swalker
Very helpful member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2014
- Messages
- 1,576
- Reason
- DX MND
- Diagnosis
- 07/2014
- Country
- US
- State
- CO
- City
- Vail
My wife and I have planned a few trips while I can still travel. The first was to the Grand Canyon. We spent a week on the road in our new-to-us wheelchair van. We had a great time! Here is a bit of a report on the trip.
We drove to Blanding, Utah, where we spent the first night. The next day we drove through Monument Valley (I never get tired of seeing that amazing place) and on to the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the Mather campground on the south rim. I was able to help set up camp a bit.
When we checked in, we asked if there was a place we could charge the power wheelchair. We were told no by the National Park Service personnel who run the campground. The camper services building is about 100 yards away and my wife checked there as well. It turns out the camper services is run by a concessionaire (Delaware North) rather than the National Park Services. The folks there were great (in many ways) and said that of course we could charge the chair there. What a relief.
After getting that sorted out we spent some time checking out the canyon and seeing just how accessible the rim paths were. It turns out they are very accessible, with a few exceptions. We experimented with loading the chair onto the shuttle buses the NPS runs there and everything worked out great.
Camping was fine. I still have sufficient mobility to get into and out of the tent, which was key. I really, really enjoyed it, despite the unusually stiff winds (10 to 20 MPH) and cold temperatures (low of 21F).
The next morning we went to pick up the wheelchair and discovered the van's wheelchair lift does not work after it is cold soaked. So we left the van there and I rode the wheelchair to the rim trail and we explored the rim from there. We repeated that for the next day.
On our last day, I dropped my wife off at a trailhead for her to do one of our favorite trails. I then drove to the end of Hermits Rest road (reserved for shuttle buses, but you can get a pass to drive it if you are disabled). I then spent a wonderful day taking pictures of the canyon in the changing light. I then picked my wife up from here hike and we returned to Pima Point on the Hermits Rest road so I could take sunset pictures. I have attached a panorama made with the last light hitting the canyon.
The next day we packed up and headed to Flagstaff, where we used to live. We visited with old friends and had a wonderful time. We then spent two days making it back home.
Overall the trip was a great success. Among other things, we became experts at the manual override on the wheelchair lift Now we just need to get the darned thing working reliably when it is cold!
I gave the chair a good workout, exhausting the batteries each day. Camping worked out great and it was wonderful to be outside so much. The south rim is very wheelchair friendly. I plan to return and spend some more time there.
I am looking forward to our next trip, which will be to Yellowstone in May!
Steve
We drove to Blanding, Utah, where we spent the first night. The next day we drove through Monument Valley (I never get tired of seeing that amazing place) and on to the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the Mather campground on the south rim. I was able to help set up camp a bit.
When we checked in, we asked if there was a place we could charge the power wheelchair. We were told no by the National Park Service personnel who run the campground. The camper services building is about 100 yards away and my wife checked there as well. It turns out the camper services is run by a concessionaire (Delaware North) rather than the National Park Services. The folks there were great (in many ways) and said that of course we could charge the chair there. What a relief.
After getting that sorted out we spent some time checking out the canyon and seeing just how accessible the rim paths were. It turns out they are very accessible, with a few exceptions. We experimented with loading the chair onto the shuttle buses the NPS runs there and everything worked out great.
Camping was fine. I still have sufficient mobility to get into and out of the tent, which was key. I really, really enjoyed it, despite the unusually stiff winds (10 to 20 MPH) and cold temperatures (low of 21F).
The next morning we went to pick up the wheelchair and discovered the van's wheelchair lift does not work after it is cold soaked. So we left the van there and I rode the wheelchair to the rim trail and we explored the rim from there. We repeated that for the next day.
On our last day, I dropped my wife off at a trailhead for her to do one of our favorite trails. I then drove to the end of Hermits Rest road (reserved for shuttle buses, but you can get a pass to drive it if you are disabled). I then spent a wonderful day taking pictures of the canyon in the changing light. I then picked my wife up from here hike and we returned to Pima Point on the Hermits Rest road so I could take sunset pictures. I have attached a panorama made with the last light hitting the canyon.
The next day we packed up and headed to Flagstaff, where we used to live. We visited with old friends and had a wonderful time. We then spent two days making it back home.
Overall the trip was a great success. Among other things, we became experts at the manual override on the wheelchair lift Now we just need to get the darned thing working reliably when it is cold!
I gave the chair a good workout, exhausting the batteries each day. Camping worked out great and it was wonderful to be outside so much. The south rim is very wheelchair friendly. I plan to return and spend some more time there.
I am looking forward to our next trip, which will be to Yellowstone in May!
Steve