Stranded at the Grand Canyon
A couple of months ago, my boyfriend Austin and I took a trip to the Grand Canyon, and it was amazing. I shared all of the wonderful experiences with y’all, but I was saving the one bad day that we had. I don’t know for what. Maybe I was just procrastinating sharing it. In any case, I wanted to share it because it's important to learn from our experiences, even the not-so-great ones.
So, let me tell you about that bad day. It was October 31st, or Halloween, and it was our last day in the canyon. We were hiking out and were pretty much packed up and ready to go by 6am. We wanted to make it to the shuttle by 2 PM, so we had to leave the campsite super early. Although our hike that day was only about five miles, it took me forever because I was exhausted from the previous two days, and the incline was just ridiculous.
After our hike, we made it to the North Rim Trailhead and snacked while we waited for the shuttle to arrive. I had booked a hotel room at the Bright Angel Lodge at the South Rim, thinking we would be too exhausted to drive anywhere. I asked our shuttle driver if he could drop me off at the lodge to check in while Austin drove the car over. I didn't have any trouble checking in, and the staff was great. I would highly recommend staying there, especially if you can get a room facing the canyon. It's absolutely beautiful in the morning.
But, when I was done checking in, I got a frantic phone call from Austin. He was having trouble with the car and was blocking traffic in the parking lot. He couldn't turn the car on, and the electronic parking brake on our brand new 2022 Jeep rental wouldn't turn off. We tried everything we could think of, including (but absolutely not limited to) Googling troubleshooting methods, but nothing worked. As we were troubleshooting, time passed with the lights on and the engine off, and obviously this meant that the battery eventually died.
I made a couple of phone calls, including to the car rental company, but they couldn't help us. It turns out that my own car insurance didn't cover me outside of my home state of Texas, and we were in Arizona. Meanwhile, we were getting estimates for a tow truck to take the car from the Grand Canyon to Phoenix, which was around $2,000-$3,000.
It was a frustrating and stressful situation, but we learned from our mistakes. We should have rented from a bigger company and gotten at least the lowest level of insurance offered. But, we also learned that there are some amazing people out there who are willing to help strangers in need, and we are grateful for their kindness.
So, there you have it, my one bad day at the Grand Canyon. Even though it was tough in the moment, we can look back on it now and laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. And hey, maybe our experience can help someone else avoid a similar situation in the future.
