The last days we drove from the coast towards the Joshua Tree National Park and after that to the Grand Canyon before we hit Vegas as the last stop of the inland. Now we’re back on the coast :-). But let me explain step by step…
We left San Diego towards Joshua Tree and crossed Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountain National Monument. Via Palm Desert and Indio we headed towards the South Entrance of the National Park. Having arrived at the park we made our first stop at the Lost Palms Oasis where we walked a short loop trail.
After that we drove up towards the Cholla Cactus Garden and further up to the Scull Rock for the sunset.
The next day we started our tour at the West Entrance and the Hidden Valley, after that went all the way down to the Keys View and then to the Lost Horse Mine where we hiked the big loop (over 10 km). That took us a while and so we had to start our way towards the Grand Canyon after that.
On our way to the Canyon we stopped at Amboy an old and abandoned town at the Route 66.
Before heading to the park we stayed the night in Williams. We started our day entering the South Entrance of the park and stopping at the Visitor Center first. After that we decided to hike the South Kaibab Trail. We went down to Cedar Ridge and back up. During our hike we had all 4 seasons in just this time. When we started we had a blue sky with an amazing view above the Canyon. Having arrived down at the Cedar Ridge we had a little bit of soft hails and fog that you could hardly see the other side of the Canyon. Back up we got even snow. After that we walked the Rim Trail back to the Visitor Center where we ended that day. On our way we stopped at several view points where you had outstanding views of the Canyon.
The next day we started at 5:30 in the morning when we drove towards the Yavapai Point for the sunrise. After breakfast we drove all the way to the most western point the Desert View Watchtower and then east to the Bright Angel Trailhead to get a full impression of the South Rim.
At the end I have to say that it is worth driving all the way from the coast to the Grand Canyon even for “only” two days. I never saw something like that before in my life. A third day would have been good to do a longer hike again or to do a multi day hike.