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In 2020, when the world shut down during the Coronavirus pandemic, my girlfriends and I needed an escape. Originally, we had planned a two-week backpacking trip through Patagonia (which we did up taking and you can read about here! ), but international restrictions pushed us to stay stateside. Instead, we mapped out a two-week National Park road trip through the American Southwest.
Minimal flying, lots of driving, and six incredible parks later, it turned out to be exactly what we needed. We started in Death Valley, continued to the Grand Canyon, and then made stops at Petrified Forest, Capitol Reef, Mesa Verde, Arches, Canyonlands, and finally the Bonneville Salt Flats outside Salt Lake City.
This post, however, is not just a trip recap. It’s the story of our time at the Grand Canyon, a rim-to-river hike, and what turned out to be a comedy of errors in our glamping accommodations.
Hiking the Grand Canyon
We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 5 pm, just in time for sunset at the Drive 11 viewpoint. Breathtaking doesn’t even begin to describe it. We spent our evening here admiring how the canyon was lighting up golden in the evening light and watched as the cotton candy sky turned from pink to purple. We were mesmerized thinking about how we would be at the bottom of the canyon the next day, and for some reason not at all intimidated that we had to climb out of that canyon too.
Originally, we had planned to do a shorter hike, like Plateau Point via Bright Angel or South Kaibob to Skeleton Point. But in classic overconfident fashion, we thought, “Why not go all in?”
So we set out to hike from South Kaibab down to Phantom Ranch and back up via Bright Angel Trail, a rim-to-river-to-rim adventure. It was one of the three hardest hikes I’ve ever done, but also one of the most rewarding.
Looking back, we were young and unprepared. No hiking poles, no electrolytes, and not nearly enough water. Reviews will now tell you how critical those things are, and they’re right. I remember looking up, late into the hike when I was out of water and my apple watch had died, and thought “surely I don’t have to climb to the edge up there??” Well, surely, I was wrong. The rim is the edge and you’re not out of the canyon until you reach it. Somehow, we survived (some of us even thrived), and the memory is one I’ll never forget.
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Accommodation Goals
At some point in the planning process, we decided we wanted to indulge in a glamping experience. But because some of the National Parks we were visiting were a bit remote we decided that the Grand Canyon was probably our best option. We thought about how cool we would be versus staying with all the other hikers in the hotels near the park entrance. Now, these were not Under Canvas tents FYI (the best for glamping!) , but Yurts found on AirBnb. And actually this story is no shade to them and all shade to us. We had 2 separate yurts, so I was bunking with my bestie Lindsey.
Night One: The “Murderer”
After sunset at the canyon, we drove off-road through a dark field to find the yurts. While the sunset was beautiful, we did have regrets as we were off-roading in the pitch black, with only a distant lit up cabin guiding our way. We were able to identify our yurts and discovered we were a bit farther apart than we thought we would be. With our plans in place and meeting time set Lindsey and I traversed the makeshift roads over to our yurt after dropping the other gals off.
Once settled, we were chatting in bed when we heard scratching on the “walls”. Naturally, as Millennial women, and true crime junkies, our first thought was “murderer.” We let the sound go and thought weird, maybe it was the wind, or the yurt? But the scratching kept coming. We peaked outside to our friends across the way and the lights were off. We contemplated waking them up, but as friends it was our duty to protect the others from the murderer.
Our Heroes
Armed with nothing but car keys and our phones, we messaged the host via the Airbnb app.
“Hey, we are hearing some weird noises at our yurt, are there people walking around here at night?”, we asked innocently.
Luckily, it wasn’t too late so we received a swift response from the host. She said she would come check it out, meanwhile we were crossing our fingers that she brought mace or a knife with her.
We diligently watched the tent for shadows outside and were trying to make a plan before our knight and shining armor (a woman and her teenage daughter) arrived. They quickly came to check… only to find the culprit was a cow brushing against the yurt. The owner of the neighboring land had cows who were known to wander. Not exactly a murderer, but enough to keep us on edge the rest of the night.
Were we over dramatic? Maybe. But was it terrifying in the moment, yes.
Night Two: The Smoke Show
The second day commences and we do a beautiful, all day, thigh burning, never ending hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back out. I spent last few miles of the hike with a group of girls (my friends were a bit faster than me), as we stopped for a break at about every other switchback. COVID be damned, I was just happy to find others struggling as much as I was.
When we arrived back at our yurts, desperately needing sleep and comfort, we decided to light the wood stove for warmth (it was November after all). The yurt had a wood stove and a small propane space heater. The night before had not been as cold, but we were expecting a windy night and after a long day we wanted some warmth for our already sore muscles.
We filled the stove with wood and got the fire blazing. We thought “lets make a big one, so that it will be warm and it will last all night.” Well we did that! Within minutes of lights out and an attempt at sleep, my eyes started burning, and my friend began coughing. We flipped the lights on to discover the yurt was filled with smoke.
Rectifying our Mistake
Turns out, the stove pipe wasn’t sealed correctly. Thus the smoke was billowing into the yurt instead of venting outside. In a matter of minutes our beautiful, warm, blazing fire was actually trying to suffocate us slowly with thick, black smoke.
We snuffed the fire immediately and began to empty the yurt of smoke and all the warmth we had procured. We opened all our doors and windows to air the yurt out. This was my personal nightmare, as I hate, hate, hate when I smell of campfire smoke. So one of my main priorities was getting all of our stuff outside to air out before the smoke had time to set into every article of clothing I would wear for the next week.
With our warmth gone and the wind starting to pick up, we had to rely on the small propane heater for the rest of the night. Not exactly the cozy glamping evening we envisioned. Add that on to sore muscles, exhaustion and an early wake up call to drive to the next park, yikes.
Insult to Injury
Remember how I said we knew it was going to be a windy night? Well, after the task of fixing our fire mistakes, we then had the weather to contest with. As soon as we started to doze off the wind started making itself known. The canvas sides of our yurt were flapping excessively with each blow of the wind. We were in a large field, with no trees or large rocks to protect our camps.
And unfortunately, I am a very light sleeper. But to be honest, you could be a heavy sleeper and probably would have still suffered the tent flapping like we did. So after smoking ourselves out and the DOMS turning out to not be so delayed, we also spent all night tossing and turning. Covering our head with pillows and sweatshirt hoods, pulling our beanies down over our eyes and ears to lessen the constant flap of the yurt.
I count this as one of the worst nights of sleep I have ever had.
Lessons Learned from Our Grand Canyon Yurt Stay
- Don’t panic, scratching on the tent is probably not a murderer (but stay alert).
- If you want a seamless glamping experience, book with Under Canvas or another reputable provider. Again, no shade to the owner of these yurts, these were mostly user errors and weather which is outside of their control.
- Always test your wood stove with a small fire before committing to a roaring blaze.
- Bring humor with you, these kinds of mishaps turn into the best stories later.
The Bottom Line
Our Grand Canyon trip was equal parts exhausting, hilarious, and unforgettable. Between the thigh-burning rim-to-river hike and the comedy of errors at our Airbnb yurt, it was an adventure that made us laugh for years to come.
If you want to read more about our COVID years National Park roadtrips you can find them here:
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