtype=FamilyCamping&city=cortez&state=CO&campground=&keyword=&radius=50&showFeatured=False

[7] Mesa Verde National Park: http://www.nps.gov/meve/

[8] Image: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/04/grand-canyon-here-we-come/mesaverde-2/

[9] Greetings From Moab!: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/06/greetings-from-moab/

[10] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: Yup, that’s a really big…: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2011/03/patti%e2%80%99s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-yup-that-that%e2%80%99s-a-really-big-hole-all-right/

[11] Trail of the Ancients: A Journey worth Taking: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2011/05/trail-of-the-ancients-a-journey-worth-taking/

[12] Peace in Pike National Forest: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/10/peace-in-pike-national-forest/

[13] Untamed, Unforgettable: Canyonlands National Park, UT: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2011/01/untamed-unforgettable-canyonlands-national-park-ut/

[14] Contextual Related Posts: http://ajaydsouza.com/wordpress/plugins/contextual-related-posts/

[15] Our Camping Season Begins at Cheyenne Mountain State Park: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/06/our-camping-season-begins-at-cheyenne-mountain-state-park/

[16] You Want Me To Go Where? Camping With Teens: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/05/you-want-me-to-go-where-travelling-with-teens/

[17] Weekend Escapes in Colorado -- Mueller State Park: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/02/weekend-escapes-in-colorado-mueller-state-park/

[18] The Best of Both Worlds: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/02/the-best-of-both-worlds/

[19] Image: http://slashdot.org/bookmark.pl?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fgrand-canyon-here-we-come%2F&title=Grand+Canyon%2C+Here+We+Come%21

[20] Image: http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fgrand-canyon-here-we-come%2F&title=Grand+Canyon%2C+Here+We+Come%21

[21] Image: http://reddit.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fgrand-canyon-here-we-come%2F&title=Grand+Canyon%2C+Here+We+Come%21

[22] Image: http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fgrand-canyon-here-we-come%2F&title=Grand+Canyon%2C+Here+We+Come%21

[23] Image: http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fgrand-canyon-here-we-come%2F

[24] Image: http://technorati.com/faves?add=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fgrand-canyon-here-we-come%2F

[25] Image: http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&output=popup&bkmk=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fgrand-canyon-here-we-come%2F&title=Grand+Canyon%2C+Here+We+Come%21

[26] Image: http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fgrand-canyon-here-we-come%2F&title=Grand+Canyon%2C+Here+We+Come%21

Click here to print.