Sedona to Flagstaff to The Grand Canyon // A Winter Wonderland Trip

It all started when @barretta moved to Arizona.

Our group of friends have been camping and adventuring for a couple years now. Slowly each of us have been getting Tacoma's and are slowly ramping up on our trips. We all have been into the "overlanding" scene and have always enjoyed just getting out with each other and the girlfriends/wives. Now that @barretta lives in Arizona it gave us a new reason to get out of Southern California and do a big trip in another state.

My wife and I left early Thursday at about 4 in the morning to reach Sedona with enough daylight to explore and enjoy the views. We had a total of three trucks (two tacomas and a raptor). Each rig is still in the early stages of being built so this was a good long trip to do a shakedown and test out the capabilities of our rigs as well as fine tune our setups.

After about a 7 hour drive we finally reach our meeting point on the trailhead of FR 525 near Sedona.

We drove up a mild fire road to a cool lookout point with Sedona as our backdrop.



Here is my truck. It is a 2016 TRD Offroad 4x4. The only mods I have done are the KO2's and the Tepui RTT. I have a GFC on order right now that will take its place later in 2019. I had a Tacoma previously that was built up but it didn't fit my needs. This truck will do much better and I can't wait to build it up.



Being my first time in this area, the red rock and formations were breathtaking. We knew the weather would be cold, but we didn't expect the snow to hit us as hard as it did. Throughout the day it slowly picked up until we got absolutely dumped on.



Here you can see the weather rolling in...






As the darkness got closer we bundled up as best we could and started to grill up our dinner on the skottle. Something about warm food in freezing cold is great.

The next morning we woke up and had our sights set on the flagstaff area.



We knew about a spot that had a great view overlooking flagstaff and sedona that @barretta says is his favorite spot (I don't blame him). What we didn't expect was how much snow we would encounter on the way up. Luckily it wasn't so bad we got stuck and it was actually quite fun doing some snow wheeling.

Here are some photos of our 3 hour journey up to the spot.










After what felt like forever driving we finally made it. We were a little worried the weather was going to effect our destination but about 30 minutes after arriving the weather cleared and it was a beautiful view and evening.



This was one of the coolest spots I have been. It provided such a nice view of the surrounding area and you really had to just stand there and take it all in. At one point @barretta and I just stood out of the edge and he talked about how much he loves this place. It really is nice just getting away from the high speed work week and being able to relax and decompress with your friends.





The boys and I. And yes.. I was wearing trash bags on my feet. My boots are not water proof and unfortunately got wet. It was a nice little DIY fix though.

In the morning the raptor had to leave and head back for some obligations so the two tacomas pointed north towards the Grand Canyon. I have never been to the grand canyon so my wife and I were stoked to finally get to see it.



The Grand Canyon was really cool. It really is crazy seeing how vast it really is in person. The only negative was there was way too many people there for my liking. I usually try to avoid big crowds but it was still worth seeing. We ended camping somewhere off the Arizona Trail. It was a cool little frozen lake that ended working well for us after our initial spot fell through.



The next morning and final day of the trip we stopped by the Grandview Tower lookout we had seen the day before driving in. We climbed to the top and were able to see the canyon and had miles and miles of unobstructed views. There was also a guy playing the saxophone up at the top which was really cool.




To round the trip we headed out of the grand canyon and stopped a brewery to talk about our future trips and just spend some more time with each other. This is a trip I will always cherish. Me, my wife, and my closest friends got to spend a couples days together driving around in tacomas and camping and drinking beer. What can be better than this. Throught the year our trucks will get more built, our experiences will get even better and our friendships will get closer. Can't wait for the next adventure.


After each trip I like to look back at every aspect of the truck and its performance as well as the efficiency of my camp. I definitely need suspension. I have been saving for the Fox 2.5 RR with adjusters both front and rear. It will just give me piece of mind when traveling long distances offroad and just overall comfort. Also, being on the move everyday really gets me hyped for my GFC. The ease of setting up and tearing down camp will be so much better and enjoyable. Also minimizing my camp supplies. This trip I was bare-bones but a few upgrades and downsizing will definitely help on future trips. If I can take away one thing from this adventure is that time with friends and family doing the thing you love will be something I will never forget. I will constantly strive to do this for as long as I can. Thanks for reading.

(Also thanks to @barretta for taking a lot of the pictures.)

 

I got the mail in sandals yesterday. 41 degrees. Intense.

 

10 degrees at night for us was brutal. Our sleeping bags did well but definitively no sandals to be found.

 

Looks amazing. Jealous.

 

I highly recommend if you are ever in the area. Saw some cool wildlife too. Wild horses and elk

 

Nice Pictures! It looks like you all had a great time.

 

I wish I took more but at you least you can get the idea of the spots we were in. It was a great time!

 

Well done @campvibes. I wouldn’t have been as thorough if I did a report. It was a blast and I can’t wait to go bigger and better with the trips. Definitely one to remember! One of my favorite parts was that one trail we went on that hadn’t been traveled on since the recent snow. Felt like we were going somewhere no one else had been.

Here’s some more eye candy

 

Nice post. I love that area.

Next time put your feet in the bags, then socks, then boots. VBL, Vapor Barrier Liners. Equals warm feet.

 

I've put the bags between my socks & shoes before, helps to keep your feet from getting soggy with sweat.

 

Nice write up, great photos! I grew up backpacking in the Grand Canyon each spring, it’s much too crowded for my liking now. The real beauty is down by the river looking up at the rim. Quiet.

Flagstaff and Sedona are beautiful too. What a great winter trip idea.

 

Next time we go we will spend the whole time in the area around grand canyon and try to offroad the whole way. We only had one day there so there wasn't much time for us to really explore it. I do want to go down in the river like you said it seems that would really be the full experience.

 

Avoid the Bright Angel Trail if you want to stay away from the masses. It's frequented by mule trips and so is covered in mule droppings. That's the trail the tourists take because it begins right at the village and is the easiest one.

Try the Hermit trail on the west end of the part, or the Grandview on the east side. The Boucher has some very scary/dangerous drop offs where the trail is about two feet wide. The Tanner is cool, ends at a pretty beach down by the river. Don't recommend the Hance, it's the hardest, steepest trail and the trailhead has no parking lot. Pack lots of water.

 

Socks get wet and the boots stay dry that way. If that works for you, ok.

 

Next time maybe we should just get boots that are water proof. Bags are much cheaper though

 

It is an old trick. Now they sell VBL socks for lots of money. Liner sock, VBL sock, insulating sock, boots. Oh, VBL only works below freezing.
Even waterproof boots can get your feet wet. It is good to know the 'trick'.

 

Plastic bags over the boots trick... My mom had us do that many times in the Midwest in Northern IL.

 

I ended up going in the boots over socks and over the boots, I looked like a fool but it kept my feet dry! Two bags one foot lol

 

California natives?

 

Yeah, two of them were orignally from Hawaii. Not saying we couldn't handle the cold it was just cold for what we were used too obviously. Either way it was a fun trip. Looking forward to the next one and doing another trip report with more photos and more detailed descriptions. I always love reading trip reports and seeing the pictures. Gets me motivated