RIM TO RIVER TO RIM in 1 day | Van Life at THE GRAND CANYON

So apparently none of the tellers are in any of the huts and you have to go through a machine. We have officially committed to going down to the river. Going in. We are Brittany and Drew and for the past six years we've been exploring the world by van. From the U.S. to Canada, Europe to Africa, finding so much peace, inspiration, and joy in immersing ourselves in the great unknown. But now our world has changed and after self-isolating out in nature for over two months, parking next to rivers, seeking refuge in the desert, and finding sweet, sweet solitude high up in the mountains, we find that our new world is slowly unfolding. And in today's episode, we take you along with as we experience the grand reopening of one of the most incredible places on Earth. So subscribe and buckle up as we embark on yet another adventure together. And now it's time to enjoy the show. We're back on the road and after spending a few weeks just falling in love with northern Arizona, just the beautiful sights and the incredible weather, we really found a special place in our hearts for it. It's been good to us. And now we're moving on and here in the U.S. right now, they have been experimenting with opening the national parks for little bits of time. Tomorrow is going to be Memorial Day and they have only opened the park from I think it was Friday to Monday. Yep, for four days. For four days. Only from restricted hours from 4 a.m. till 10 a.m. Yeah. And then once you're in, you're allowed to stay until sunset, but they won't let anybody else in after those hours. We're going to have to start to leave our homes and live our lives and learn how to socially distance but then re-acclimate back into normalcy. This has never been done before, you know. When else have the national parks slash our world completely closed? And if there's anything that we want to support right now, it is our national parks. We absolutely love our national parks and we want nothing more than to see them thrive. So hold on to your armchair because we're going to take you on a heck of an adventure. Yeah, we are. We have no idea what to expect, so let's go see what this weekend's all about together. Everything's closed. For a Memorial Day weekend, this place should be bustling with all sorts of people and it is like a ghost town now. It's kind of strange. No tour operators are running whatsoever. Sort of depressing in a way. Can I say that? Hotels are empty. None of the tourism places are open. Like you can't get maps or information. I just saw on the side of McDonald's it said that they were open from 4am to 1pm so they're reflecting the hours of the park. I'm so curious to see if the park is crowded or not. Grand Canyon National Park closed. That's nice. Took a lot of work to get leveled on these blocks guys. Gotta love the National Forest Lands. It's very quiet out here. What do you think of our view? It's lovely. Pines. You can smell them. They smell so good. It's an early morning. It's crazy to me how early the sun rises these days. Can you guys see that? There's a big moose. Or a deer. That's an elk. I thought it was a moose. Grand Canyon open. Try and film this for you guys. Hey they're all through. So apparently none of the tellers are in any of the huts and you have to go through a machine. So everyone's backing up right now. But luckily we have our annual pass so we get to go right through. No ranger there to greet us. No maps. No cool map. Also don't know what trails or services are open. Hoping that we'll be able to hike some of the inner canyon trails today. We'll see. There's a ton of RVs and Cruise Americas in here. We're in a mad dash to see the sunrise. Just parked at Mather Point. Put on some warm clothes. I was still in my PJs. Nice and cozy. Hope we're not missing it. Just in time. How happy are you we saw this? The timing couldn't have been better. We've been so isolated the past two weeks. We just haven't seen other people gathering and enjoying the outdoors. I mean they're keeping away from each other but it's just nice to see other people having a good time too. Especially on such an important weekend. Don't forget to remember your veterans. We are here on the south rim. So the entire north rim is closed which is a little bit of a bummer. Drew and I really wanted to do the hike rim to rim one day but... It would be really cool to go both sides. One day. The rim to the river is 5,000 feet. Back in 2011. Supposed to be 101 down here today so we just made it. It's uh 423. Drew and I hiked down Camden Phantom Ranch. We hiked down Kaibab and hiked out Bright Angel right? Yes. So when we see what trails are open today we're thinking of doing Bright Angel to Plateau Point or something like that. Yeah through the garden. Yeah Indian Garden but we'll see. I think this will be like the least crowded that we may ever find the Grand Canyon. Or any national park. Yeah it feels like we're here on Christmas you know and like everyone else is at home. Did you guys know are the trails going down in the canyon? Uh yeah all the inner trails are open for day use. We just spoke to some people in the parking lot and found out that the inner canyon trails are open. Everybody's out here lacing up their boots getting ready to go on a day adventure. That's gonna be us. It's gonna be us. You guys know how we get ready. We'll link to the video above. We gotta get some breakfast. I packed most of our lunches yesterday. We filled our camelbacks. Yep and I'll grab the hiking poles. Can't wait. Can you smell that? That smells so good. Spread over 1,217,403 acres of protected land the Grand Canyon is unspeakably glorious transcending any human attempt to imagine or explain it. Dave your hair is like... Is it wild? It's all sorts of crazy. Because now the barber shops are open. He's like where are my fries at? He's looking for Allen. Enjoy your day. The whole thing is lit up. Wow. Oh my goodness. None of the concessions or little shops are open which means no ice cream at the end of this trail for you babes. That was my favorite part of arriving back up top last time. I'm ready to do this hike but we thought you should see what that elevation is at the top of the rim right now. It's 6,800 feet. Let's see how many thousands of feet we go down into this crack. Thousands of feet. I like it here. It couldn't be a nicer day for being out here. I know it's like cool and crisp but the sun is warm. I really wish that we could go all the way down into the bottom and like I'm super tempted. This lady just said that she thinks that we could do it. She's like as fit as you guys are you easily can go down to the spot you're planning to go to but I really think we could go down to Colorado River. I really think we could and it's only 7 30 in the morning. Like we have until 7 30 this evening. We'll be smart and we'll do a time check and determine what seems where we should go but like I said it's very questionable because you're going down and then you gotta hike back up and it's well you'll see how many feet of elevation we go down. Let's see what happens. Feeling good about the day. You certainly don't want to be like this guy. It's very graphic. It's a long ways down there. You guys see that? See the time? It's almost 10 o'clock. That means the park is closed. They've closed the park to anybody else who wants to come in for the day. So whoever we're going to be adventuring amongst are already here. So far it's been super chill. Yeah really chill. We have officially committed to going down to the river. We just did some calculations on times it should take us and we just want to go all the way. It is really gorgeous. I love the different levels of the canyon as we get deeper and deeper. Just so we know like the logistics of this it's going to be 5,000 feet for us getting out of the canyon and that's I think it's 17 or 18 miles round trip. So this is a serious adventure. Only recommended for those who know and maybe have done something quite as difficult before. This is a repeat hike for us so we know what we're getting ourselves into. We don't recommend it for everyone. That's just a disclaimer. They don't call us Mr. and Mrs. Adventure for nothing. Right. We're just here to show you that with practice and lots of years under your belt you can do anything. Right there's where we came from. And this is what we're going down. Look at those switchbacks. River. It'll be headed that way. Current elevation 2400 feet. The Colorado River. Oh man. The bottom of the canyon. The river is going to stop flowing. Hurry. Run. We made it babe. High five. And it's only 11 a.m. Made it. Three hours down. Three hours. Look at this. Wow. Stunning. Paradise. Going in. There she goes. How happy are you to be right here? Stay close to shore. Look at that little lagoon. That's the only place I'm going. Perfect. Are you going in? Yes. But I'll film you first. Because you're way out of me. I can't wait any longer. Guys I look like the porter right now. The porter you love. Yeah. Stay close though seriously. All right. What do you think the temperature is? Cold. Ah those little piggies feel great. Just got to go in the calm area. Not the crazy rapid area over there. Here goes guys. That's so cool. That is an ice bath. Feel like I'm Wim Hof right now. Well I'm feeling quite refreshed. I'm still trying to feel my muscles. Trying to catch your breath. They're like pulsing right now. We got some cold water guys. Freezing. What not to do with your camelback. Oh man. I just like you eating trail mix in your undies. In your cowboy hat. I'm enjoying myself. I love this view right now. The Grand Canyon is like stunning in here. Grand. I saved you a blue M&M. Feel so refreshed. Thank you dear river. And now we have quite a canyon to climb ourselves out of. We're just going to focus on the 5,000 feet we have to climb. Maybe it won't be so bad. I don't know. I'm just going to think cool. Think like I was swimming in the river. You guys all know we're water people. Yeah that was amazing. That was wonderful. See you at the top. See you up there. Look at those colors. It's beautiful not to share. It's like the layers of a beautifully designed birthday cake. As many layers of flavors. All the ice cream. No artificial colors here though. I've never once held a sandwich in my left hand. It looks like you're struggling. Go for it. You can do it. Just doesn't feel right. Try that at home. It's really strange. Does it taste good still? Everything tastes better outdoors. What is that? Is that your lunch Brittany? Did it fall out of your bowl? Looks like it. Just like that broccoli. Oh look. Missed that one. He literally was going to lick the camera. Even he's missing all the tourists here. Oh man. We get to climb out of this now. You can see the flag. That half mast. In memory of all the people who've passed during the virus. Wow. As hot as it is though. I actually think that this is like a pretty ideal temperature. Much colder. Would have been hard to swim in that river. Any hotter. Oh man. I mean it could be like five degrees cooler. I wouldn't complain with that. I'm just hoping we don't see another rattlesnake like we saw last time we were here in the Grand Canyon. It's still giving me the eebie-jeebies. It is always kind of exciting though. One more look at it before we make it to the top. Gradual final lap. All the way. I'm really impressed with this cabin or ranger house right on the edge of the canyon. Oh yeah. Prime real estate right there. What a view. It's been changing colors all day. It's like looking more purple. You're almost there. Almost. Three, two, go. Let me go back here. It's been a long hike guys. Three hours to the bottom and four and a half to the top. Yeah 5,000 feet back up those canyon walls. With an hour-long break and then another snack break and a lot of sweat. Yeah I'm not too bad in terms of my butt feeling kicked right now but there was a point about three quarters up that was like ah this just keeps going. I'm really glad though that we made the decision to go all the way down because it's only 4 30 and if we hadn't done that I think we would have both been like shoot. We could have went all the way down. Could we have made it? Yeah we wouldn't have been able to get it off of our minds. That's just how our minds work. A memorable memorial day. Definitely and definitely a memorable memorial day for the fact that it commemorates those who have lost their lives for COVID. So we were thinking about them and reflecting on everything that we've all been going through these past few months. Yeah yeah. So we're so glad you guys came on this adventure. We really were impressed how empty the trails were and that we could just social distance It was so peaceful. Yeah there was a lot of peace here. Yeah there's like really not people around. You hear how silent it is? Yeah for a national park on the south rim that's one of the most visited national parks in the entire country. On memorial day? On a busiest weekend to kick off summer. Stay safe. You know our world is opening up again and we are going to learn how to Adapt to this. Yeah so together we're gonna find our new normal with courage and joy and a newfound appreciation for the great outdoors. If perhaps that wasn't something that you really thought much about. Every day in the great outdoors is a good day. A great day. So for now we need to shower. Luckily we can do so in our van. Yeah we definitely need to shower. And we're both feeling very salty. Yeah we're gonna close it off here but we'll share clips because we're gonna stick around until sunset. So come join us for a beautiful ending to our day and know that we love you guys. Now to the room. I was carrying the grill. I tried. I was just telling Drew that I have my pajama pants hiding under my Buddha pants. See that? Just in case. I didn't want to get chilly. You know. Oops. I don't like when the thingy gets on my face. You know that's no fun. I'm in love with this spot right now. There's zero wind. If I farted it would just go straight up. Paradise. Guys we're grilling right now. We brought a little basket with all our goods and a journal. We're cooking kaibab. They're kebabs but you know the kaibab trail. Look we got friends that came to join us. Look walking right through our camp. He's gonna take the bread angel trail down. What a day. Brittany wants to say something. I do think that the Grand Canyon is something that I would hope for everyone to be able to see in their lifetime because it reminds you of like how small you are and how beautiful and vast and varied our planet is. There's just so many like insights to be gained here you know. Yeah we also have to say how incredible the U.S. National Parks are. We love going to the theaters at the visitor centers. Yeah even though it's not open today. Yeah that's okay. No visitor centers or maps or movies but one day it'll all return again. It'll be back. All will be well. Let's enjoy this barbecue evening. It's actually a teriyaki evening. That's true. Teriyaki evening. Also the world looks better when you wear the glasses you're supposed to wear. I'm realizing this right now and I'm like this is where I've been all day. It looks even better. One last look down in the canyon. So good. Thanks for entertaining us guys. Ranger ranger. There's there's a couple. They're cute. No I can't say that. Ranger ranger. There's a couple. They're grilling. Sky bobs on the south side of the Grand Canyon. You need to go check and inspect on them. What do we do? They look out of control. Over. Oh you can't get enough of that. We were just saying how amazing that crevice out there is. It looks like these groovy mushroomy flower petal amoebas. There's just like a light dusting on that base that curves. And then it drops straight down in the crevice.