Visiting Grand Canyon on road trip

On our road trip to USA we visited Grand Canyon. It is a place that I can highly recommend to anyone. The canyon is considered one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. A really amazing place. 

Grand Canyon has close to 5 million visitors each year.

We visited Grand Canyon in October, which seemed to be a quite good time. There are fewer crowds than in summer and comfortable hiking temperatures. 

Grand Canyon is a great place for hiking. All the trails are not always open, depending on conditions. We did the Bright Angel Trail, which is the most popular hiking trail into Grand Canyon. It is possible to do shorter and longer hikes on the Bright Angel Trail. We did 3 miles (4.8 km) roundtrip, which is a 2-4 hours hike. The elevation change on our route was 1,120 feet (340 m).

There can also be mules on this trail, we did not see them on our hike. 

It was fairly easy to walk down, walking up took a lot more effort. If we've had more time (plus equipment and more water) it would have been fun to keep going to the next point (three mile resthouse). But this was really good too. There are many places to see in Grand Canyon. If you want to go down to Colorado river, it's a longer hike.

We came to Grand Canyon Village the evening before visiting Grand Canyon and stayed at Red Feather lodge. 

 

 

 

Cadillac Ranch in Texas

On our road trip in USA, we picked some places we wanted to visit, that were on our route. It's really hard when you only have a few weeks, and there would be a lot of interesting places to visit. 

One of the places we visited was Cadillac Ranch. What is interesting with old cars buried nose down in a field? That's a good question. Since the installation has been there for a long time, it has to be interesting.

In Amarillo Texas, located on the historic road 66, you can find this art installation. There are 10 Cadillacs buried in the ground on a field. Cadillac Ranch was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michel, part of the art group Ant Farm. 

The Cadillacs are from years 1943-1969. They were all bought from local junkyards and used car lots.

You can spray on the cars. I think it was cool, and worth a visit. Kids liked it too. 

We didn’t have to buy any spray, other visitors gave us theirs when they were leaving.

This is the road next to the field, where we parked our car. Visitors are allowed any time.

Our USA road trip route

 

Road trip in 5 days

We made a road trip with the family to USA in October 2025.

Our plane landed in Dallas, Texas. From there we took a flight to Nashville, Tennessee. We picked up our rental car from the airport, spent two nights in Nashville and started our road trip from there.

Here you can see the route we drove, 3640 miles. It's could be even more, but this is roughly how it was. 

Monday: from Nashville, Tennessee to Monett, Missouri

Tuesday: from Missouri to Tucumcari, New Mexico.

Wednesday: Tucumcari to Grand Canyon Village, Arizona

Thursday: from Grand Canyon Village to Hurricane, Utah

Friday: from Hurricane to Salt Lake City, Utah

How was the route?

This was something we couldn't be sure about in advance. Would it be too much driving? 

Luckily the travelling went well. We had a comfortable car with enough space for travelling and having the luggage with us. 

Another thing is that the landscapes were interesting to watch, we also drove on some smaller roads. Especially Monday to Wednesday we had long driving days, so we would have a bit more time to visit Grand Canyon.

Was it worth it?

Oh yes. Ten states in five days. Of course it would have been nice to have more time to visit places. 

We had one whole day in Nashville, and a weekend in Salt Lake City. Also we spent later some time in Tampa, Florida. 

I have a lot of pictures and will write more about the places we visited in my next postings.

Also planning to share some tips for those planning a road trip to the States.