By Wayne Brew | September 25, 2017

On the 24th day of my travels, I was devoted to getting to and seeing the Grand Canyon. I have seen many images and videos, but walking up to the south rim takes your breath away! I hiked along the south rim for three miles just taking in the sites and enjoying a beautiful day before driving out along the east rim and stopping for more views. The drive from the Grand Canyon to Hurricane, NM provided more spectacular views including a bridge over Marble Canyon on U.S. Route 89A.

Zion is one of the most visited of all the National Parks and has shuttles to take visitors through the park. I got through traffic to the Visitor Center at 8:30 AM to find all the parking taken and had to go to Plan B. There are spectacular views of Zion (including a one-mile long tunnel) that take visitors to Route 89 in your car. I had originally planned to spend one day at each park, but with Zion already full I moved onto Bryce Canyon where the park ranger at the gate said has half the visitors. It was crowded, but you did not have to take a shuttle so I had a wonderful time leisurely going to the look-out points.

One of the bonuses of visiting both Zion and Bryce Canyon is traveling US Route 89 which goes from the border with Mexico to Canada and connecting with many National Parks (including Glacier and Yellowstone). I had originally planned to travel the whole length of Route 89, but realized that it was going to be difficult logistically so I am going to see (and already have seen) large portions, but not the whole thing. Route 89 has great views of physical landscapes, but also has the cultural features of commercial buildings (motels, gas stations, etc.) that I find so interesting.