10 Days Camping in Arizona
Day 1: There are plenty of airports in and around Flagstaff, but Flagstaff and Page airports will be the most central to the destinations in Arizona. Drive straight to Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs national monument, passing just random unnamed plateaus that still look cool to the tourist. The main entrance is on the Utah side, and the famous destination here is The Wave. This is difficult to get to, since they only allow 20 permits per day — 10 online and 10 as a walk-in that is very often highly in demand. Camping here is allowed, but requires a permit. Another popular trail is a 15-mile one from White House Trailhead to Buckskin Gulch that crosses a stream frequently — so take care to check the weather. This one requires no permit — just a $6 permit at the trailhead. America the beautiful pass is not accepted here.
For a short day hike you can do the Birthday arch. A short 5 mile hike takes you through a wash through interesting landscapes and a mini wave-like structure.
Drive to Horseshoe bend to catch the sunrise. The walk from the parking lot is easy, and around a third mile. The parking lot is quite small, which limits the number of people that are allowed, and sunset is a popular time. Entrance is $10 but they accept America the Beautiful.
Grab a tent site in one of the campgrounds in Page, or take to the Walmart parking lot.
Day 2: Wake up at the break of dawn to head to Antelope Canyon. For this, head to any of the google-able tour sites and find a tour well in advance. There are plenty available, but you do have to plan early to snag a tour. The best time to go to the Antelope Canyon is the afternoon when the sun shines the most, but the morning is still quite beautiful, cooler, and less crowded. The tours leave from Page in tiny tour vans, which take you to the canyon head. From there you walk into the canyon all the way through and back out.
The tour ends still early in the day, so take the 2 hour drive to head to Monument valley.
There is a ranger station with water and bathrooms, and there is no fee for entrance. It has a handy 17 mile loop drive that goes through 11 signed stops, and takes anywhere from 1–4 hours depending on how long your stops are. We drove a Hyundai Sonata and that had no issues driving through the terrain though a little rough. There are a few stops that sells Native American goods like dream catchers. In addition, there is a 3 mile loop called the Wild Cat trail that makes a loop around some of the buttes in the valley — its an uncovered trail but very easy and flat. This trail offers great, close up, and not-crowded views.
To start the hike into Havasupai early in the morning, drive over to park at the Havasu parking lot. At the entrance, no matter the time of the day, there will be workers inspecting your car for any alcohol, drugs, or large propane tanks. There is a small ‘ranger’ station and porta-potties.
Day 3: Havasupai day 1
The parking lot in the morning is already full of other hikers and mules carrying things down. There are signs that say, ‘no pictures’. But pretty sure it just means of the mules or the inhabitants of Havasu. 8 miles down through mostly gravel and sandy paths that is mostly a slight downhill incline gets you to the Havasu village.
There you check in and and get wristbands that are to stay on for the duration of the stay. Rangers along the way might ask to check wristbands at checkpoints. The village also has a few shops if you need more food or supplies. From there, take another 1–2 mile trek to get to the campground. You’ll start seeing the first set of waterfalls to your left. followed by the Havasu fall soon after to your right. Soon after, near the Havasu waterfall there are two flatbread stands that sell burgers and hot dogs that uses flatbreads as the bread, regular flatbreads, and gatorade. The stand closer to the village sells smaller flatbreads for cheaper.
First day, we walked through the mile long campsite to pick a campsite to set up our tents. We explored the set of waterfalls closest to the Village and Havasu and had an early night.
Day 4: Havasupai day 2 — We walked to explore the Beaver Falls, which requires 3 stream crossings — so bring water shoes. At Beaver Falls, there is a rope in the Western side of the falls that leads up farther upstream. This climb is not for the faint hearted! At points you will not have a solid hand-hold. But it’s a fun excursion!
The 8 mile round-trip is mostly flat and easy except for a few spots that require climbing down or up ladders — the biggest being on the way to Mooney Falls.
Day 5: Havasupai day 3 — Another hiking destination from Havasu is the Confluence of the Colorado River and the Havasu creek. This is a 17 mile hike, and adds no more difficult parts and 6 more river crossings than the hike to the Beaver Falls. Before you make the left turn onto where the picnic table is at Beaver Falls, continue straight! I made the mistake of turning left and ended up climbing a wall a few times.
Random things we saw: creepy-prehistoric looking centipedes. Gross. And there are these dry white but otherwise harmless looking caterpillars — one of which was hiding in my boot that I only discovered a mile later, so also gross. But super _cool_ is the fox and the mountain sheep that we saw!
Day 6: Havasupai day 4 — The last day was rainy, so we packed up early and headed out in the morning. This would have been a easy hike back out had it not for the rain. One issue was the extreme cold that came with the cold, and the other was the sudden formation of the stream that made the track a lot more difficult to follow. It took about 5 hours for an average josephine to hike back up — the only tough portion being the climb at the end.
Drive over to the Grand Canyon and sleep at the Mather Campground — you will have to pay $35 for the entrance fee — and the Grand Canyon takes the America the Beautiful pass.
Day 7: Wake up early to wait in line at the Backcountry office which opens at 8AM. We didn’t get the camping permits that we wanted, so we had to go to the office to get walk-in permits for the next night. We went to go wait in line at 7AM when a thunderstorm was expected the day after — so there wasn’t a line when we got there. When the doors opened at 8am, we got our numbers and thankfully we early enough to get a campsite at Bright Angel ($35) for the night after.
For the rest of the day, we drove to the Painted Desert (accepts America the Beautiful, not crowded).
Come back to Mather to camp for the hike tomorrow.
Day 8: We took the South Kaibob trail — 7 miles, steeper than the Bright Angel. The decline was easy and nothing compared to the decline at Havasu. We made it down in less than 3 hours, and there was no thunderstorm though one was expected. The Bright Angel campground is right next to one of the streams of the Colorado river and has a flush toilet into which you manually dump water (still a luxury for a camp) and is right next to the Phantom Ranch. A great family friendly trip idea would be to ride horses to and from the Phantom ranch and book a room there.
For the rest of the day, we walked around Phantom ranch, went in the river, and filled out a booklet to get a Junior Ranger badge, which was a highlight for sure.
Day 9: We took our sweet time to get up so we hiked mostly in the mid-day heat. The first half of the hike up from Bright Angel (9 miles) is quite leisurely, but the second half is a steady incline that never seems to end. 5.5 hours later, we made it to the top. Overall the Grand Canyon is amazing, but not particularly spectacular.
We spent the rest of the evening driving through Sedona and making quick stops at scenic pull-overs on the way back to Flagstaff.
