[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

What an amazing trip journal. Thanks for sharing!

I noticed that you did not have a chance to visit Santa Fe. That would have been a phenomenal experience. Looking forward to more pictures.

I had three plans, Summer : Page, AZ or Moab, UT and Winter : Rocky Mountains, CO ... Santa Fe was part of my Rocky Mountains, CO plan. So I'll be doing a trip in winter to CO and hope to cover Santa Fe. Its definitely in the list

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by Luminor513

Amazing trip. Great photo journal.

Thank you!

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by Heimdall

That's an epic write up

Thank you!

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by houbmw

Man, really inspiring me to take a road trip from
Houston along the same route. Just flew to Albequerque to visit Ojos Spa resort in Santa Fe for the wifes birthday. As much as I love to drive the wife hate it and would rather fly.

Roads in TX was good. there were few bad stretches in NM bur otherwise it was fun and good. probably you can think about it

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by Wild Blue

You made the Bimmerpost front page! Looking forward to the next day's writeup!

Following your footsteps

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by P1

What a shame you had to cut your trip short, but fantastic nonetheless!

Thank you! some more trip info to come shortly

[Mail4loys]

Day 6 (July 16): Drive from Page, AZ to Grand Canyon North Rim - Part 1

Today we planned to visit Grand Canyon North Rim. Drive to Grand Canyon took us to 4 different landscape and each had its own unique characteristics . So adding it as three parts. If you happen to drive this route, make sure you stop at every view point




1) SH - 89

The drive to Vermilion Cliff National Park from Page, AZ is through SH - 89. The drive offers amazing views, we stopped in quite a few places and made sure we see the ups and downs of cliffs, valleys and mountains

First view point, overlooking Page, AZ... but it was very tempting to take a picture of the hill, so no Page in this






Overlooking the valley and facing Vermilion Cliff



We stopped in a view point and did some shopping as remembrances trophy



Some more Red giants on the way...








2) Vermilion Cliff National Park

After taking a right turn into SH - 89A, We would start seeing some amazing view of the Vermilion cliff



we have to cross Navajo Bridge to get to Vermilion Cliff National Park. The bridge by itself has a very good view of Colorado River and Vermilion Cliff. There are two bridges, one for vehicle traffic and anther one is to walk and enjoy the nature







Colorado River (it had decent water due to rain the previous day)



Then we get into Vermilion Cliff National Park



We stopped in most of the views, though the cliff is similar to what we saw yesterday in Glen Canyon but its very different with the color and texture







Similar boulder but with different color and texture



the drive in the valley overlooking cliff and two mountains was mesmerizing...

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by Mail4loys

I had three plans, Summer : Page, AZ or Moab, UT and Winter : Rocky Mountains, CO ... Santa Fe was part of my Rocky Mountains, CO plan. So I'll be doing a trip in winter to CO and hope to cover Santa Fe. Its definitely in the list

You will enjoy Santa Fe - no doubt. Glad it's in the plan.

[Kevin_The_Clean1]

Mail4loys Those are some beautiful photos and a very nice X7 you have. Looks like a perfect SUV for families and long trips to stay on top notch comfort. The trip looks not only fun but well planned. Do you have any ceramic coating on your new X7... ? It looks like it remained pretty clean.

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by Kevin_The_Clean1

Mail4loys Those are some beautiful photos and a very nice X7 you have. Looks like a perfect SUV for families and long trips to stay on top notch comfort. The trip looks not only fun but well planned. Do you have any ceramic coating on your new X7... ? It looks like it remained pretty clean.

Kevin_The_Clean1 yes, I had done PPF front and ceramic coating. Up very close you will be able to see the dirt all over the car, but from few feet away it really shines

[Phasers]

Originally Posted by Mail4loys

Kevin_The_Clean1 yes, I had done PPF front and ceramic coating. Up very close you will be able to see the dirt all over the car, but from few feet away it really shines

You're making me start to regret my decision to go with the 40i over the M50i...

[M3_Legend]

Nice trip thanks for sharing…. I would love an X7 in the future love the look of it

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by Phasers

You're making me start to regret my decision to go with the 40i over the M50i...

Phasers , I think for these family trips you'll not regret taking your 40i because we'll be driving muted compared to other time

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by M3_Legend

Nice trip thanks for sharing…. I would love an X7 in the future love the look of it

Thanks for reading through my journal.

[Mail4loys]

Day 6 (July 16): Drive from Page, AZ to Grand Canyon North Rim - Part 2



3) Kaibab National Forest

Once you drive past Vermilion Cliffs, you enter Kaibab National Forest. The climb is very good and you get to see the valley and the access roads through which you reached to this point


Entering Kaibab National Forest



Over looking the valley and the cliffs in the backdrop







Once you reach the interior you are welcomed with a nice and dense trees



Kaibab Plateau welcomes us with vibrant colors



The landscape transformation is absolutely brilliant. Red shades to Green






After spending sometime in the forest, we continued towards Grand Canyon...

[cncmastr]

Thank you for sharing!

[Mail4loys]

Day 6 (July 16): Drive from Page, AZ to Grand Canyon North Rim - Part 3



4) Grand Canyon - North Rim




Grand Canyon is in Kaibab forest, so you’ll not see any transition that we are entering the National Park. Little further ahead we had the entrance boot and we were greeted by a ranger, after showing our annual pass we proceeded to the north rim visitor center



We walked around and went to couple of view points next to visitors center and Angels view point.



You'll be able to see different layers of rock formation





Then we took a 30mins drive to Point Imperial, Elevation 8803 (highest view point in north rim) spent some time walking around and then proceeded to more view points










Roosevelt Point , this is the furthest we went as part of scenic view drive as it was getting late

Overlooking Unkar Delta






After visiting Roosevelt point, we drove back to Hotel. The drive time one way is approx. 2hrs 20 mins

Start Odometer: 11,326
End Odometer : 11,609

Summary:

Total Miles : 283
Fuel Type : 91 Octane
Mode : Eco Individual, Active Cruise
Speed Maintained: 65Miles/hr
A/C : 71
Milage : 21.6

Today we beat the milage record that we posted previous day

Another interesting thing, after gas top-up the milage showed as 505



There is no cellular coverage in much of the route so we planned to use BMW Navigation to Grand Canyon North Rim. If we would have blindly followed it, it would have been a disaster. The navigation routed us 3 time to nowhere , below is one such exit the navigation told us to take . Please look at the Map and plan before you start this route



Because we were overwhelmed with the sight of Antelope, Glen and Grand Canyon, we planned to drop our plan for day 7 and take rest at hotel. We also started planning for our return trip via Monument Valley...

[Wild Blue]

Wow. Absolutely amazing views. I gotta get to North Rim sometime!

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by Wild Blue

Wow. Absolutely amazing views. I gotta get to North Rim sometime!

I have not visited the south rim, so have little idea about comparison. But from Page to North rim its a amazing Lanscape and worth visiting

[Mail4loys]

Day 7 (July 17): Day of rest

As said earlier, the view and the nature of Glen Canyon , Antelope Canyon and Grand Canyon left us in awe. We decided to take a break and enjoy family time at hotel. We used this time to pack for our 3 day trip back home . Page, AZ has a very well equipped Walmart. We did shopping and got required food, snacks , juices, drinks for our return trip. We setup the Battery, Fridge and filled the fridge with gatorade, water, orange juice, coke and some snacks . That day the outside temperature reported as 120F and battery was throwing alert that it was “HOT”. But it still was powering the fridge and keep all things inside at 33F

Outside temperature - 120F



All set and packed up



Day 8 (July 18): From Page, AZ to Grants, NM - 430 miles



Our drive back home included going to Monument valley as a short detours. As our plan was not to drive more than 7hrs, we decided to stay in Grants, NM


SH - 163

Its a scenic drive with varied formations and the entire drive till monument valley was interesting to see. Our target was to get till Forrest Gump Point, so we didn’t drive to Mexican hat








Once we cross into Utah we were greeted with red rock formations.




Forrest Gump point

The view was absolutely breath taking, when we reached this spot there was no one in the vicinity , we got lot of time to walk around and take pictures. This small stretch is 35mph, which helped



As there were not much of traffic, we got opportunity to take pictures right in the middle of the road





Monument valley over look



It was absolutely a delight with this amazing overlook



After spending some time in the valley we headed to Monument valley visitors center and took a break. Then we started heading to the destination of the day. Not sure what happened with the GPS, after reaching SH 160 from SH 163, it routed us via Shiprock and then through SH 491. We didn’t force to take the path that we took during onward journey. We had another opportunity to see Shiprock mountain and a nice view along SH 491. This stretch had very nice 4 lane divided roads.

Shiprock Mountain



SH 491



End Odometer : 12,039

Summary:


Leg one (Monument Valley)

Total Miles : 179
Fuel Type : 91 Octane
Mode : Adaptive, Active Cruise
Speed Maintained: spirited
A/C : 73
Milage : 18.3

Leg two (Grants, NM)

Total Miles : 251
Fuel Type : 91 Octane
Mode : Adaptive, Active Cruise
Speed Maintained: 75 miles
A/C : 73
Milage : 21.6


Driving in Adaptive mode gave a similar milage compared to Eco mode (I was expecting it to be lesser result). Planning to drive entire stretch tomorrow in Adaptive Mode ...

[Wild Blue]

Wow... all areas that I'm still wanting to go to!

As far as S. Rim vs N Rim of the Grand Canyon, I've only been to the south rim (twice). On my trip, the N Rim was closed, as it is during the winter. Based on your pictures, it looks like it's more open and panoramic. Both are beautiful, of course. But I'm thinking N Rim may have the better views!

[Mail4loys]

Originally Posted by Wild Blue

I'm getting broken pic links there?

My first post threw php error, so I re-submitted it. Can you try again?