Grand Canyan-Moab best trip plan help

rhvpilot

rhvpilot

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Nov 1, 2013
Messages
201
Location
san Jose, CA
Display Name
Display name:
RHV PILOT
Hello guys,

I have been looking for family fun location reasonable distance from San Francisco.. during spring break.

Grand Canyon seems to be very interesting... please help planning the trip..
Here are my thoughts,

Somebody said, fly Grand Canyon corridor, follow the river to page then go to monument valley... I wonder may be we should fly to Sedona explore some local kids attractions, spend night in Sedona, next morning fly Grand Canyon corridor (should i land in KGCN or follow river to page and then finally land monument valley. I hope smoother air in morning and afternoon. ... may be then should go to MOAB Rent a car, stay in MOAB see arches etc.
will greatly appreciate the feedback
 
I can't speak to flying between the sites but we did a family tip last year to do the "grand circle". It was myself, my wife, and our 12 year old daughter. Previous family vacations were always relaxing trips such as Disney, a Cruise, or an all inclusive. For this trip we flew into vegas and then spent 10 days driving from park to park and hiking at least one trail in each one. It was one of the best trips we have ever done as a family. In order we hit up Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Dead Horse state park, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, and Hoover dam. Our favorite by far was Zion. Bryce Canyon was a close second but the hiking there is much harder due to a lack of shade. Grand Canyon was almost a let down after visiting the other parks. It was just too commercialized and crowded. We enjoyed the trip so much last year that we are going to Yosemite and Sequoia this summer for another family hiking vacation.
 
I find the North rim of the canyon far more enjoyable than the South rim. And Zion is my favorite actionable Park.
 
kmacht said:
I can't speak to flying between the sites but we did a family tip last year to do the "grand circle". It was myself, my wife, and our 12 year old daughter. Previous family vacations were always relaxing trips such as Disney, a Cruise, or an all inclusive. For this trip we flew into vegas and then spent 10 days driving from park to park and hiking at least one trail in each one. It was one of the best trips we have ever done as a family. In order we hit up Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Dead Horse state park, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, and Hoover dam. Our favorite by far was Zion. Bryce Canyon was a close second but the hiking there is much harder due to a lack of shade. Grand Canyon was almost a let down after visiting the other parks. It was just too commercialized and crowded. We enjoyed the trip so much last year that we are going to Yosemite and Sequoia this summer for another family hiking vacation.
Click to expand...
If you don't yet have a place to stay for Yosemite you might want to consider our AirBnb at Pine Mountain Lake (E45) - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3511358?source_impression_id=p3_1566196550_3lpL90S9TFYP8QVw.

I'm uncertain about the rental car situation. You might check here for this:
https://calpilots.org/columbia-and-pine-mountain-lake-airport-have-rental-cars-2/

Nice thing about staying at Pine Mountain Lake is the short, scenic, 26 mile to the gates at Yosemite - and after a day of exploring jump in our beautiful lake with it's white sandy beach - a five minute walk from our cabin. We have an amazing golf course as well!
 
Lndwarrior said:
If you don't yet have a place to stay for Yosemite you might want to consider our AirBnb at Pine Mountain Lake (E45) - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3511358?source_impression_id=p3_1566196550_3lpL90S9TFYP8QVw.

I'm uncertain about the rental car situation. You might check here for this:
https://calpilots.org/columbia-and-pine-mountain-lake-airport-have-rental-cars-2/

Nice thing about staying at Pine Mountain Lake is the short, scenic, 26 mile to the gates at Yosemite - and after a day of exploring jump in our beautiful lake with it's white sandy beach - a five minute walk from our cabin. We have an amazing golf course as well!
Click to expand...

Nice looking place. We looked at a few Airbnb's but ended up getting an overpriced tent at camp curry. I am hoping to get a permit for half dome through the pre-season lottery. If I do get the permit my wife does not like the idea of getting up at 4am to drive me to the trail head. From the camp it is a short 1/2 mile walk to the start of the trail so she can sleep while I start hiking. She and my daughter plan on taking the bus to an easier hike that day.

Keith
 
Hard to go wrong with any of those ideas. Zion park is nice too, adjust for weather.
 
rhvpilot said:
...I have been looking for family fun location reasonable distance from San Francisco..... greatly appreciate the feedback
Click to expand...
Definitely, see the Utah parks, they are spectacular. Early or late season is best; Summer in the desert is a series of hazards, at least for this Midwesterner. For the next trip, I can recommend some of the smaller places in Idaho. Craters of the Moon is a national park now. It's foreboding and dark, but unique for hikers used to the colorful parks further South. Another, smallish (for Western US) park is City of Rocks. Lots of climbable rocks and easy hiking trails. If you are inspired by history, you can check out some of the trails blazed by Lewis and Clark. A couple of years ago, I tried to drive the Lemhi Pass, Idaho to Montana. I was a bit late in the season; gained a new respect for the Corps of Discovery (and gratitude for hunters who directed me to the right Forest Service road to get back to lower ground).

As for flying, Idaho has dozens of small airports, most of which are accessible to weekend pilots.
HTH
 
What ages are the kids? Do they like to hike?
What time of year?
 
Here's a video of a flight last month, northbound through the Zuni Point Corridor over the Grand Canyon, and a landing at Marble Canyon (L41).


Marble Canyon is fun as a quick stop. Grab lunch at the Restaurant across the street from the airstrip, where you pay your landing fee, then walk five minutes to the spectacular Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River. L41 is the only place where you can legally land within the Grand Canyon SFRA.
 
If you do fly the canyon please make sure you check and plan with the Grand Canyon VFR chart. They are now updating after literally years of no updates.
 
Pilawt said:
Here's a video of a flight last month, northbound through the Zuni Point Corridor over the Grand Canyon, and a landing at Marble Canyon (L41).


Marble Canyon is fun as a quick stop. Grab lunch at the Restaurant across the street from the airstrip, where you pay your landing fee, then walk five minutes to the spectacular Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River. L41 is the only place where you can legally land within the Grand Canyon SFRA.
Click to expand...
This is good one, thanks for sharing the video. How is turbulence after lunch?
 
MountainDude said:
What ages are the kids? Do they like to hike?
What time of year?
Click to expand...
4 kids from 10-15 yrs of ages, and my wife..
the like hikes but I never know when they are going to come to sudden stop and declare “tired”
In other words, love nature no long hikes, and must have access to amenities.. also enjoy playing in snow and on lake.

Times of year is usually when they get break from school.
 
rhvpilot said:
4 kids from 10-15 yrs of ages, and my wife..
the like hikes but I never know when they are going to come to sudden stop and declare “tired”
In other words, love nature no long hikes, and must have access to amenities.. also enjoy playing in snow and on lake.

Times of year is usually when they get break from school.
Click to expand...

First of all, I would not go anywhere until coronavirus is dead.
Sedona is great and has lots of great areas to explore by car and on foot. Plenty of short hikes. This is my favorite site for choosing hikes in that area:
http://www.efmer.eu/trails/usa/az/sedona/sedona.html

Flagstaff can be done as a day trip from Sedona, or you can fly up and rent a car at the FBO (super nice folks). The town is nice to walk around and has good restaurants and botanic garden. The highlights around town are the Wupatki NM, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, and (my favorite) the trail to Humphreys peak. You dont have to hike all the way to the top to enjoy great views.

Page has enough sites around to spend a month. I would go to the Horseshoe bend, a slot canyon, and do a lake tour (the best one is all the way to Rainbow Arch, but it's a full day).

Moab also has enough things to keep you busy for months. Besides the obvious, I recommend the Behind the Rocks hike, and Poison Spider Mesa. If you are into mountain biking, the best thrill is the Porcupine rim trail. Corona arch is easy and gorgeous.

Flying from Flagstaff, over Lake Powell, then national parks around Moab is one of the most beautiful sites in the world. Enjoy.
 
MountainDude said:
First of all, I would not go anywhere until coronavirus is dead.
Sedona is great and has lots of great areas to explore by car and on foot. Plenty of short hikes. This is my favorite site for choosing hikes in that area:
http://www.efmer.eu/trails/usa/az/sedona/sedona.html

Flagstaff can be done as a day trip from Sedona, or you can fly up and rent a car at the FBO (super nice folks). The town is nice to walk around and has good restaurants and botanic garden. The highlights around town are the Wupatki NM, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, and (my favorite) the trail to Humphreys peak. You dont have to hike all the way to the top to enjoy great views.

Page has enough sites around to spend a month. I would go to the Horseshoe bend, a slot canyon, and do a lake tour (the best one is all the way to Rainbow Arch, but it's a full day).

Moab also has enough things to keep you busy for months. Besides the obvious, I recommend the Behind the Rocks hike, and Poison Spider Mesa. If you are into mountain biking, the best thrill is the Porcupine rim trail. Corona arch is easy and gorgeous.

Flying from Flagstaff, over Lake Powell, then national parks around Moab is one of the most beautiful sites in the world. Enjoy.
Click to expand...


Very helpful, I appreciate... Thanks for heads up on Corona virus..
will post pics if end up going there anyway..
 
MountainDude said:
First of all, I would not go anywhere until coronavirus is dead.
.
Click to expand...

Depending on what you mean by “dead”, that could be a very long time.

Personally I think flying cross-countries in the US and trying to follow the CDC recommendations when dealing with other people should be good enough. Unless you are in a vulnerable population.
 
kmacht said:
I can't speak to flying between the sites but we did a family tip last year to do the "grand circle". It was myself, my wife, and our 12 year old daughter. Previous family vacations were always relaxing trips such as Disney, a Cruise, or an all inclusive. For this trip we flew into vegas and then spent 10 days driving from park to park and hiking at least one trail in each one. It was one of the best trips we have ever done as a family. In order we hit up Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Dead Horse state park, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, and Hoover dam. Our favorite by far was Zion. Bryce Canyon was a close second but the hiking there is much harder due to a lack of shade. Grand Canyon was almost a let down after visiting the other parks. It was just too commercialized and crowded. We enjoyed the trip so much last year that we are going to Yosemite and Sequoia this summer for another family hiking vacation.
Click to expand...

kyleb said:
I find the North rim of the canyon far more enjoyable than the South rim. And Zion is my favorite actionable Park.
Click to expand...
You can also just leave the center area of the South Rim and all the commercial and tourists disappear, or hike down a couple miles+.
 
Pilawt said:
Here's a video of a flight last month, northbound through the Zuni Point Corridor over the Grand Canyon, and a landing at Marble Canyon (L41).

Marble Canyon is fun as a quick stop. Grab lunch at the Restaurant across the street from the airstrip, where you pay your landing fee, then walk five minutes to the spectacular Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River. L41 is the only place where you can legally land within the Grand Canyon SFRA.
Click to expand...

Nice to watch, thanks. Here's another short video which also includes Sedona, a picturesque area and airport on top of a mesa.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRuQ2_YHvPPRoCkXt-9f-mw
 
RickHiebs said:
Nice to watch, thanks. Here's another short video which also includes Sedona, a picturesque area and airport on top of a mesa. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRuQ2_YHvPPRoCkXt-9f-mw
Click to expand...
I flew Utah and Arizona back in September, 2018 (also a great time to fly). It was clear and a million for much of the week and a half we spent getting there, flying around and back home. We landed at Monument Valley and Marble Canyon but you guys took it next level. I was unable to locate some of the strips you went into so I'm guessing you belong to a back country flying group that gave you access? Thanks for sharing.
 
Grapevine is maintained by the R.A.F. but is open to the public, really cool place to fly into.
 
iflyvfr said:
...I was unable to locate some of the strips you went into so I'm guessing you belong to a back country flying group that gave you access? Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

We did not belong to any specific group. We used a MUST HAVE set of books written by Galen L. Hanselman. Unbelievably accurate/complete information about all the backcountry strips. One set of books covers Utah and another covers Idaho. We actually can't see flying without them...they're that good. FLY UTAH! is a compact flight guide that contains 950 pages of photos and information on 83 of Utah's airstrips including 75 back country airstrips! Each airstrip has information on flying there including photos and runway diagrams with elevation profiles. You will also find hundreds of pages of information on the history of the airstrips and what to do in the area once you are on the ground. http://www.flyidaho.com/
 
Hang onto those, at least one or 2 are out of print and won't be available, from hat I have been told. He also has one on Montana and Baja.
 
Pilawt said:
Uhh ... yeah ...

View attachment 85680
(I didn't realize the book was that old! o_O )
Click to expand...
retpd2001 said:
Insane, one on Idaho over $900.
Click to expand...

NO!!!! Not sure why/where Amazon.com gets those prices, etc. Go to the authors website and order from his Store. http://www.flyidaho.com/
And the ones out of print are the older versions. The newer updated versions are In Stock! They sell for around $60 for the 2 book/one state set. The one book gives you all the detail about the air strips and the second provides the history and stuff to do when there.
 
The one on Montana is long sold out (per his site) and I had heard he will not be publishing it again. It is a wealth of info on the state.
 
When we did the Arizona trip we went to Sedona then flew over meteor crater, through Monument Valley and spent the night in Page. We had to get back to Yuma the next day so we flew all the Canyon corridors then down the river to Laughlin / Bullhead City for lunch followed by flying the river to Yuma.

Sedona is magical. Meteor Crater was so-so from the air but since it’s on the way to Monument Valley it’s worth flying over. Monument Valley was my favorite part of the trip but we’d been to Page many times.

The Grand Canyon was neat but you have to stay so high above the rim I think the view from the ground on the Rim is better. I liked seeing all the parts of the canyon that I hadn’t seen before, but it took over two hours to fly all the corridors, and by that time I was a pretty much ready to do something else. The Canyon is really really long and I’d never actually grasped that in all the times I’d driven there. It adds a lot to the respect I have for the explorers that did the entire canyon in primitive boats and rafts.

Page is, and always will be, one of my favorite places in the country but traveling the lake by boat helps that perspective. We did take the boat tour to the rainbow bridge once and I think that is one of the few tourist outings that is worth the time. It’s not as good as seeing what you can see in a private boat but it is a must do at least once from Page.

On a side note, we went to Page for at least one week in each month from May through September in the years we lived in Arizona. Each time we went, there were impressive thunderstorms at least one or two afternoons of the week. Each time the locals told us it was just because ‘we happened to go during the short monsoon season’. If you go when it’s warm plan to be done with your time in the air, or traveling on the lake by water in anything but one of the big tour boats, by early afternoon.

Gary
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top