I think it’s easy to wonder why you would leave your comfortable home and drive over 16 hours simply to sleep in a sleeping bag in a tent in freezing weather.

When we originally planned this trip, I knew the weather would vary in April. And I decided if the weather was bad, we would cancel. And then the weather was bad, but I didn’t want to miss out on the adventure, so we went anyway. We did decide to only camp one night instead of two.

I was very nervous, but thanks to a few new sleeping bags and a buddy heater, most of us stayed warm. It was hard, but it wasn’t that hard. And besides that, sometimes I think our modern life provides us with so much ease and comfort that we need to shake it up and go and do uncomfortable things. Things that test us and are different and hard.

For our trip, we stayed a night in Kanab and visited The Belly of the Beast and Sand Caves. My brother-in-law grew up there and thought it was a little odd that these man-made areas were now tourist attractions, but they were fun. We met up with my sister and her family for most of the trip.

We went down and camped at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The first day, we enjoyed quite a few overlooks, visitors centers, and set up camp. FYI: Bring extra stuff. So when a sleeping bag has a broken zipper, you have an extra, or when your rain fly got left out because it was wet last time you camped and you forget to bring it, you can use a spare tarp.

The next day, my sister and I went and saw the sunrise, and then we all hiked down the Bright Angel trail and wandered around the village.

Then, we spent another night in Kanab and drove home. We also stopped by Navajo Bridge and Lee’s Ferry for a break. It was General Conference, and we were able to listen to most of it on satellite radio, which I recommend. Not a bad trip.