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First Stop, The Grand Canyon
Tosha Tingey • May 13, 2019
The Grand Canyon was our First Big Stop on our Full-Time Travel Adventures!
There was only one place we could imagine to properly begin our travels as a full-time family. That place was the Grand Canyon. We knew this place wouldn’t disappoint, it’s in the name. It also helped that my sister’s family was heading there as part of their spring break.
Once we had a date to actually be at the Grand Canyon I hit the internet to find a campground. Since we were booking with only a week’s notice a lot of places were booked. But we found a spot at a close place with decent prices.
The best part of the Grand Canyon Camper Village
was the location. It’s super close to the National Park and in a little town with lots of restaurants. The RV park doesn’t offer any special amenities, just a table next to your spot. The showers cost, which what I hear is common in campgrounds around the Grand Canyon. But everything else was pretty standard for a campground.
There have been very few sights I’ve seen that have literally stopped me in my tracks and taken my breath away. The first time I saw the Grand Canyon was one of those places. The morning we went to the Grand Canyon we brought our daughter and our dog. We spent about 2 hours on the South Rim trail. This trail is the only pet friendly trail in the park. The entire trail is paved and every single view was jaw dropping! We went back to the Airstream to let Addie take a nap and eat lunch and get some work done. A few hours later we met up with my sister’s family at the visitor’s center. This time with no dog. We headed on the South Rim Trail in the opposite direction and enjoyed the rock museum and many more sights. Again, every single view is absolutely stunning.
The next day when we were leaving we spent almost an extra hour pulling over at each overlook. Every. Single. Stop. Was AMAZING! We just couldn’t stop looking at the Grand Canyon and taking pictures.
Tips for your trip:
Book ahead! There are lots of great campgrounds and some are even inside of the park. But they book up fast!
If you only have a day to spend at the Grand Canyon or are not big on hiking, I would stick to the South Rim Trail. Any other hike is long and difficult. And a lot of the good ones also require permits. If you are doing any hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, it is not recommended at all to do this in one day.
When we come back I would love to do the 3 days or 7 days’ river rafting trip. Who wants to join us?
Have you been to the Grand Canyon? Where did you stay?
If you haven't been to the Grand Canyon what would you like to do when you go?
When you're on a cruise it can be difficult to experience the island or country you are in when you only have a few hours. The other challenge we had was finding an excursion that our entire family could join. And by entire family I mean my parents, my sister's family with four kids, and our family! So when we found Chukka Caribbean's excursion that included Zip-lining, River Tubing, ATV ride, lunch, and a bird aviary - it was the plan for a perfect day!
If you’ve ever gone to Rocky Mountain National Park, you most likely came through Estes Park. It’s pretty well known but from now on when we go to the National Park we will be going to Granby. Granby is on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park. We found an AMAZING campground to stay at that has so many amenities and the area all around is packed with fun things to do!
I always want to be real with anyone reading this blog about full-time travel, tiny living, Airstream life… all of the above. So I want to share some of our hardest moments that had us either wanting to quit or had us seriously questioning, “what are we even doing?” So here we go…
Glacier National Park is one of those National Parks that you hear about and just KNOW that it is going to be amazing. And it was. Right upon entering the park it felt more like home and less like a tourist attraction. The park itself is huge but upon arrival, it feels like you’re entering a little town with an ice cream shop and café, boat rentals, and a small visitor center. After going to the visitor center we headed to get our kayak inspected. The inspections are free and pretty basic. You will have to rinse it off if it’s wet or dirty but that’s about it. If you aren't bringing your own gear you can rent for a good price right across the street from the lake. Life jackets are required to be worn by children and adults must have them in the boat with them or worn. After that, we went right to the dock next to the Village Inn and set sail! The pictures can show just how gorgeous this place was better than I could ever describe.
Pike’s Place Market place is the longest-running farmer’s market in America! The hype and the buzz of the atmosphere is palpable. You have flowers lining one side and the most unique crafts, food, art, jewelry, anything you can think of on the other! On the lower level, you’ll find shops dedicated to vintage prints, toy cars, magic shops, and more unique products! And of course, the famous fish throwing vendor will not leave you disappointed. I usually get anxiety in large crowds and people trying to sell me stuff. But the vibe here was so family-friendly. The crowds felt less annoying and more like I just found the after party of Seattle. Just a short stairway away is the somehow popular and extremely gross, gum wall. This alleyway is just covered in gum on the walls and it looks really cool, just don’t think about it too much.
As with just about anything in life, you can only prepare so much until you are actually living it. We have been living in a 150 sq ft Airstream for the past 3 months and here are 3 things we love and 3 things we don’t.
1. Self-Cleaning Vacuum We have a little hidden cubby where we keep our Deebot (googly eyes not included). This almost didn’t happen and I am SO glad it did. I learned within one day how dirty our floors get. It’s awesome to run the little robot vacuum while we are gone or asleep or packing up and have it do all the work.
Pacific City RV Resort had so many amenities and the biggest, most private campsites we've ever had! It's across the street from the beach and lives in the beautiful small coastal town of Pacific City, Oregon.
The Thousand Trails campground, Russian River was just a half way stop near Santa Rosa, CA and we were pleasantly surprised with what this RV campground had to offer!
The Yosemite Lakes campground was actually the one that got us interested in a Thousand Trails to begin with. This campground is chuck full of amenities in the campground itself, and it’s 10 min away from the Yosemite National Park entrance. And I’m apologizing in advance, we were enjoying it so much that we forgot to take pictures until we left! So I only have a few but hopefully it’s better than nothing.