Picture of a Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep

Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM

Grand Canyon National Park - North Rim

Grand Canyon's North Rim, which gets about 10% of the visitors than the South Rim does, is a place where you can avoid the crowds while not sacrificing any of the awesome magnificence that defines the Grand Canyon.

Arizona

1998, 2013

About The Park

If you have been to the South Rim and want to go back to the Grand Canyon or, if you want to see the Grand Canyon without the crowds, then the North Rim is the place to go. Only about one-tenth of the 6.3 million annual visitors to the Grand Canyon come to the North Rim.

From the lodge you’ll definitely want to take the Bright Angel Point Trail. It is a short, ½-mile paved walk from the Lodge to Bright Angel Point for a spectacular view of the canyon.

From the lodge area there is a road that travels westward to Point Imperial, Roosevelt Point and ends at Cape Royal. The road travels through the forest and reaches the rim after it branches off to Point Imperial and to Cape Royal in the other direction. Cape Royal is about 30 miles from the Grand Canyon Lodge and, without stopping, would be about an hour’s drive. It’s very scenic along the rim with canyon views that are different but no less impressive. The parking areas are right on the rim, there’s picnic benches where you can sit and have lunch and enjoy the scenery, and some walking and hiking trails.

The elevation of the North Rim is about 8,200 feet which is about 1,000 feet higher than the South Rim. The elevation makes hiking back up the trails that descend into the canyon more challenging especially for those not used to hiking at an elevation like this. Another result of the elevation is that the North Rim gets significantly more snowfall is closed from November to May.

The South Rim is said to be more accessible but it really all depends on where you are coming from. From Phoenix, Arizona the South Rim is much closer. From Salt Lake City the North Rim is closer. If you are coming from Las Vegas the distances are comparable. One big advantage, in my opinion, to leaving from Las Vegas is that you have the option to take highway 9 through Zion National Park. It is a somewhat longer drive but the magnificence of Zion more than makes up for the time lost on the way to the Grand Canyon. Alternatively, you can take highway 389 and bypass Zion.

Kanab, Utah is the nearest city and can act as a hub for someone who wants to see three terrific national parks in a compressed time period. From Kanab it is about a 2 hour drive to the Grand Canyon North Rim, 2 hours to Bryce Canyon National Park and 45 minutes to Zion National Park. I always recommend staying in the park if you can but, if you make your trip on short notice and can’t get lodging in a park, then alternatives like this can work.

The first time I went to the North Rim it was as a day trip out of Kanab. Admittedly, spending 4 hours driving back and forth doesn’t leave much time for doing a lot at the destination but, if you leave early and don’t mind a bit of a late dinner, you can see the park and do a moderate hike and get the feel of the park. For us it gave us the incentive to want to come back and spend more time in these parks which we have. For dinner in Kanab I have to recommend the Rocking V Café. We have eaten there many times over the years, the food is excellent, and they have a nice art gallery with pictures reflecting the sights in the region.

Kanab is an up-and-coming Moab West so to speak. Like Moab, Kanab has become a mecca for hiking, biking, Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) driving, back country driving, rock climbing, and touring three national parks.

Wildlife

Bison, mule deer, desert bighorn sheep, raccoons, weasels, bobcats, gray foxes, mountain lions, gila monsters, squirrels and rattlesnakes. Along the trail squirrels and lizards, like chuckwallas, are the creatures most likely to be seen. Beware of the squirrels. They can be aggressive and the most common wildlife injury in the canyon is a squirrel bite. Bison are most likely to be seen on the way into the park along route 67 south of Jacob’s Lake.

Lodging

Grand Canyon Lodge

The Grand Canyon Lodge is the only lodge in the park. Actually there is no lodging in the Lodge per se. All the lodging is in cabins or motel rooms near the lodge. The accommodations are no frills but more than adequate and a fine way to stay in the park. There’s no TV or cell phone service which you can learn to enjoy. The only negative is that, because the area around the lodge is a forested area, none of the cabins are situated so that they have an unobstructed view of the canyon. The lodge itself is beautiful with a rotunda with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the canyon. Outside there’s a veranda filled with chairs so that people can just sit and gaze out upon the canyon’s beauty. They serve food and it is a popular way to enjoy the canyon. The dining room was nice and we enjoyed the food.

Kaibab Lodge

This is located 5 miles from the North Rim entrance station. The lodging is in cabins and, according to their website, are being renovated as well as new cabins added. It looks like a good alternative if nothing is available at the Grand Canyon Lodge given the proximity to the North Rim.

Jacob’s Lake Inn

At the junction of US Highway 89 and Arizona State Road 67 is Jacobs lake. If you can’t get lodging at either of the above options this might be your next best bet. It’s about 45 miles and roughly an hours drive from the North Rim. There’s also a Café here and a bakery that serves some delicious baked goods. It’s a natural point to stop on your way down to the North Rim for gas, rest rooms or something to eat.

Hiking

There are some basic rules for hiking any of the trails in the Grand Canyon and it is in anyone’s best interest to know them.

The basic rule of thumb for hiking in the Grand Canyon, which generally involves hiking from the rim downward, is to figure on two hours up for every one hour hiking down. Hiking down is easy and you cover a lot of ground quickly. When you hike back up you have to deal with the fact that the elevation of the North Rim is over 8,000 feet and that has often led to problems especially with people whose fitness may not be what they think it is.
For all Grand Canyon hiking you need to bring lots of water or sports drinks and some salty snacks. Insufficient water and dehydration is the most common reason for hikers being rescued in the canyon and hundreds are rescued every year. Other hazards on the Grand Canyon trails are sudden rainstorms, lightening, rock falls, loose footing and extreme heat. Several years ago a 24-year old woman, who ran the Boston Marathon in just over three hours, died of dehydration.
Be careful of the edges of the trail. Rocks can come loose and several people fall hundreds of feet and die every year. Proper footwear is mandatory. Hiking down in flip-flops is the kind of thing that identifies you as clueless!
If you see mules coming down the trail you ‘kiss the mountain’. Never stand on the outside of the trail when mules pass by. The mules kind of bounce from side to side as they walk and you can easily get knocked off the trail and into the canyon.

There is a link is to the NPS website on North Rim day hikes at the bottom. The ones I mention here are trails that I hiked on and so can comment on them.

The Cape Royal Trail

This trail is an easy, flat, interpretive trail with markers along the way. It’s a 1.2 mile round-trip and can be done as a leisurely and picturesque walk in under an hour.

North Kaibab Trail

The North Kaibab Trail descends from the rim and you can do as much or as little as you like. There is some treated water available at points along the way, the first one at the Supai Tunnel, about 2 miles down. We hiked to here and we spent about 3-4 hours on the trail. The trail is used by mules so be aware of the advice on mules above. The full extent of the trail is 14 miles through Bright Angel Canyon and it meets up with the South Kaibab Trail. We encountered a young man filling up a water bottle who had jogged from the South Rim and when he reached the North Rim he was planning on turning around and jogging back to the South Rim all in one day. I have no doubt that he succeeded.

Ken Patrick Trail

The trail follows the rim and you get the beautiful rim views of the canyons features – buttes, mesas and the colorful walls marked by the layered formations that define the geologic history of the canyon. The full extent of this trail is a 10 miles but we found it easy to use our two cars to ferry one car to a parking area along the trail and hike back the other left at another parking area. Unfortunately, for us, we saw the road at a point several miles into the hike when we expected to be getting near the car per my GPS, and the trail seemed to be diverging away from the road. We were on the trail over four hours and decided to bushwhack it down to the road. It turned out to be a lot more difficult with brambles and sticker bushes and, while we didn’t run into any, there was certainly the possibility of rattlesnakes. It was rather unpleasant and just a bad decision. All the more so when we reached the road and found that our car was just a few hundred feet forward and we could see that the trail would have curved back to the road.

Mule Trips

If a mule trip interests you there are some nice mule trips along the rim and to Uncle Jim’s Point. These two are relatively flat, from one to three hours, and you are not on a narrow trail sitting on the back of a bobbing mule with the drop offs that you have in the South Rim. If you are more adventurous you can take a mule trip 4 miles down the North Kaibab Trail to the Supai Tunnel. It is about a 3-hour trip. To the best of my recollection, while the North Kaibab Trail has drop offs that are significant in some places, it does not have the mind-numbing drop offs that you have on the South Kaibab and Bright Angel Trails of the South Rim.

Travel Between the South and North Rim

Driving time from the North Rim to the Sorth Rim is about 220 miles and is about a 4 hour drive. The trip makes a big ‘U’ around the eastern part of the plateau at the end of the canyon. When you reach Jacob’s Lake you take U.S. 89A (89 Alt) east and you are traveling through the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. While the road is paved and a bit narrow the scenery is beautiful and a very enjoyable drive.

In about 40 mile you will reach the Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon. At 470 feet above the water it is almost twice the height of the George Washington Bridge. On the north side of the bridge there is a rest area where you can park and walk out on the old Navajo Bridge, which parallels the new bridge, and was left up as a pedestrian walkway. Here you can leisurely enjoy the incredible scenery and the canyon walls are a nesting place for California Condors. On my last trip through the area a National Parks Ranger had an antenna and was tracking the birds in the area as part of the condor conservation project that has released these magnificent birds back into the wild. We were fortunate to see a couple of them.

After crossing the bridge, in about 13 miles, you’ll reach the junction with U.S. Highway 89 South. The road now crosses the Navajo Indian Reservation and the scenery is fairly flat with the canyon rim dozens of miles to the west. You will pass Native American homesteads often with smaller structures called hogans nearby. These were once the primary traditional dwelling for the Navajo’s but are mainly used today for ceremonial purposes.

The trip from the North Rim to the South Rim traveling west through Las Vegas is about 610 miles.

Grand Canyon West - Skywalk

This man-made feature is located 400 miles west of the Norh Rim and is off U.S. 93 which is the route you would travel if you were going to the South Rim via Las Vegas.

Grand Canyon North Rim Photo Gallery

Other Resources

Grand Canyon North Rim on the National Parks Service Website - NPS.gov

Grand Canyon North Rim - Wikipedia

Grand Canyon North Rims - Lodging

Day Hikes - NPS.gov

Vermillion Cliffs National Monument - Wikipedia

Picture showing a view from the Grand Canyon's North Rim

Other National Parks and National Monuments Within a Day’s Drive

Bryce Canyon National Park You can see hoodoos and the awesome Bryce Amphiteater about 166 miles away and about a 3 plus hour drive.

Zion Canyon National Park Tour a half mile wide canyon with virtually sheer 2000 foot walls about 110 miles away and around a 3 hour drive.

Cedar Breaks National Monument is often called a mini-Bryce Canyon and is 137 miles north and about a 3 hour drive.

Grand Canyon South Rim is a 200 mile drive around the little traveled east end of the canyon which takes about 3.5 hours. The drive takes you along the beautiful and scenic Vermillion Cliffs National Monument which is a wilderness of slickrock, canyons and strange buttes.
*N*P*Z*

Home

National Parks Zone