The two days in Grand Canyon were extremely tiring. For September, the heat was scorching, with the temperatures going up to 100 degrees around noon. Because the area is a desert, the weather is in the extremes. Late nights and early mornings are cold, and you need to wear a jacket. But around noon, even stripping down to your undies doesn't help!
We stayed in a youth hostel at Flagstaff, a small town about 2 hours drive from the canyon. It is about the closest you can live to the canyon if you are traveling on a budget. If you are ready to shell out more, then you can stay in the one of the lodges on the canyon and enjoy the sunrise/sunset from your room. Visitors are allowed to hike freely during the day, but for camping and overnight hikes you need a permit, for which you may have to apply a few months in advance.
We didn't have a permit, so we did two different day hikes. We realized the real worth of the permit when we had to miss out on going down to the Colorado river. It takes 4-5 hours to get down to the river, depending on the time of the day and your experience as a hiker, but it takes much longer to get back. It is also recommended that you don't hike for 2-3 hours around noon, because the heat can be deadly. So you really need 2 days for hiking and one night to camp to be able to enjoy the river.
Both our hikes started around 2pm as we went down the gorge, and both the days we were lucky to view amazing sunsets while returning. The gorge is very steep so it's tricky to figure out how much you should really descend, because an hour of walking downhill can mean 3-4 hours of hiking while coming back up. We went at a leisurely pace, not rushing ourselves, and that really is the way to enjoy the canyon. You need some time to take in the grandeur and the vastness of the place, and I was just dwarfed by a feeling of nothingness. It definitely does put into perspective your place in the universe - a tiny tiny speck!!
