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Day 1

Flew into Phoenix, grabbed rental car, got to our friend’s house to get settled and grabbed some groceries.

Day 2

Salt River Tubing

Drove about 45 minutes to go tubing on Salt River in Mesa. There is a cost to rent tubes. We took a cooler with some drinks – lots of fun, everyone is out there to have a good time.

Days 3-7 Sedona

Drove to Sedona (2 hours), stayed at Lo Lo Mai Springs Campground for 5 nights. Would recommend, late August seemed to be a good time to go as it wasn’t very crowded.

Lots of shopping in Sedona
Slide Rock State Park – 15 minutes outside of Sedona, few areas where you can climb and jump into the water, some parts where you can literally slide down the rocks. $10 per car to get in – really fun, definitely worth it.
There is a Dairy Queen on the way to Slide Rock, there’s a whole row of Native American stands where they sell handmade wooden animals, jewelry, trinkets and boxes. Very neat.
Chapel of the Holy Cross – definitely worth a stop, beautiful building.
Pink Jeep Vortex Tour – really cool, takes you to a couple vortexes. I was a little disappointed because I didn’t feel anything different at the vortexes (my friend did) but the sights (Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, Cathedral Rock) and guide were excellent. Went places that are only accessible in a jeep, places you’d never think you could drive through. Good way to see a lot of stuff in a short period of time.
Airport Mesa vortex – drove here a couple nights to watch the sunset. Watched a storm roll in too, which was awesome.
Jerome – old copper mining town about 40 minutes from Sedona. Was abandoned and then they turned all the old buildings into art galleries, old saloons, shops, there’s a B&B, a winery, lots to do.
Red Rock Crossing (also called Crescent Moon Picnic Site) – have to pay but really nice area to walk around and get some good pictures of Cathedral Rock.

Day 8

Grand Canyon

Drove 2 hours north to the Grand Canyon Mather Campground. Wouldn’t recommend this unless you have an RV – they stuck us right by the bathroom and it was really loud. Good location to see some of the south rim, however.

Day 9

Bright Angel Trail

Booked a one-night mule ride through Phantom Ranch (http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/things-to-do/mule-trips/). Had a very early start to ride down into the Grand Canyon, which was amazing. Our 2 guides went through all the safety instructions for riding and then we were on our way down the Bright Angel Trail. Took 5.5 hours to get down with a stop for lunch. Stayed at Phantom Ranch, which is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Great Steak dinner. You can go rafting there, we just toured the area on foot in the evening. Everyone gets their own cabin which was nice.

Day 10

Up early to take the South Kaibob Trail back up – 6.5 hours, takes longer on the way back because there were more stops. Drove back to Phoenix (3.5 hours) and had a late evening flight home the same day.

The mule ride and Slide Rock State Park were the 2 best things about this trip.
Year traveled: 2016

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Sedona and the Grand Canyon

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