Typist: Bethany The Cascadian Nomads love pet friendly Grand Canyon National Park. We love Mather Campground. We love the Greenway Trail. We love the Rim Trail. We love all the people we met who said what lucky dogs Wilhelm, Brychwyn, Huxley are and what a fortunate parrot Leo is to get to visit such a special place. And. of course, we love the canyon. The views. The smells. The sounds. The Cascadian Nomads truly had a perfect Grand Canyon National Park visit. We hiked almost the entire Greenway and Rim Trails. It was windy, overcast and cool. My only complaint is that the Greenway Trail is poorly labeled; my map was well used but not always helpful. Lucky for us, there were kind people everywhere and we never felt lost. Most of the people we met were thrilled to meet the dogs and Leo along the leashed (restrained) pet friendly trails. A lot of them wanted to take pictures of our traveling pets. But humans weren't the only ones excited to see our group. The famous Grand Canyon mules were happy to meet us too.. |
It was almost as hard to leave Grand Canyon National Park as it had been to leave Moab. As we drove off of the Grand Canyon rim and down towards Phoenix's valley of the sun, I began to wonder if we should have stayed in the National Park. The outdoor temperature reading on the van climbed to 100 degrees as we drove into the lower elevation city. I don't remember the last time I was in heat like that and I know that none of the pets had ever been in such extreme sun. I did a lot of research on how to keep them safe from dehydration and heat stroke so I tried to relax and enjoy the scenery of this drive through diverse National Forests and into the blooming saguaro filled desert. It was late afternoon when we pulled into Lost Dutchman State Park at the foot of the Superstition Mountains and had cooled to below 90 degrees. We took a slow, quiet stroll through one of the parks fantastic leashed dog friendly trails, bird watching and looking out for snakes, scorpions and spiders (also something I researched a lot before visiting this area.) |