Loved that article, especially these reviews:
There was dirt EVERYWHERE
They should’ve made it closer to phoenex when they were carving it
more like grand blandyon
And I wholeheartedly agree that
it’s just a big ditch.
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Sometimes when I don’t want to go on a trip but need to, I talk myself into enjoying the food and shopping. While I am not much of a shopper I do enjoy finding gems in local art work. When D moved to Munich, Germany for 3 years we went to visit thinking it would be bland. But, we really enjoyed trying the food and seeing the very small towns by train.
In the southwest- one week on a flight and I would definitely add Arches and Moab. Most people really enjoy it. It is mystical.
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There’s an example of different people liking different things…so many people rave about Zion. I liked it, but to me it wasn’t hugely different from Yosemite, whereas I think the other parks are all so different (especially arches and Bryce) to what you might see elsewhere. But the only way to know is to go 
Also, a plus one for adding Sedona (and Oak Creek Canyon) to the list if in the area. That’s where we stayed on our most recent visit. First time I stayed in flagstaff.
We took the train to the Grand Canyon from Williams which was kind of cheesy but fun. Not sure we would do if not with the kids though, otoh it saves you the drive (depending how far from Williams you’re based).
I love cities– and I’ve written before that I was the reluctant traveler on a family trip to Hawaii.
Boy I was wrong. The topography, the foliage, the birds, the crazy sight of lava spewing into the Pacific….
Sometimes traveling to a place you have no interest in seeing really sparks some new and different thinking. I still think that spending a lot of money to sit on a beach for a week is not my jam– but I found Hawaii so interesting (and we barely had time for the beach) that it encouraged me to rethink my prior “No, not interested” responses. And I’ve since been to a couple of places I had no interest in seeing and it’s been wildly mind blowing. Totally outside of my comfort or interest zone, totally worth it, so glad I did it.
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Don’t get me started! There is so much more to Hawaii than beaches.
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I knew this– but still figured a trip to Hawaii meant sitting on the sand with a book (I live a block from a beach- admittedly, a rocky and cold New England beach but I can sit on the sand with a book anytime I want).
It was a really mind-blowing trip.
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I love travel of all kinds - cities, countryside, NPs, beach. We did the grand canyon when my husband and I were newly engaged and enjoyed it. It was off season (November) so we were able to stay in a cabin right on the rim (without booking eons in advance) so it was really nice. I’d go if it is important to you. It’s not my favorite though - I liked Yosemite more and also Olympic. All our NP visits have been shoulder season or off season which has increased our enjoyment tremendously - light crowds really improve the experience (to me). We hit Olympic a week before Memorial Day and were able to cruise up to Thunder Ridge with no traffic - we heard that a week later it was a complete backup - to me, that is no fun so if you can visit the parks at less crowded times I highly, highly recommend it.
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I always stay in the park if I can. You waste so much time driving in from Flagstaff or Williams. If you can’t stay in the park Tusayan is the best place to stay IMO.
We were there for 4 or 5 days so weren’t spending it all in the park. We saw a fair amount of other things in the Sedona area too. Took one day to go to the Canyon.
For our travel style we stay in the place we want to be and then move to another place. For our most recent trip we stayed right outside Bryce for two nights, then went to Springdale at Zion then to Page AZ for Horseshoe Bend then to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, but I get that a lot of people don’t like moving around that much. I’d almost always rather stay in the national park given the option, but Ruby’s at Bryce and Springdale at Zion are acceptable exceptions for us.
If I was doing this trip I’d book a couple of nights at the South Rim, then move onto Sedona, then maybe down to Tucson.
So true! I had zero interest in either Hong Kong or Madrid and loved the energy of both places. I also avoided Hawaii for years and absolutely loved it when we finally did a family trip. We are not beach people and actually spent only one day lazing on the beach.
To the earlier point made about lesser known parks in the southwest, we enjoyed Sunset Crater and Goblin Valley. A week trip (assuming you don’t have to drive days to get to the area) is sufficient to have a really good trip to other areas near the Grand Canyon.
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We were only going to spend a day at the canyon - the actual trip was to stay in Sedona. So not quite the same. We did do what you did in Utah, but obviously there is serious distance between the parks so it makes more sense there. We started off in SLC, drove down (with a stop or two at the petroglyphs) to Moab for a few days (arches, canyonlands, dead horse, some easy hikes around), stayed in Bryce (at the best western so on the shuttle route, which we took one day and then drove in the next day as it was spring and the shuttle didn’t go all the way in - would have missed beautiful snow capped hoodoos if we’d stuck to the shuttle), stayed at Zion lodge which was a great base for Zion, then flew back from Vegas. The state is beautiful so the drive itself was incredibly scenic too. Shoutout to Helper and Koosharem as interesting stops.
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We visited the Grand Canyon the first week of April 2025 and as we drove through Flagstaff (we flew into Phoenix) it began snowing and it continued overnight while we stayed in Tusayan. I’d read all sorts of things about parking but after scraping the snow off the windows of our rental car with a brochure, we drove into a beautiful almost empty park. But it was very foggy and we couldn’t see a thing. I was complaining so much about waiting 62 years and now I still couldn’t see the canyon. And then it suddenly cleared and was absolutely beautiful. The ways the colors changed throughout the day depending on the sunlight and snow showers were amazing. I’m not sure seeing the canyon once is really seeing it.
I’m also interested in the history of tourism and national parks, particularly the early years. The Grand Canyon had a great exhibit about the early photographers and the conditions they worked under. In one of the photography studios on the rim. They’d take pictures of people on burros going down and then sprint a distance down to where they developed them near a stream for the water they needed to use and then back up to sell the photos as the tourists came back. It was fascinating. As was the history of the lodges, etc.
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Even though it is not a National Park, Meteor Crater is really neat. It isn’t as grand as all of the National Parks mentioned, but it is spectacular in its own right.
2 years ago, we drove across country from the Midwest to California to visit my husband’s elderly aunt. We, of course, stopped for the Grand Canyon as neither of us had ever seen it. We both loved it.
At my prodding, we stopped at Meteor Crater. He was just humoring me as I love the astronomy and geology stuff. He was blown away. Yes, it is just a hole in the ground, but it is the best preserved meteor impact crater on earth. Now, he strongly recommends it to friends and family. You do have to pay to get it, but it still is very interesting.
Oh, we were also standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona as one of our stops.
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If the budget allows, escorted tours might be a way to go. I never would have tried the Yosemite trip on my own at this point in my life. So I did Road Scholar - we got driven to all the most popular and beautiful sites, stayed in the park, had a great Conservancy Ranger along, and put up with the so-so food and lodging. We have friends who did the Road Scholar tour of the Utah parks and loved it. And you can pick a tour that matches your personal exertion tolerance. My tour was mainly couples but there were about a half dozen singles.
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Yes, tours and private guides can certainly add a lot to a visit. We splurged and hired a private guide for 2 8-hour tours at Yellowstone to see baby animals and the guide picked us up & brought spotting scopes and took us around to see as many baby animals as possible. It was fun and memorable!
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Hurricane Ridge?
It sounds like you were traveling on your own – did you find people to hang out with?
Yes, sorry. Not sure why I got that wrong. A beautiful spot and only about 20 people up there when we went which made it even better.
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I did more or less make friends with one other woman on her own; took me a couple of days to realize she was a serial complainer so spent a bit less time with her after that. But it was a small group so got to know several people over the four days.
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