Pack Light. Travel Far.
I’ve joined a blogging community that is “By Humans, For Humans” meaning no AI allowed. I’m proud to be part of it!
I will use this platform to detail my travel wishlist as opposed to documenting places I’ve already been.
Check out this post about Australia!
With Chicago, we had to narrow down the top pizza contenders from 5 to 2, and with Detroit it was even less. New York City is a whole ‘nother story.
There’s a different pizza place on every corner!
The other complication came from the fact that there is SO MUCH to see and do!
So much pizza, so much to do, such limited time!
We did have 3 days in New York City, but one of those days would be spent in New Haven, CT.
There was really only one pizza restaurant on our MUST TRY list: John’s of Bleecker Street. Our strategy for selecting the remaining pizza restaurants ended up being to choose based on proximity to our sightseeing events.
On our first day in NYC we came out swinging with visits to FOUR different pizza places!
Where I am from, my favorite style of pizza is Detroit style. Good New York style pizza is really hard to come by. It turns out that is not the case in New York City. They have it figured out! It’s been fine tuned over the years to perfection.
It’s an oversized pie with thin crust that is usually slightly crispy on the bottom with a chewy outer crust. You can often buy it by the slice. The slices are huge! A slice can be folded in half to make it easier to eat on the go while keeping it in one piece. The more grease the better!
John’s of Bleecker Street Review: Pizza Crawl 2024 Stop #5 | 278 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10014
This is the place we’ve have been most excited to try. It was actually the idea of coming to this place that spawned the pizza crawl idea to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised that we didn’t have to wait long for a table, and the turnaround time for our pizza was fast. We shared a cheese pizza and it was delicious! It’s light, so I don’t feel sluggish. The vibe is exactly what you’d imagine for a downtown NYC pizza restaurant and I found it charming.
Joe’s Pizza Review: Pizza Crawl 2024 Stop #6 | 7 Carmine St, New York, NY 10014
This was not a planned stop, but it was located between John’s (Stop #5) and the subway station we were headed to, and the line was not long, so we grabbed a slice! It is cash only, so be prepared. I didn’t know and had to scrounge for cash. We got pepperoni slices, which are very generously sized. It was delicious and just what I was hoping for! The thin crust makes it light so we aren’t sick from our two back-to-back pizza stops!
Lazzaras Pizza Cafe Review: Pizza Crawl 2024 Stop #7 | 221 W 38th St #2, New York, NY 10018
When we got there, the line was out the door, but we ended up only waiting maybe 15-20 minutes before we were seated, though we were seated in between two other couples and we were all packed in pretty tight! But we were among pizza lovers and it was great! The atmosphere is cozy and fun.
As for the pizza itself- okay hear me out- I actually really liked it, and it reminded me of Totinos pizza, like the frozen pizza. I love Totinos pizza, and it was definitely 1000 times better than Totinos, but the sauce tasted similar to me. Plus the thin crust. The sauce is on the sweet side, which in my opinion is a good thing. The pepperoni is in sticks, not circles. It’s definitely unique!
If I ever get the chance to return, I’d want to try the lasagna as it looked amazing!
Carnegie Pizza: Pizza Crawl 2024 Stop #8 | 200 W 41st St, New York, NY 10036
This was not a planned stop, but it was located between Lazzara’s (Stop #7) and Time Square, and it had been recommended to us by the couple we sat next to at Lazzara’s. We got pepperoni slices, which are very generously sized, and my husband had mushrooms on his. It was super hot! The thin crust makes it light so we aren’t sick from our two back-to-back pizza stops!
There are tons of options, and they all looked so good! I wish I’d had the room in my stomach to try the upside down pizza!
Chris: John’s of Bleecker Street 8.9 | Joe’s 7.9 | Lazzara’s 8.2* | Carnegie Pizza 7.4
Rosie: All were delicious, but John’s of Bleecker Street and Joe’s were my favorites of the day.
*Chris ended up wishing he’d scored it lower, but he felt morally obligated to honor his initial impression.
John’s of Bleecker Street was the clear winner, proving the trip was worth it!
We never got around to making reservations, and again, we got lucky and didn’t have to wait to long anywhere we went. If you can, it’d probably be wise to try for reservations at John’s of Bleecker Street and Lazzara’s.
Next up: details of our first day in New York City!
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The obvious choice for site seeing in Detroit would be the various Ford-related museums and tours. I had pre-booked certain parts of this trip prior to presenting it to Chris, but not the Ford museums as I wasn’t sure which one Chris would want to see. With only one day, we couldn’t see them all.
Turns out Chris didn’t want to see any of them, which was quite baffling to me. He loves seeing car shows, and he loves Top Gear and The Grand Tour. I wasn’t devastated to skip it by any means, but I would have appreciated the historical aspect of it. I mean Henry Ford revolutionized American industry!
Without seeing Motor City’s main attraction, tourism was tricky.
Not that any of that mattered- our flight from Chicago to Detroit was delayed by six hours. We spent more time in the Chicago airport than I probably will the rest of my life!
It made us question our decision to fly from Chicago to Detroit to begin with. We considered taking a train or using a rental car. The pricing for the three options was close, with flights being the most expensive. But the major advantage to flying was that it saves 3-4 hours over the train or driving. With already limited time, flying was the best option.
We had pre-booked a rental car to pick up at the Detroit airport. We picked a rental car in Detroit for the same reasons we drove a rental car around Chicago.
With the six hour delay on our flight, we may as well have taken a train and saved a few bucks! It would have been much less miserable than waiting around indefinitely at the airport! What was originally going to be a half-hour delay kept getting longer and longer. Anyone who was flying through Detroit as a layover caught different flights. We attempted getting alternate transportation but were ultimately unsuccessful.
When we finally landed in Detroit, we went to pick up our rental car. The rental car agencies are not conveniently located within walking distance like some other airports and we had to take the airport shuttle to get there. We were very disappointed to find the line going out the door! We had already been delayed six hours. We had already paid for the rental though. So as we were in line, I was calling Priceline to cancel the rental car and get a refund. It took about 45 minutes, and by the time we were done, we’d barely made any progress in the line.
So at this point, it’s already late afternoon. It’s a good thing we hadn’t booked a tour for any of the Ford Museums as we would have missed it. We took an Uber from the car rental agency to Shield’s, and from there we walked to the Detroit Main Library.
Detroit Main Library
It is the biggest library in Detroit and has some beautiful murals on the second floor. But those beautiful murals were inaccessible. I never quite understood why… the second floor had been closed since even before the Covid lockdowns. I guess maybe the elevator was broken or something? Isn’t that what stairs are for??
I tried to peer up the stairs as far as my neck could crane, but could see nothing. I hear it is open now if anyone is in the area, tell me in the comments what you think!
Burton Historical Collection
So we tried to see the Burton Historical Collection which is on the other side of the library. But they had just barely closed when we got there. Google reviews showed pictures of the beautiful murals, and after the disastrous morning we’d had, I was determined to see it! I hunted down a library patron, who very kindly hunted down someone with keys to the collection. I mean, they’d only closed a few minutes ago!
They got their keys and confusedly let us in for a few minutes.
There were definitely lots of books! Mostly historical documents and family journals that have been collected over time from what I understand. People go there to conduct research. Some documents are open to the public, many are not.
No murals. I had spoken with passion and zeal for books and learning and after the hassle I had caused, I had to pretend to be amazed! I do have a genuine passion for reading and learning, but I really wanted to see the murals.
That was it for site seeing. We’d already had a really late lunch, and now we were taking an Uber to Buddy’s for an early dinner, and then off to our hotel near the airport – the Comfort Inn.
If our day had worked as planned, we would have driven in our rental car from place to place. We would have stopped at either the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation or the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum because why not? Since we arrived so late and it wasn’t exactly a bucket list item for either of us, it was the first to get cut. After lunch at Shield’s we would have seen the Detroit Main Library and then headed over to the Financial District, specifically the Guardian Building and the Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
From there we’d get dinner at Buddy’s. We maybe would have had a second dinner at the Detroit Style Pizza Co. Pizzeria, but a third pizza meal wasn’t an ironclad plan as St. Clair Shores is further away from everything else we were doing. Since we were relying on Ubers and each drive starts to add up, we cut a lot out.
Detroit was sad to me overall. I am sure it was once a thriving place and it’s clear to see that time has not been kind.
Next up: New York!
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Our day in Detroit did not start as planned… I’ll detail it in the next post. This post is about the pizza!
There were not as many top contenders to select from as there were in Chicago. The clear winner from our research was Buddy’s, so it was the first on the list. Second choice was Shield’s. Just like in Chicago, they both claim to be the original. I won’t be able to settle that debate, but our research indicated that Shield’s was probably first, despite Buddy’s being the clear crowd favorite.
We were originally planning to make a stop at a 3rd Detroit restaurant called Detroit Style Pizza Co. Pizzeria to add some variety, but it was the furthest away and the first to get cut when we ran into timing problems.
Detroit-style pizza is closer to what I always thought Chicago Deep Dish would be. It’s baked in a square or rectangular pan with deep and crispy crust. The tomato sauce is applied on top of the cheese and toppings in lines. The best part is the cheese, which is applied liberally all the way to the edge, resulting in a deliciously caramelized crispy cheese crust. It’s nothing short of amazing. I was pretty excited to give it a try in its birthplace!
Shields is the birthplace of Detroit style pizza. This location is not the first however.
This is the style of pizza I have been most excited for on our trip, and it did not disappoint! The cheese crust is so good! There is not a lot of sauce, and it is too sweet to boot, but the overall pizza is amazing!
This is one of the pizza places I have been most excited to try as I love Detroit style pizza. There is not a lot of sauce, but the sauce that is there is good. I did not love the Parmesan in the crust. Overall it was very good!
Vibe is what you’d expect of a pizza parlor and the service is decent!
Chris: Shields 6.7 | Buddy’s 7.6
Rosie: Both were delicious! I preferred the crust from Shields, but the sauce at Buddy’s was better.
Like in Chicago, we didn’t make reservations ahead of time and we had no trouble being seated.
Keep reading for our tourism misadventures in Detroit!
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Chicago is a great place to spend a day or two! Remember that the whole purpose of this trip was to try the best pizzas in the country, so tourism was a lesser priority. Even so, we really enjoyed our time there!
With such a limited amount of time, we prioritized convenience over luxury when it comes to sleeping. We stayed at the Best Western near the O’Hare Airport. No complaints!
As for inner city travel, we opted for a rental car. The factors that led to this decision were money, convenience, and safety. Our other choices were using Uber or the “L” Train (elevated subway).
We were worried about difficulty finding parking, but we didn’t have any trouble. Maybe we got lucky.
Willis Tower Skydeck + The Ledge
Our first stop after eating lunch was the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower). We had booked tickets to the Skydeck and the Ledge ahead of time, so we had timed tickets. We did not pay for an expedited entry, but the wait was not bad. We went up and walked around and enjoyed the view of the city and then got in line for the Ledge: plexiglass extending out of the building you can stand on to feel like you are in the air. Pretty nerve wracking, especially for the nation’s 3rd tallest building! But it was fun, and we got some cool pictures.
Even without the Ledge experience, the building felt like it was swaying, which is definitely an unsettling feeling. Maybe don’t take anyone afraid of heights.
Chicago Federal Reserve Fed Money Museum
As a banker, I was excited to see the Chicago Federal Reserve Building. I have a coworker who had been to the building for a training a few years prior, and he said it was a really cool building. So I was disappointed to find out they do not allow tours. They do, however, have a free Fed Money Museum. It was pretty small, but interesting enough. Swing by if you’re in the area.
Architecture in the Financial District:
Chicago also has some pretty neat architecture. Just walking around the financial district is pretty cool. All the places we visited were within walking distance of each other.
The Rookery: It has a lovely interior and some pretty cool stairs (but you are not allowed to climb them).
The Old Post Office: I was excited to see this. Reviews make it sound like it’s really amazing, so I think I was expecting it to be more than it was. The exterior looks like… wait for it…. An old post office. The inside is completely different and very modern. It’s a really nice space, and we sat and just kinda tried to take in our surroundings. Special events can be held there, and that’s exactly what it would be great for. People also take their laptop to work from home away from home.
My native Chicagoan colleague had said to come on St. Patrick’s Day (our anniversary is mid-March). They have a parade and dye the river green. I tried really hard to make it work, but it would have put us there on a weekend and the flights would have been more expensive and it just would have thrown off the whole trip. I’m sure it’s a lot of fun!
The other thing I was bummed to miss was the Art Institute of Chicago. Any Ferris Bueller fans out there know the painting I’m talking about: I really wanted to see “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat, but the museum is not open on Tuesdays. I tried really hard to make it work! But I ran into the same problems I did for the green river. Plus this trip was a gift to Chris and he would have hated it.
Spoiler alert: I came back about seven months later on a work trip by myself and got to see it without worrying about Chris being bored.
And just like that, our day in Chicago was over! We packed a LOT into a half day and we were excited to continue our Pizza Crawl! Stay tuned for Detroit!
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Chicago was our first stop! We flew three hours to taste authentic deep-dish pizza directly from the source!
Chris had spent the last few months researching and deliberating which pizza places to try. I also had a work colleague from Chicago giving me his insights as a native Chicagoan.
We would only be in Chicago for ONE DAY, so we had to narrow it down to 2 places. How to choose?
We decided Pizzeria Uno’s was a must – not the highest-rated, but many consider it the birthplace of Chicago Deep Dish. Though all Chicago Deep Dish restaurants claim to be the original, research indicated that Pizzeria Uno was the real deal – hence the name. As the likely first, it must be tried as a point of reference.
We ruled out Pequod’s early on based on reviews (though when comparing the top-tier Chicago pizza places, the competition is fierce).
Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company fell off the list next. It’s famous for their pot-pie-style pizza, which veers a bit from the traditional deep dish we were there to try. We figured it was best to stick with purity for the sake of the experiment. Though I am told it is top notch!
So now it’s down to Giordano’s or Lou Malnati’s. Based on reviews and research conducted in multiple ways, it was sixes – we may as well be flipping a coin from what we could tell. Seemed like we’d have a similar experience either way.
It turns out my Chicago colleague has an in with Lou Malnati’s, and they can ship out frozen pizzas anywhere in the US. He shipped us TWO to try! We were able to try the cheese and the sausage varieties. This left Giordano’s as our second pick.
We stopped by Pizzeria Uno near the airport first, then wrapped up our day with Giordano’s for dinner after sightseeing.
Now I will be honest- Chicago Deep Dish, it turns out, is not our jam. I always assumed “deep dish” meant like a really thick crust- but it’s more of a pie crust. I am oversimplifying this, but imagine a Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie that is filled with tomato sauce and cheese instead of pumpkin. A lot of people LOVE it, just not us. I knew this going in, so I was expecting to be very disappointed and ended up pleasantly surprised.
Pizzeria Uno is the (likely) birthplace of Chicago style pizza.
Tomato sauce was spectacular and there’s tons of cheese. The pizza came HOT in a pan and it was delicious! I don’t love the thin crispy pie crust, but that is Chicago style for you. Overall, it was better than I expected and it’s easy to see why this place has been around so long and spawned a whole style of pizza!
Service and ambience was great as well!
Tomato sauce was spot on, and there was PLENTY of cheese. Back home I have to ask for extra cheese on most pizzas, but no need to do that here! There’s already more than enough, and that is a good thing! The pizza is THICK, and so there’s a lot of layers to bake. I was afraid the pizza would either be too cold or too hot. But it was just right; the cheese was completely melted through and I could take the first bite without scalding myself.
The pizza was clearly made with top notch ingredients and baked with love. Excellent service and lovely ambience!
Chris: Pizzeria Uno 7.6 | Giordano’s 7.8
Rosie: also preferred Giordano’s slightly more
* A note about Chris’s scoring system… it seems pretty arbitrary to me, though he will try to make you believe his method is complex and expertly calculated.
We didn’t end up making reservations at any of the restaurants we visited, but try for a reservation at Giordano’s if you are worried.
If we ever end up in Chicago together again, we will not likely get Deep Dish pizza- but Chicago is home to another pizza style- Tavern pizza. Maybe we’ll try it one day! We didn’t have time for it this time, but I hear Chicago hot dogs are pretty spectacular as well.
In my next post I’ll detail our tourism stops- Chicago in one very fast-paced and action-packed day!
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I have a terrible track record when it comes to keeping a gift a surprise. If I’m excited about it, odds are high I’ll blab.
But I was determined to keep this trip a secret. Chris’s birthday is a few days before Christmas, and our anniversary is in March. I planned to tell him about our anniversary trip on his birthday.
But how to contain the excitement I felt?? I ended up telling Chris’s sisters about it at a family get together and they validated my excitement with comments like “wow you must really love him!”
Once the plan was in motion, I booked the flights, a train ticket from NYC to New Haven, CT, and hotels. I researched all the top pizza restaurants in each city we’d be visiting and compiled a list. I looked into the best tourism spots and booked some things to do.
I packaged all the paperwork together including a suggested itinerary and had to figure out the best way to present it.
In mid-November after the kids were in bed and Chris was getting ready for bed, I started wrapping his gift alone in the kitchen. I found a used pizza box and set about putting it all together. I cleaned the grease off the box as best I could and set the paperwork in a folder inside the box. I cut a piece of wrapping paper and found that the box ventilation tabs were in the way of a clean wrapping. I pulled out the box cutters and set about cutting off the tabs…. and sliced my thumb instead.
I call over to Chris that I need stitches. It was well after 10:00 PM. I called my mom and asked her to head over and be with the kids so Chris could take me to the ER for stitches. It was the deepest gash I’ve ever had, and I was bummed to lose my lifelong streak of never needing stitches.
I let Chris know that my mom is on the way and we need to head to the ER, but DON’T LOOK AT THE KITCHEN TABLE!!!
Chris was very sweet and very gentle. I had wrapped my thumb in a paper towel. He asked to look at it. I held my thumb over the kitchen sink and looked away while he gently pulled off the paper towel and started rinsing my thumb. He spoke in the gentlest manner saying things like “we can fix this here” and “this isn’t as bad as you think.”
With the skill of a man who clearly had too many brushes with death growing up, he cleaned the gash and glued the skin back together and bandaged it neatly like a pro. After I called my mom to turn around and go back home, he gently chided me for making too big of a deal.
I guess what they say is true. Maybe women can work through a cold like champs, but panic ensues with a small cut.
I do have a gnarly scar though.
After all this commotion, the pizza box laid undisturbed and the secret was still safe.
Until Thanksgiving no more than a couple weeks later. We had Thanksgiving with Chris’s family and enjoyed a nice day full of delicious food. Later that night at home, we were eating leftover turkey in our kitchen when Chris nonchalantly remarks “you know, I hear New Haven, Connecticut has really good pizza. If we ever do like a pizza trip, we’ll need to make sure to include it.”
Whut? Was he being for real? That is such a random and SPECIFIC thing to say… did he know? Was he toying with me??
I got to thinking… I’m no good at keeping surprises. I have to keep this one. But does he already know? What if he doesn’t know, but by the time he finds out, he’ll think I only thought to include New Haven because of his comment? We can’t have that, I need the credit for the detailed research and thoughtfulness! (I know, I’m not winning any maturity awards any time soon.)
So that was it. I had to tell him. So I pull out the box (my thumb was still healing…) and I have him open it.
I am to this day annoyed at his lack of reaction. There was no shouting for joy and jumping up and down. I do know him well enough to know that he was genuinely thrilled about the upcoming trip – but a bigger reaction couldn’t have killed him.
So now he knows, and he is wondering why I didn’t keep it a secret? I only had another month before his birthday. I said he was toying with me! He had to have already known about it.
Chris: “How would I have known?”
Rosie: “I figured maybe one of your sisters told you about it.”
Chris scoffs: “When would I have talked to them?”
Rosie, clearly annoyed: “Ummmm…. TODAY??!? When we spent all Thanksgiving day with them??!?”
MEN!
So after all the trouble, the secret was out. I went over the suggested itinerary with him and showed him my preliminary research on best pizza joints and gave him the ultimate responsibility of determining which pizza places to pick, and whether or not we needed advance reservations. I also put him in charge of determining the best and most cost-effective way to get around each city.
So with that, Chris commenced on his happy research. He had a little less than 4 months to make the decisions of utmost importance… which pizza places to prioritize??
I’ll kick off this series about our pizza trip by telling you why we did it.
Chris. Loves. Pizza.
I often joke that while most people are 80% water, Chris is 80% pizza (insert laugh tracks here).
I knew before marrying him that pizza was important to him. In fact, he didn’t have much say in our wedding plans, but his family hosted the wedding dinner. Instead of prime rib and crème brûlée, he served pizza and donuts. (Don’t worry, everyone loved it!)
It was very early on in our marriage that I realized how important pizza is to Chris. Very early. I’d say probably the first Friday after the honeymoon. We both get home from work and needed to resolve dinner plans. He asks if we can do pizza. I say sure. Then he looks me dead in the eyes and asks “can we have pizza EVERY Friday?”
I kinda shrug and say “sure?”
Chris has treated this response as a legally binding contract signed in blood.
Any time I suggest an alternative to pizza on a Friday? “You agreed to have pizza every Friday. You said you’d never lie to me.”
Eye. Roll.
Dinner plans with friends on a Friday that does not involve pizza? “We’ll have to get some pizza on the way home.”
His rules have gotten stricter over the years. If neither of us have time to make dinner on… say… a Tuesday, and one of us brings home a Little Caesars Hot ‘n Ready- it doesn’t count and we have to get pizza on Friday too. And not only that, but not all pizza is “Friday” pizza. Little Caesar’s is fine on a Tuesday but not good enough for a Friday.
Me and Chris have been married for 11 wonderful years. I joke about how annoying the pizza rules can be, but I am 100% aware of how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband. And it could be worse… at least he’s not addicted to sloppy joes or, I don’t know, chopped liver. Everyone enjoys pizza to one degree or another. But I sure can get sick of the same pizza over and over again. (Chris somehow doesn’t.)
Over the years we’ve come to an arrangement with Valentines Day and our anniversary. Our anniversary is about a month after Valentine’s Day. Chris plans Valentine’s Day and I plan our anniversary.
For our milestone 10th anniversary, I wanted to do something extra special. I spent a couple months toying with the idea of how to combine our love of food, travel, and Chris’s love of pizza.
The idea? A cross-country pizza crawl.
I knew we’d have to include New York City and Chicago, with a third being Detroit. I figured that was sufficient, but my research at the time was pointing to New Haven, Connecticut being a top contender.
All four are pizza powerhouses, and close enough to string together into one amazing itinerary. The next trick would be keeping it secret from Chris!
Now that I’ve wrapped up documenting our Grand Canyon adventure, I want to address a seeming discrepancy before moving on to other topics.
You’ll notice a lot of talk about “immersing ourselves” in the places we visit. You might wonder why we didn’t hike Rim to Rim to Rim? Not only did we not do that this time, but in my prior post you’ll see it’s not even a future plan.
This is not because I don’t think we could do it. I think we could… but would we enjoy it?
I applaud all those who do the Rim to Rim to Rim, and I am wildly impressed by those who do it in a single day! And we did seriously consider training to do it. But after researching, we decided that were we to do it, we’d only be doing it to say we did.
We decided we don’t want to travel merely to check off a box. We want to travel to experience the beauty and diversity of the earth and to more fully appreciate God’s creations, nature and cultures. We want to feel small. We want to feel grateful for our blessings.
This is why you’ll find that many of our travel goals are “unofficial.” As much as we’d love to visit every single country and national park, we don’t want the joy of each place to be overshadowed by the pressure to cross it off a list.
Also, we know our limits. Chris has a titanium shoulder due to a high school football injury, so rock climbing is off the table for him. I have weak knees and a family history of knee replacements. We’re not climbing Mount Everest, nor do we want to.
That being said, I hope readers can see us as average. We are passionate, but not especially athletic. We are daring, but not reckless. We work hard and play hard. When we get home from vacation, we usually need another vacation to recover from our vacation!
Chris is definitely stronger than me, and I have to work hard physically to keep up. Bottom line: if I can do something, anyone can. I hope these posts can inspire others to dream big and accomplish what seems impossible.
Coming up: A recap of our cross-country Pizza Crawl – an entirely different trip, but just as memorable!
We really loved the Grand Canyon and felt like we were truly immersed in the South Rim experience. But we didn’t get a chance to see the north side, and we’d love to see more of the Tonto Trail.
I’d even love to stay at the Phantom Ranch again! However, I’ll hold out for a 2-night stay next time. I better start trying now! I’d also prefer to go in October when the temperatures are less treacherous.
Here are the key things we’d think about on a future trip.
Our first day was 10 hours of driving, and even though we arrived around 2:30 PM, we were focused on prepping for our trek down and didn’t have much time to explore. This is how we’d do it next time.
Day 1: Drive in, Explore Desert View, Check In
We’d still drive 10 hours coming in, but leave a little later in the day (6:00 AM is not my favorite). We’d plan to arrive around 4:00 PM, including the time change.
Day 2: Rim Trail to Hermit’s Rest, Prep for Inner Rim
We’d SLEEP IN!
Day 3: How we’d spend Day 3 would depend on if we got Phantom Ranch reservations or not.
Day 3: We’d descent down South Kaibab and spend the night at Phantom Ranch (7.5 STEEP downhill miles)
Day 4: We’d hike to Ribbon Falls and back to Phantom Ranch and spend another night (13 mostly flat miles)
Day 5: We’d hike up Bright Angel (9 STEEP uphill miles) – I am eager to see the part of this trail that was closed this time around
Day 6: Drive home!
I wouldn’t be likely to stay for only one night at Phantom Ranch again. If I couldn’t get a 2-night reservation, I’d settle for staying a few nights in a hotel or in our camping trailer at the South Rim.
Day 3: We’d do a mini version of the trip we’ve already done, focusing on our favorite parts
South Kaibab ➡️ Tipoff Point ➡️Tonto Trail ➡️ Havasupai Gardens ➡️Bright Angel Trailhead.
This would be a long strenuous day going 14-15 miles altogether. Even in October, we’d have to start early.
Day 4: Drive home! This is a great option if we don’t want to leave the kids and pups home for too long. Hopefully one day our kiddos can have strong enough hiking legs to join us!
The whole trail is 90+ miles, so it’s not likely we’ll see the whole thing. We for sure want to explore more of it, though to see more than we have already could possibly require camping overnight, which in turn would require a backcountry permit. If we want to see more of the Tonto Trail, the most likely thing we’d do would be to hike the Horseshoe Mesa Loop. This is around 9 miles.
Grandview Trailhead ➡️Horseshoe Mesa ➡️Cottonwood Creek ➡️Tonto Trail ➡️Grandview Trailhead
This would be a challenging day hike, but it would reward us with historic mining ruins and the opportunity to see more of the Tonto Trail that we loved without requiring a backcountry permit. Hopefully one day Cave of the Domes reopens, but even without it, this sounds like a hike we’d enjoy.
I could be persuaded to obtain a backcountry permit for the chance to see the Hermit’s Camp ruins, but we’ll see about that!
Chris would be open to hiking down to Phantom Ranch from the North Rim, staying one night, and hiking up the Bright Angel Trail. This would require a using the Trans-Canyon Shuttle to get back to our starting point at the North Rim.
I’m not convinced this would be worth it. I’ve heard:
If you disagree, please comment and change my mind!
Whatever adventure you choose in the Grand Canyon, prepare well, respect the heat, and enjoy every moment!
Chris and I will absolutely be back. Probably with stronger knees, more trail mix, and definitely more memories to make.
Packing for Adventure 