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Grand Canyon National Park - South Rim

When you first walk up to the edge of the canyon and gaze out upon the myriad formations in front of you it’ll look like every picture you’ve ever seen of the Grand Canyon only better. No photo can do justice to what you see.

Arizona

1970, 2005

About The Park

Grand Canyon National Park's 277-mile long canyon, cut into the Colorado Plateau by the Colorado River, is a scar on the face of the Earth visible from space.

The latest research seems to point to that the canyon formed around 17 million years ago as the Colorado River eroded the layers of rock. Previous research has placed the age as between five and seventy million years. In either case it seems a relatively short amount of time to form what you see in front of you when you consider the 4.6 billion year age of the Earth. The mile high walls are a cross-section of the geologic history of Earth’s crust. The oldest rocks, know as the Vishnu Basement Rocks down near the bottom of the gorge, date back 1.7 billion years.

For a first-time visitor the 25 mile Desert View Drive along the rim is the best way to view the canyon. There are a number of scenic points where you can stop and marvel at the view. The park service has a free shuttle bus system that will take you to these viewpoints where you can spend some time taking in the sights or take a short walk between bus stops along the Rim Trail. You’ll save yourself from having to deal with parking at places where parking is limited and the cost of gas while helping to keep the air clean.

Canyon Village is the heart of the South Rim. Most of the lodging, the museum, stores, shops, railroad station and the visitor center are located here and this is where most people arriving at the South Rim get their first view of the Grand Canyon.

A short walk from the visitor’s center, at Yavapai Point, there is the Yavapai Geology Museum which has exhibits on the Grand Canyon’s geologic history and information about the forces of nature that carved it.

Just a bit to the west of Canyon Village, a little way down the South Kaibab Trail is Yaki Point which is one of the best places to view sunrise or sunset.

If you come to the Grand Canyon South Rim from the east, or drive about 20 miles east of Canyon Village, you’ll come to Desert View which is at the east entrance to the canyon. The Desert View visitor center is here along with some services. The dominant feature here is the Desert View Watchtower which is an impressive stone structure from which, on a clear day, you can see 100 miles. If you look to the east you’ll see what looks like a jagged crack in the flat plateau where the Little Colorado River joins with the Colorado River. Here the Little Colorado River has carved an extremely steep gorge with a maximum depth of 3,200 feet. It’s a short walk to the Tusayan Museum and Ruins which tells of the native culture of the Pueblo Indians who have inhabited the area for over 800 years.

Unlike the North Rim which, due to the higher elevation, gets much more snowfall the South Rim is open all year round. There are parts of the South Rim that close in winter so you should check the NPS website for up-to-date information on what is closed. The freezing temperatures in winter can make hiking down the trails that head down into the canyon dangerous.

Wildlife

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.

You might also see a California Condor. With a nine foot wingspan they are impressive birds of the vulture family and are there as a result of a captive breeding program which saved them from extinction. You’ll know when you see one by the large white numbers on them to give the naturalists tracking them the ability to distinguish one from another. There is a picture of one sitting on a rock in the photo gallery.

 

Lodging

El Tovar Lodge

The El Tovar Lodge is in the mold of the iconic national parks lodges like Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn or Glacier’s Glacier Park Lodge. It was built by the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in 1905. As such the railroad station is in front of the hotel across the road. One would have thought that they would have built it so that more of the rooms have direct views of the canyon but instead it seems they chose to give you views of the railroad station. If you have a room with a balcony you can see the canyon off to the side past the people and the kiosks. That being said the lodge was beautiful and charming, the dining excellent and we enjoyed our stay there.

In 1970 we traveled cross-country and drove 60 miles up to the Grand Canyon from Williams, Arizona. We arrived at the South Rim to find that there was no lodging to be had at any of the lodges. The desk clerk told us that we might find lodging back in Williams, Arizona. Not wanting to drive back 60 miles, and having a Chevy station wagon with a mattress in the back, we slept in the parking lot of the El Tovar Lodge. It worked out fine for us although in the early morning hours we awoke to people walking by, and waving to us, on their way to view the sunrise at the South Rim. We quickly dressed under the covers.

Bright Angel Lodge

The Bright Angel Lodge is the least expensive of the lodging choices in Canyon Village.

There is a number of inexpensive lodging options in Tusayan, Arizona just a few miles from the South Rim.

Lodging at El Tovar, the Bright Angel Lodge, the Kachina Lodge, the Thunderbird Lodge and Maswik Lodge are all handled by two reservation websites. Both links are at the bottom of the page.

Phantom Ranch

Staying at Phantom Ranch is something I’d like to do but the options are strictly hiking there (10 miles each way) or traveling by mule. There are cabins and dorms with bunk beds and space is extremely limited. For hiker’s, with dinner and breakfast for one night in January, 2020, the cost was $85. They have cabins for larger parties which I priced for 4 people also in January, with the mule trip, at about $2,100. Winter is the only time you can get accommodations on short notice. From mid-February through to December it was booked solid. The links on Grand Canyon Lodging below cover all the lodges including the Phantom Ranch lottery.

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 South Rim is almost 7,000 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.

 

Rim Trail

The Rim Trail follows the rim for about 12 miles and one can use the free shuttle bus to hike whatever pieces of the trail you want. It is easy, relatively flat, with some paved sections and some shade. In addition there are some restrooms along the way.

Bright Angel Trail

The Bright Angel Trail is the Grand Canyon’s most famous trail. It runs from the rim down to the Colorado River about 8 miles away with a 4,380 foot elevation change. Most day hikers will just hike this trail for, hopefully, a reasonable distance down and turn around and hike back up. When I last hiked this there was a water spigot on the trail at the Mile-and-a-half Resthouse. There’s also water at the Three-mile-Resthouse and Indian Garden. My feeling is not to depend on water being available. In the colder months it is shut off so it is always best to carry your own. This trail probably gets the most traffic, especially at the upper reaches near the rim, than any other trail that descends into the canyon. Hiking down to the river is clearly for experienced hikers. Even hiking down to Indian Garden, which is about 4½ miles down from the rim, amounts to a 9-mile round-trip and is a strenuous hike.

South Kaibab Trail

The South Kaibab Trail is the other well-traveled South Rim trail that runs from the rim to the river. There is no water along this trail. About a mile down the trail is the aptly named Ooh-ahh Point. From here you can look down on Cedar Ridge which has restrooms and is at about 1.5 miles. Either of these points can make for a nice day hike. No matter what it is the responsibility of the hiker to know his or her limitations and take the trail a comfortable distance down, enjoy the hike and the views, and hike back up before you get into trouble. What I liked most about this trail was that it felt more open, with more expansive vistas, ample beauty and without many people on it. It is 7.1 miles to the river with a 4,780 (1,460m) foot elevation change.

For the more ambitions hiker Skeleton Point, at about 3 miles down, gives you the first view of the Colorado River. For the real hard-core hiker, the South Kaibab trail connects, about 4½ miles down from the trail head, with the Tonto Trail which heads west another 4½ miles to Indian Garden on the Bright Angel Trail. From there it is 3½ miles down to the river or 4½ miles up to the rim.

In the geology of the Grand Canyon, Kaibab and Tonto are the names of two of the horizontal rock layers, known as formations, that you see when looking at the canyon walls.
 

Mule Trips

If you are really adventurous you can take a mule trip down to the Colorado River and stay overnight at Phantom Ranch. Accommodations are extremely limited and it is recommended that you book as early as you can. They start taking reservations in an online lottery 15 months in advance. When I say adventurous it’s because you are sitting on the back of a mule, bobbing from side to side, on a narrow trail with drop-offs that can be hundreds of feet. Clearly it’s not for everyone. We didn’t have any interest in doing this. You can also take a mule trip along the rim for a 2-hour ride.

Travel Between the South and North Rim

Driving time from the South Rim to the North Rim is about 220 miles and about a 4-5 hour drive. The trip makes a big ‘U’ around the eastern part of the plateau at the end of the canyon. Here U.S. Highway 89 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.  

Eventually, U.S. 89A (Alt) branches off U.S. 89 to take you through Marble Canyon where the scenery changes dramatically back to the red rock canyons. At Marble Canyon you cross the Colorado River on the Navajo Bridge. 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.

From here to the Grand Canyon North Rim you are traveling through the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument and, while the road is paved and a bit narrow, the scenery is beautiful and the drive quite enjoyable.

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

Grand Canyon West - Skywalk

This is located 240 miles west of the South Rim and is off U.S. 93 which is the route you would travel is you were going to or through Las Vegas.

Grand Canyon South Rim Photo Gallery

Other Resources

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

Grand Canyon National Park - Wikipedia

Bright Angel Trail - Wikipedia

South Kaibab Trail - Wikipedia

Grand Canyon Lodging - Grand Canyon Lodges

Grand Canyon Lodging - US Park Lodging

Vermillion Cliffs National Monument - Wikipedia

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

Grand Canyon North Rim is a 220 mile drive around the little traveled east end of the canyon which takes about 4-5 hours. The drive takes you along the beautiful and scenic Vermillion Cliffs National Monument which is a wilderness of slickrock, canyons and strange buttes.

Petrified Forest National Park You can see the Painted Desert and 225 million year old petrified logs it is about 220 miles to the east and about a 3.5 hour drive.

Mesa Verde National Park Home to ancient cliff dwellings set into a beautiful mesa is 300 miles to the east and about 5 hours.

Saguaro National Park Famous for its iconic and massive Saguaro Cactus it is near Tucson, Arizona and is about 370 miles to the south and roughly a 5.5 hour drive.

These national monuments are on Navajo Tribal land and is as worthwhile to visit as any national park.

Monument Valley Tribal Park Famous for its massive sandstone buttes and as a backdrop for many a Hollywood western movie is about 185 miles east and about a 3 hour drive.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument Ancient cliff dwellings carved into the sides of a steep canyon is 225 miles to the east and about 4 hours.
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Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM

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