Driving from Zion to the Grand Canyon takes approximately 3-4 hours.
What you see is arid desert filled with sandy greenish shrubs. At a certain point you can spot a sign, shaped and coloured like any other in Utah that signals a National Park or National Forest.
“Kaibab National Forest”. Except that you are a the desert with shrubs.
This was one of the funniest moments of our trip. I clearly remember this sign in the middle of nowhere, the mix of excitement and puzzlement. Are you allowed to call this a forest? Aren’t we supposed to arrive to the Grand Canyon in roughly one hour?
We visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is normally less touristy.
One of the reasons why I absolutely loved this part of the trip isn’t because the Grand Canyon was beautiful. It was more because everything around it was so different.
No, the Kaibab National Forest is not made of shrubs. From the sign you continue driving for about half an hour and then you realise that the forest is growing around you. The sandy rocks leave the place to green fields leading to big tall dark green trees.
Yes, you do arrive at the Grand Canyon National Park after about 1 hour driving through the Kaibab Forest. But when you officially enter the Grand Canyon National Park what you see it’s still a forest.
Heading to the camping ground that we had booked in the park I was so confused seeing that we were camping in a pinecone forest and not in a space more similar to the rocky canyons of Utah. I continued looking around trying to orientate myself, trying to understand.
Then we decided to go for the first hike and I began to really understand how to map the area.
Probably the biggest reason why I loved this first experience at the Grand Canyon was for this surprise. You do not simply drive to the Grand Canyon, but you play hide and seek with it and you have to spot it from the different paths and perspectives. It is so surprising and rewarding when you walk two hours in the forest to end up only the last 10 minutes on a view of the canyon.
Another reason why I loved the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is the lodge.
I love windows, big windows. This room gave me so much beauty and emotion that I can never forget.
After staying a couple of days at the Grand Canyon we stopped in Las Vegas and Los Angeles for a city break, before heading to the Sequoia National Forest.
Now the landscape had definitely changed, leaving behind Utah’s red rock and Nevada’s yellowish sand to make space for a more humid and green environment.
The Sequoia National Forest is home to some of the biggest and oldest trees in the world and walking through them was just astonishing. It makes you breath with the earth.
Linked to the Sequoia National Forest there is also the Kings Canyon National Park, which we ended up exploring towards the evening. Somehow with nobody around at this time, the canyon gifted us with such an amazing light that made our drive definitely magical.
