Vanlife at the Bottom of the Grand Canyon | Camping at Lee’s Ferry

As you can tell, the wind hasn't changed. I didn't know this was the Grand Canyon National Park. Our dog walked us out. I'm literally like crying right now. I'm laughing so hard. They said that the wind was at 20 miles an hour but gusts hitting up to 40. That's crazy. There's a trail that leads to that cliff. Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. If you are new here, my name is Ash and we are currently in the process of moving into our camper van full time. I'm not going to lie, I'm currently filming this clip from our garage. I went to edit this video. The video I've been super excited to edit this entire time and my intro is corrupted. Completely gone. Can't get it. So I'm having to film it from here. But not gonna lie, not the worst thing that could happen. The rest of the video is fine and honestly I'm super excited to share it with you guys. It's one of my favorite ones I've filmed so far. But for context, since I don't have an intro, we are currently camping in the Vermilion Cliffs right next to the Marbled Canyon, which is what you're seeing in the drone shots. In the next clip. And it's honestly beautiful. I loved this campsite. Though we don't end up staying long, it was one of my favorite campsites. We did accidentally end up camping at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which you will get to see in this video. But I can say though, since I am having to re-film this, I can give a spoiler for the next video if you guys are curious. We end up camping in snow and it is beautiful. Fitz freaks out when he finds out that he can actually eat it. The dog who has ate every sand he could find can finally eat sand even though it's just snow. But thank you guys so much for watching and I hope you enjoy it. The desert is deceptive because that was a way longer walk than I thought it would be. Because you can see for forever. It's hard to realize that you're about to walk for forever to get to the spot that you literally can see. My hair looks crazy. I just washed it. But it's quite a long walk. I should have brought dog who would have loved this walk. But I didn't think it was that long. I always mean to look up what the burrow holes are in the desert because they're always clustered together. But I'm honestly scared to find out that it's something I'm not going to like living in there. So I never look it up. But I also want to know. I keep telling myself it's just squirrels because a better answer than like a snake or a giant spider. Hey bud. Hey bud. I just burnt my toast. But I came back to the camper to make lunch and realized we don't really have anything. Like we were almost out of bread. We have nothing to cook tonight. I think we have like some microwaveable cups of mac and cheese left and a few pieces of ham. So might be doing a grocery store run in a minute. We're also running out of water. So I think we're going to eat lunch, clean up, head into town to get some groceries, and then come back here and hang out for a few more days. The issue is one of the main issues is that we are north Arizona right now and everywhere south with elevation that we have to go through to get back home is snowing or going to snow. So we're trying to plan how we want to head back if we want to be in the snow or avoid the snow. We haven't decided yet. It is so beautiful and sunny over there but then coming towards us is a giant rain cloud. So we are definitely about to get rain. Look at my chair swinging. It got so windy. Okay well I'm going to enjoy reading outside while I can before this starts becoming a thing. So I'm going to enjoy reading outside while I can before this becomes a thing. I'm literally like crying right now. I'm laughing so hard. I asked my boyfriend to come out and help me pack up camp before it rains. Oh we're about to leave and all the windows are closed except for like the bedroom window. The front's locked because we lock it at night when we're sleeping like the actual car itself. I don't know if it was the wind that like jammed the door or if the dog hit it but our dog locked us out of the front cab door and the front doors were locked. He's got my sock. Dude drop it. That's my sock. Drop it. Thank you. We tried to break into our car because this window was thankfully open by me climbing a chair and then stepping into that and then my boyfriend shoving me through the window which would have been fine. I mean not fine but it wouldn't have been so bad if my dog wasn't sitting in the window licking my face as I'm trying to get in so I'm crying and laughing and my boyfriend's struggling and it's just I wish I had my camera for that because it's so stupid but yeah that's how my day is going. So the nearest grocery store is like 46 minutes from us which feels absurd to drive like an hour there and an hour back just to get groceries but the views have been so gorgeous. We've been driving through the valley and now we are currently having to climb up this mountain and back around and down to get into the town and honestly it's been so worth it. I'll insert the cliff of the scenic view. 21 mile an hour winds. So lots to update on. We are not where we said we were going to camp last night. We were driving into Page which is about 46 minutes from where we're going to camp and we passed this sign for Leeds Ferry Campground. We looked it up. It looked beautiful. It looked like the campground was like right on the beach of the Colorado River and we thought let's try it while we're here. Let's just go there and camp. One of my worst nights ever. We came in. It was dark. The wind was blowing full force. I think it said it was at 20 miles an hour at the time. It's still blowing like crazy right now. We came in. We parked. We ate our dinner. We passed out and then at one o'clock we woke up because the wind was so bad it was shaking the camper. You could feel the wind hitting from both sides and then you could feel it hitting from the front so hard that you could feel the camper move back. Like not the tires move back but like on the suspension move back and I think it was throwing rocks or it was hailing. Like you could hear something hitting. We could hear our solar panels shaking. I don't know if that's the solar panels or the wires connected to the solar panels but we'll have to check those today because you could hear them like legit shaking. It said that the wind was at 20 miles an hour but gusts hitting up to 40 and it felt it. I think we were awake for like an hour and a half just like what do we do? Do we try to drive through this and get back out of this valley? Is this an every time thing? Like are people just useless because no one was leaving. There were still people here at the time and there's no lights down here with the exception of the bathroom kind of glowing. You couldn't see other campers to see if they were having the same experience which made that much more annoying. We just waited it out. I eventually discovered that some of these campsites have more windshields than others. So our first campsite's in the middle and there's nothing blocking the wind. It's just hitting head-on to the vehicle but this campsite has this barrier here which is picnic table so it doesn't like super affect but it has another barrier on the other side of us and then the next site has that same barrier so it's a little bit more blocked if we moved here. And so at like three in the morning we moved to this campsite and it did help but it was one of those where I woke up in such a panic and so stressed about the fact that the van was shaking so much, people are leaving now, that I couldn't go back to sleep. So I was awake until like five this morning which the wind had been like calmer for like two hours at that point because we parked in this area but it was just one of those I was so nervous it was going to go back to what it was that I couldn't sleep and the dog woke us up early so I'm just so tired. I would have loved to have slept in and like relaxed but that wasn't happening. I'm currently hiding because the wind is so strong. I don't know if it's going to allow you to be able to hear me but as you can see that's the Colorado River right there which is gorgeous. Mountains, blue sky. Because we did pick this place like last minute I have been reading online that there is a trail somewhere in this campground that allows you access to the Colorado River with like a beach. The funny thing about deciding to camp last minute at this place is I don't know what's here. I know there's no electrical, I know they have bathrooms, like actual functioning bathrooms. There's meant to be potable water but I don't know where. However, I did also look and see that there is a trail somewhere here that's meant to lead down to the Colorado River to a beach but I don't know where it's at so I'm just kind of walking the loop trying to figure out where it would be because I mean does that not sound nice sitting on a beach in Arizona? Beach. Oh my gosh, it is so windy. My eyes are watering. Oh, I found it. It's between two campsites. It doesn't look bad to walk. Oh my gosh, it's so windy. I hope you can hear me. If not, I am so sorry. It is a rocky trail. Oh, there's actually a true path you can walk that's less rocks. I just can't see because my eyes are watering so bad. Oh my gosh. Oh, it's meant to get up to be even windier so I don't know if this is normal for it to be this windy or if it's the weather change because the weather yesterday here was beautiful and in the 60s. Today it's a little colder. I think it's in the 50s but in two days it's meant to completely drop down and snow so I don't know if this is a normal thing for them to be this windy or if we just got here during the weather change and the weather is just reacting as weather would, which is wild. Like, I'm in Arizona in a desert. There's cacti next to me and this place is meant to be getting snow soon. Granted, is it snow that will stick? I don't know. Is it snow that will stay? I don't know. But there's a road here. Oh, that's terrifying. The road is right at a turn but it is still snow in Arizona, which is wild. Like, I know Flag gets it. I know Prescott gets it. Payson. All of those. Those are areas with trees. That makes complete sense to me. This is literally a canyon in the desert. This honestly looks amazing. I think I might pull the camper down here since there is a parking lot and there's no one around and just hang out. Enjoy it. I'm still crying. But let's head up and go get the camper. Like, see what I mean? That's the road you have to cross to get to the trail. Like, that turn is right there. Doesn't seem like a smart choice. As you can tell, the wind hasn't changed. I didn't know this was the Grand Canyon National Park. That is so cool. This is beautiful. With the rocks, not the wind, the waves. Like, this is stunning. And this is like a weird mix of, like, sand and rock. It's denser than, like, your average sand. Maybe that up there isn't because it's not packed down. But this is honestly so cool. And the water is beautiful. Oh my god. I came back to the camper to get more water. I guess a wallet doesn't truly seal off itself from sand. If it, I'll fall. If it, I'll, I'll still be here. We'll fix these mistakes. As you can tell, it is still very windy. We just got a winter advisory alert on our phones for a chunk of the area. So it's going to affect Page, it's going to affect Flagstaff, Payson, I think it's next to Prescott. Essentially all the cities that we have to drive through to get back home. We are currently five hours from our house and we were planning to stay out longer, probably stop at Flagstaff for a few nights and then come in. But it is going to drop down to the 20s and it said that it's going to affect driving on the roads. There's gonna be no bridges. I know Flagstaff, if they get too much snow, it closes off the roads leaving out of town. Even though Flagstaff knows how to take care of snow, because they're a city who gets snow, they close off the roads leaving. And I don't, I mean, I know this rig would be fine and the snow but the dog doesn't have a coat or shoes, we don't have winter clothes to be out in it, like we're still just very unprepared for snow. So we're actually going to pack up here. I'm currently doing like a speed run of cleaning everything and getting everything locked so it doesn't move while we drive. And we're going to start heading back home to try to beat everything. Just pulled over on the side of the road to show that it is in fact snowing in Flagstaff and it is beautiful. But I am very thankful that we are going back now before they close all the roads because they're meant to get five to eight inches of snow tonight. So we did make it home from the trip. My cat Chunk is currently being needy and asking for pets. We did make it home. I am kind of sad, oh I am very sad to be leaving that trip. It was such a fun trip and being down by the water all day was honestly amazing and one of the best parts. But I am glad we left when we did. Even though the weather did not get bad that day, it was snowing as you can see on the way home, it was bad enough the next day that they did close the roads that I was concerned about. So I'm glad that we left when we did. I really need to just cave and buy like pants and jackets and long sleeves just to be able to camp in the snow because the place is beautiful, honestly. Driving through town and seeing the snow and the snow falling and like it was just, oh my god, I wish I could have stayed. It was so beautiful. But it happens. I know eventually we'll camp in the snow, it's just not going to happen right now. It just doesn't make sense for us to spend the extra money on snow supplies when literally when spring is on its way. I also just want to come on here and say thank you guys so much for your support. I'm honestly just surprised by how many people have subscribed to my channel recently and how many people are interacting and commenting. Like that's just, I'm just in shock. I don't know what to say. I do greatly appreciate it and I do see all the comments and likes and I'd be lying if I didn't say it didn't give me a little bit of anxiety knowing that so many people are now watching my videos. I do greatly appreciate, but as an introvert it's also kind of like terrifying knowing that some of my videos have been seen by so many people. I greatly, greatly appreciate it. Truly, I'm just also like, holy crap, I don't even talk to that many people in real life. I am very much an awkward introvert on my own. My job background is a cosmetologist and so I tell everybody I'm really good at one-to-one conversations with people because that was my job choice was strictly to have one-to-one conversations, but for some reason you had a third person to the group and I feel like I get shy. Like I don't talk as much to people. I tend to just let the other two people talk and like I will speak every now and then. So the fact that I'm now addressing this many people is just, it's insane honestly. I do greatly appreciate it, but it's also just mind-blowing that that's a thing. I will end this video here. Thank you for watching. I'm excited for our next trip. I'm back home, like I said, and it is already 92 degrees. Like that is so hot. I know technically it gets hotter here in Phoenix, but 92 is still hot. I'm already looking at places to go. I want to be in the trees. I want to be in the 70s. I'll take 50s over 92 degrees. Like I just want to get out of here. New trip hopefully coming soon. Probably just a little weekend trip because we are still trying to sell things. And though it does look like I still have a ton of my books, I don't have quite as many. I think I only have these two shelves left. Full shelves, not like the ones you see. I have more. I sold my desk recently, which is really sad. Like we're getting things done, but not fast enough in my opinion because I'm excited to go back out. Yeah, I'll see you guys the next one. Bye.