Grand Canyon north rim today. I had no idea how beautifully forested this area was. Breathtaking at every turn. And the Cliff Springs hike that wasn’t too canyony - also great!
@nsmsn Yeah! I've been to the south rim, but it has been 20+ years. Driving down from southern Utah, it got real pretty real quick. Bryce Canyon tomorrow and that will be about it for the hiking/nature portion of this trip. (And about it for this trip. One last night in Vegas and we fly out.)
@alexink They sure are! I had high hopes for this trip as I've spent countless hours planning. I'm glad it has played out so well. We've hit a lot of good fortunate with health and weather – the last three days threatened to be rainouts, but we got most everything we had hoped to accomplish accomplished!
I would like to write some more details about the itinerary and experience on my blog. Hopefully I can get to it.
@alexink I highly recommend it! Try to figure out a respectable pace for you/your group, and plan the best you can accordingly. If you have the means, it is worthwhile to get some proper equipment (well-fitting light boots, water bladder packs, trekking poles). Research a few more hikes than you have time to do so you have options to switch things up when you get to the destination. And plan some downtime for recovery as well!
If you have a more local location for long weekends to test out what you like, I think that works well.
(Of course, you may know all of this already and you're just looking for the right opportunity to make it a go. :)