We drive down on Friday to Flagstaff. No closer hotels that where charging too much until Flagstaff. So, we decided to drive straight through.
Then Saturday we go to the canyon, hike and visit whatever we can with the weather. Camp overnight either at the canyon or nearby Kaibab forest depending on availability of the canyon sites. With the government shutdown everything is free right now. But with reduced services, restrooms, shuttle buses, etc. and weather, we are hoping there will be quite a bit less people. Hopefully that leaves a bunch of vacant sites.
Then Sunday we work our way around the east side up around to horseshoe bend. Then to Upper Buckskin Gulch Trailhead where those sandstone slot canyons are. Maybe take a stroll through those if we have time
After that we have a four hour drive to our hotel in Vegas. The rest of the group wants to walk the strip before we head back home the next morning, so we will likely do that too. And if time permits, we may detour to the Lund hot springs in Nevada
Tight schedule, but the only one we could come up with this year where GF and my work schedule where able to align enough to get these days off. She just started a new job only about three months ago so she doesn't have any vacation time built up. We had to do some weekend switcheroos to get two weekends back to back. Then she will have to work two work weeks back to back to put it all back to normal.
Next year with more built up vacation time we could plan for more time at various sites. And if it's just us two we will be more flexible. We have her brother and his wife coming along with us this time so some of the itinerary is due to this