Working at the Grand Canyon at 21: The Summer That Started My Travels
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For the first several days of my summer job at the Grand Canyon, the running joke was that I still had not seen the Grand Canyon.
That was 2008. I was 21. Between years at SMU, I had signed up for a work and travel programme in the USA with a group of university friends. For about 3 months, we lived in staff housing and worked at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. It was my first time in America, and looking back, it is where the travelling really started.
How does a work and travel programme work?
Basically, you take a seasonal job, and the job pays for the trip. Ours was inside the national park, so on our days off, one of the biggest canyons on the planet was right outside the door.
How do you even get to the Grand Canyon from Singapore?
Slowly. We flew Singapore to Hong Kong, and turned the stopover into a mini-tour of Disneyland, Macau, Ngong Ping and The Peak. Then Hong Kong to Los Angeles, and a tiny plane to Phoenix. From there, a public bus took us to the Greyhound station, and a coach took us up to Flagstaff, Arizona, where we arrived late and slept in a hostel full of double-decker bunks.
From Flagstaff, a shuttle took about 2 hours to the canyon, and then came orientation, paperwork, cleaning the new house, and nights that were much colder than anyone from Singapore had packed for.
What was the job like?
I started at Maswik Lodge. There was no overtime and no tips. The shifts ran long, with one 12-hour day and, later, a 14-hour day at Hopi House, on the rim. I asked for a transfer to Hopi House, and most days settled into the same rhythm: breakfast, gym, work, sleep.
The people made it. Our house was a mix of nationalities, and the Thai crew taught us to cook Thai food and play their card games in the evenings.
What is the Grand Canyon like when you live there?
It gets much colder than you would think. It snowed in May, which is rare enough that the staff went out at night to take pictures of it, and later a proper snowstorm caught me outside without a jacket.
On days off, I went to the ranger talks. The geology talk taught us how the canyon formed with one word, DUDE: Deposition, Uplift, Down-cutting and Erosion. There were talks on the California condor and the Colorado River too. I hiked down the Bright Angel Trail to the first resthouse, and went out to Hopi Point and Yavapai Point for the sunsets.
What is it like to hike rim to rim?
This was the highlight. It took 4 days and 3 nights. We drove round to the North Rim and camped. There was a mule ride too. Then we hiked down the North Kaibab Trail past Roaring Springs and Cottonwood, with a side trip to Ribbon Falls. We spent a night at the lodge right at the bottom of the canyon, where I met up with a friend for dinner.
The way out was up the Bright Angel Trail, through Indian Garden and out to Plateau Point. On the last morning, I woke at 4am, started walking at 5am, and reached the South Rim in about 3 hours. Then I went straight into an 11.45am shift.
What else is there around the canyon?
Quite a lot, if you have a car and a day. We took the train out to Williams, an old cowboy town of country music, Johnny Cash songs and a staged shootout in the street, and rode back in the luxury carriage for the full experience. We drove out to Sunset Crater, the Wupatki pueblo ruins and Walnut Canyon, and did a jeep safari out of Tusayan.
When the job ended, the trip carried on as a road trip: the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Muir Woods and San Diego.
How did the trading fit in?
It did not, yet. 2008 is the year my interest in markets started, and at that stage it was mostly reading: Benjamin Graham, Philip Fisher, George Soros, and Mark Douglas on trading psychology.
Today, the trading takes about 15 minutes a day. That is what lets me travel like this. I wrote up how that works, from the watchlist to the time zones, in how I trade while travelling.
Did I go back?
Yes. I am now past 70 countries, and I went back to the Grand Canyon in 2018, on a month-long road trip through the US and Canada.
If you are a student thinking about a work and travel programme, my advice is simple. Pick a place you would pay to visit anyway, because your days off are the real holiday.
Did you do a working holiday when you were younger? Where did you end up? Let me know in the comments.
All my other trips are on the travel log, country by country, and more photos are on Instagram, @iamrecneps.
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