Grand Canyon

Before we got to that point, we still had a long drive from Needles to the Grand Canyon ahead of us. We had planned two stops along the way: Oatman, an old gold mining town with free-roaming donkeys, and Hackberry, a well-known stop on the old Route 66.

Oatman was definitely worth a stop; the donkeys could even be officially fed to Lenny's delight. And we got to visit an old mini-gold mine for free or just walk through it. Hackberry was just five old cars and a small shop by the road - but no matter, it was just nice to stretch our legs a bit 😉

Around 4:30 PM, we arrived at the Mather Campground. This was the first place with a lot of people - even though it was still off-season, it was quite crowded. This was also the first campground that had no hook-ups at all (i.e., no water/electricity). The night was really, really cold 🥶 At 5:30 AM it showed -2 degrees, Lenny eventually came to our bed because he was so cold 🙈 The next morning, we finally used our generator for the first time so we could warm up milk in the microwave for the freezing boys (you can only use it for 2 hours in the morning & evening because it’s so loud 😉).

And then it was off in beautiful weather and much more pleasant temperatures on the shuttle bus towards the Grand Canyon Rim. (Very well organized here, you can just leave the camper parked). We first wanted to walk a bit down into the canyon on the Bright Angel Trail and then head back on the Rim Trail.
The amount of people here is not surprising, but still crazy. Over 4 million people visit the Grand Canyon every year!
But just the first glimpse of this gigantic landscape made one forget the crowds. The dimensions are simply unfathomable, and the rock formations and colors are so beautiful 😍 We hiked down the carved path into the canyon for about 40 minutes, through various rock tunnels and stair steps. Then we turned back because we had to hike all the way up again.. 🙈😉 Lenny had his personal mule (me), while the other two hiked back up (almost without protest). After a short break, we continued on the Rim Trail towards the Visitor Center. There were wonderful views of the canyon again and again. The roughly 1.5 hours passed by almost like a dream.

Flying continued the next morning: We absolutely wanted to see the canyon and its gigantic dimensions from above. In a small, 16-seat plane, we took a 40-minute loop over the South Rim. Simply unbelievably beautiful! During this time, exciting information about the canyon was shared over the headphones. For example: The Grand Canyon is about 5-7 million years old. And if you came back in 10,000 years, it would only be about 30 cm deeper than today - unremarkable 😂

All in all, an incredibly impressive experience 😍 Now we’re heading to Page / Lake Powell.