Lucky Links to Grand Canyon Essentials

Hi!  I'm Melanie Tucker, owner of Tough Love Travel.  I'd love to plan YOUR next adventure, here in the US or abroad! 

Grab a 20-minute free phone call to tell me what's on YOUR bucket list!

Here's an At-A-Glance directory for 7 of my most important Grand Canyon sites:

#1:  Map of FREE shuttle
The Grand Canyon has a remarkable shuttle service, and it's all free!  
You can hop a ride around the Grand Canyon village:

Or take a scenic 80-minute ride along Hermit Road:

Here are all your choices, and their time schedules!

#2: Schedule of Ranger events
Here's the schedule, for everything from geology walks, to critter chats (all about the very cute to the very venomous creatures of the Grand Canyon) to campfire programs:
South Rim Summer 2013 Program Schedule

#3:  How to get from South to North Rim
There's a Grand Canyon Shuttle  and a Trans-Canyon Shuttle, plus airlines.  For travel times, daily pickups, and costs, go here!

For those of you who are confused about South vs. North Rim, and why it's so complicated, here's a map that'll explain the transportation conundrum:

#4:  Availability of a Cabin on the Rim! 
For $154/night, you can sleep here: 

And have this view:

What's the trick?  Plan early and (preferably) go off season.   Here's the link for more info!

#5:  Grand Canyon RR (to/from the town of Williams)
Make your national park visit into a glorious adventure by starting in the town of Williams and chugging on the railroad up through the desert to the Grand Canyon village.   
There's a gunslinger's train holdup to excite the kids, and refreshment for the adults! 
And you can do the whole journey, roundtrip, in a single day,  or grab a lodge in the park for an overnight!
Read more here!

#6:   Most beautiful (and coolest) spot at the Grand Canyon: Havasu Falls

Blue-green gushing waterfalls in the midst of this arid desert?  YES! 
They're on the Havasupai Indian Reservation about 4 hours west of Grand Canyon.   Permits are needed - make your reservations early, by emailing here!


#7:  The Haulapai Tribe's Skywalk

On their tribal reservation, about 250 miles (or 5 hours) from the South Rim, the Haulapai have created a special Grand Canyon attraction. 

It's a horseshoe-shaped, glass-floored walkway that juts 70' out beyond the Grand Canyon rim, and -- short of an Evil-Kenevil stunt -- is one of the only ways to see the Grand Canyon's crevasse below your own 2 feet!  Here's Visitor Information!

BONUS!    
Best sidetrip from the Grand Canyon:  Lake Powell houseboating!
Only a few hours north of the Grand Canyon NP, you'll find the refreshing water playground of Lake Powell.   It's the perfect reward for days of Grand Canyon hiking, and -- as a spunky young Utah receptionist told me on the phone one day, "If ya can drive a car, ya can drive a houseboat!"

This is not actually a true statement (as I found out!),  but you'll have fun trying.
Here's where you can reserve a boat! 
And if you want to read about one family's houseboat adventure on Lake Powell, click here!

Love to read about rare finds from "the road". 

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Hangin' on a Houseboat... Lake Powell in our American Southwest

It had seemed like a fine idea… renting a houseboat to explore the canyons and emerald swimming bays of Lake Powell.  When I called for a reservation, the nice Utah gal on the phone said, “If ‘ya can drive a car, ‘ya can drive a houseboat."

Easy for her to say!  To begin with, there are no brakes on a boat… only a coasting stop (and a reverse gear, if you’re really in a panic!).  Also, it’s more the size of a double 18-wheeler than of any car I’ve ever driven.

But we boldly loaded up, and somehow got it backed out of the slip.   The narrow channels of the marina didn’t leave much room for error, though, and before I knew it, the Dock Master was flagging us down. My novice boating skills had earned us a private escort out of the yacht-filled marina.  Fortunately, my sons were young enough to think it meant we were special, not incompetent.

Free at last on the lake!  The breeze was cool, the rock buttes were a brilliant orange, and our icy beverages fizzed as we cracked open the peanuts. I guess I got caught up in our newfound adventure, and, before I knew it, we were nose-diving!

The bow of the boat, loaded down with 2 huge iced-down coolers, disappeared into the waves, and everything – our bodies, our books, our peanuts – flew South!  I yelled to the kids, “Run!  Run to the back!”, and as if their 70-pound, 10-year old bodies could save the day, they ran rear, grabbing white plastic chairs as they flew off the deck.

I slammed the engine into reverse (see alternate breaking method above), and with a great green slosh past my captain’s station and a thick glug of the motor, the pontoons rocked back upright.  Whew!  That was a close one!

So, all went well for the afternoon.  We quietly toured the lake and dreamed of our week ahead…  Jet-skiing through the warren of canyons, back to the famous Rainbow Bridge! Fishing derbies (can Mom really clean a catfish?)  Morning hikes along the shoreline! Ancient caves to explore!  Grand Western sunsets! Bonfires blazing in the desert night! Sleeping under the stars!

As the sky turned rosy and the kids called for dinner, though, I remembered that scary phrase from the boat orientation… “Beaching.” I had asked at the time, “Can’t we just circle the lake all night long?

The idea of beaching is to ram this 15,000-pound box of a boat into the sand beach, hard enough to stick, but not get stuck (all the while avoiding the red boulders for which Lake Powell is so famous).  It was a chaotic mix of boys, anchors, shovels, splashing and sweating, but we got her “set,” and with a whoop of victory, fired up the grill and opened the water slide.   Maybe houseboating WAS a brilliant idea after all.

As the kids chased each other down the slide, I took stock in our first day. I had nearly gotten a ticket, swamped the boat, and terrorized my crew. I had wondered if we had the “right stuff”-- when loading up, the other boaters filled their black wheelbarrows with cases of beer, while ours overflowed with scrabble, beach balls, and bags of marshmallows for our campfire.

But as the sun set, we dragged our mattresses out of the bunks and up onto the top deck, to sleep out under the powdered-sugar sky… just us five and the stars…and I knew we did!

ROADTRIP! Driving the deserts of the American Southwest!

As schools close and summer days get long, our over-scheduled souls yearn for freedom and adventure! Look no further than the open roads through our country's mountains and deserts, farms and seashores!

In the next few weeks, I will inspire you! I'm going to spotlight 4 different itineraries, in various regions of our country. So, trade your island brochures for National Park guides, get an oil change in your car, and pack up your hiking boots, because the American landscape awaits!

Itinerary #1: The Desert of the American Southwest!

Start in Las Vegas!

Known for its cheap flights (strategically low to attract gamblers), this city gives you the pick of themed hotels for any budget! Try Circus Circus (rock bottom rates right on the strip), or the MGM Grand (for a GRAND river pool), or the opulent Venetian (complete with gondolas on a private canal)!

You can catch the newest Cirque show, a gravity-defying spectacle called KA:

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ka/default.aspx

or see the classic musical, Lion King

or just walk the strip and watch the moving stage of pirate battles and dancing fountains.

Ever seen the fountain "ballet" at the Bellagio?

http://www.bellagio.com/amenities/fountains-of-bellagio.aspx

Then load up your rental car and hit the desert highway!

Loop north though Utah's canyon country!

You'll hit Zion's slot canyons first (always take a guide... those flash floods warnings are no joke!), and then Bryce's orange rock pillars, called Hoodoos Country!

You can't go wrong with either a morning hike or an afternoon balloon ride!

When my kids were young, we used to call those buttes "Birthday Cake Mountains" since they looked like a layered cake!

Stay and Play on Lake Powell!

Hire a houseboat for a few days, and kick back on the emerald green waters of this magnificent canyon! We fished by day and stoked bonfires by night, jet-skiied to the Rainbow Bridge (longest rock span on earth)

,

and hiked to the top of buttes.

We spent afternoons, dropping the hook in private coves to fire up our BBQ and open our waterslide right off the back of the boat!

And when night came, we dined on the water in the seclusion of our anchorage, watching the sun set over the empty canyonland - then we drug mattresses to our boat's top deck to cuddle together under a powdered-sugar sky full of stars!

You'll have to force yourself away from the treasures of Lake Powell, but more excitement awaits, only a few hours south at the Grand Canyon!

Stash your rental car in Williams and board the Grand Canyon Railway! You'll hear history and enjoy refreshments as you chug through the northern Arizona countryside, but be careful to steer clear of the gun-slingin' cowboys -- sometimes they get into shoot-outs, right on the platform!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPC8RSvKKu0&feature=related

If you plan carefully, you can snag a cabin, right on the rim.

"It's much more than basic... we were delighted", a client told me this past Spring.

And another guest said, "All I need is my percolator and the sunrise!"

You might enjoy the IMAX theatre show: The Grand Canyon Movie (buy your tickets online at http://www.explorethecanyon.com/)

And be sure you take some time to hike, not just along the rim, but also BELOW it, to feel the magic in this geological wonder! It's 270 miles long and over 1 miles deep!

If you're real Native American buffs, detour east to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Shay) where a canyon jeep tour with a Navajo guide will uncover petroglyphs and cave dwellings!

If you're a outdoor enthusiast, try a wilderness rafting trip on the Salt!

You'll ride wild rapids through the Sonora desert, tackle a multiday trip from Inn to Inn, or go all the way in a Wilderness River Expedition!

Take a day in civilization as you head back west through Sedona!

Gel at a vineyard, gear up on a mountain bike, go Zen at a spa, or just enjoy a dine-around in the downtown area. Watch up for those killer burritos!

No visit to Arizona would be complete without some hot spring-ing! There are many hot spring resorts, but the real finds are the ones you hike to, like this one, one a few minutes drive, but then a few hours hike, from Hoover Dam:

The rules? Hike together and in daylight. Take lunch and plenty of water. Expect nudity. And NEVER put your hand up on a ledge or under a rock.... this is scorpion country!