The route this day took us from Cedar City, UT to Williams, AZ, via Grand Canyon National Park. A grand day on the road!
Approximate time on road/out caching: 15 hours, 5 minutes
Total miles driven: 363.5 mi / 585 km
Total caches found: 23
Total DNF: 1
States visited: Utah, Arizona
Famous places visited: Zion National Park, Grand Canyon National Park
Most memorable cache: GC8BXQJ Meet and Greet Memories
Biggest surprise: All the bonus earthcaches
Weather: Sunny, some clouds
Highest temperature: 101°F / 38,3°C
Lowest temperature: 56°F / 13,3°C
The other part of Zion
We left the hotel relatively early, and only had a couple stops along the way to the Kolob Canyon part of Zion National Park. We arrived before the visitor center opened, so we continued straight into the park. The colors were amazing here at this time of the day!
A nice bonus was the two earthcaches in the park – which wasn’t on our plan 😀
Which state are we in?
We continued towards the Arizona border, and did a quick stop to find GC844DM Do you Dewey? – Hildale Branch. Actually knowing where the border was here, was not easy – which meant that knowing which timezone we were in, was equally hard.
Pipe Spring
After crossing the border, we stopped at GC685C Pipe Spring National Monument. This was almost like stepping back in time! Well worth the very short detour.
A new earthcache here?
We stopped at a bonus earthcache along the way, and then another bonus, GC538CE Vermilion Cliffs «Red Rock Country». We’ve found caches at this colorful place before, and didn’t expect a new one!
Got jerky?
We did a quick stop at Little Colorado River Gorge Overlook, and then we started looking for our regular jerky place – we found it!
Go grand or go home!
We’ve visited Gran Canyon several times before, and hopefully many times more! We had a very bad experience on the way into the park, and had to report a dangerous driver to the ranger at the entrance station. Other than that, Grand Canyon was just as awesome as always!
A nice bonus, was the earthcache GC894W5 GCNP – Duck on a Rock – the fifth bonus earthcache of the day! A combination of new earthcaches, and us not looking good enough during planning, led to all of these nice bonus caches.
Planes of fame
After Grand Canyon, we wanted to get to the Planes of Fame museum before closing time. We got there with 30 minutes to spare, and got to enjoy the museum as the only visitors – awesome! Right before we left, one of the employees showed us a couple cool features. This museum is well worth a visit if you’re in the area!
Back in Williams
Not long after, we were back in Williams – the last city on Historic Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40.
We arrived early, so we spent some time finding caches, just enjoying being here and getting something to eat.
Meet and greet memories
We’ve been to Williams before, and the last times we’ve attended events hosted by unicorns4cher. We asked here if she would host another one this year – and she did! So we ended the day with GC8BXQJ Meet and Greet Memories. The perfect way to end this grand day!