Grand Canyon National Park

Players:  Jenny, Jake & Jackson
Date of Visit:  May 2008

Website:  www.nps.gov/grca
Location:  Arizona
Entrance Fee:  $25 per car, good for 7 days at both the North Rim and the South Rim
Type of Trip:  Overnight as part of Western US road trip
Park Passport Stamps Available:  11 (!)

Trip Report:  To me, calling the magnificent area in Northern Arizona the “Grand Canyon” is a little bit like calling a cruise ship a “big boat;”  the words don’t really do it justice.  Neither do the pictures or anything I’m about to describe.  Really, you should just go see it yourself.

The Grand Canyon is immense, nearly 300 miles long, a mile deep and ten miles across the rim.  The Colorado River has carved the depth of the canyon, exposing some of the oldest rocks visible on the planet; wind and water have done the rest of the work to widen the canyon and form the various spires and formations in the area.  The canyon is so awe-inspiring that it moved President Theodore Roosevelt to remark, “In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."

A view into the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon National Park includes not only the canyon itself, but also the Visitor’s Services on both the North and South Rims.  The North Rim is more secluded and harder to get to; due to its increased elevation (over 7000 feet above sea level) it is only open during the late spring, summer and early fall.  The south rim is a little lower in elevation and easier to reach; consequently, it is open year-round although some of the facilities may have reduced hours in winter.  There is lodging, camping and dining available on both rims.  Finally, Phantom Ranch – a campground/lodging/dining rustic ranch – is located near the Colorado River at the bottom of the Canyon.  It is accessible by foot or mule only.

Our visit was contained to the South Rim, and we stayed a total of four days.  Since we had a one-year-old with us, and trails into the canyon are steep, sunny and mostly waterless, we limited our activities on this trip to things we could do on the rim.  Hiking to the bottom of Grand Canyon is certainly on my bucket list, however!

The white line going along the plateau is a trail.  The tiny  brown buildings in the patch of green in the center is Phantom Ranch.

We entered the park via car at the East Entrance near the Desert View area.  It was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, and even at 9 in the morning, there was a bit of a line to pay our entrance fee into the park.  The cars moved quickly, however, and we were in the park soon enough.  Our first stop was the Desert View campground.  Since it is a first-come, first-served campground, and it was a holiday weekend, we decided to get set up before having a look around the rest of the park.  We ended up with a GREAT campsite (see below in Campground Review). 

The Desert View area is on the eastern edge of the park, approximately 26 miles from the rest of the development on the South Rim.  At Desert View, you can find a relatively large general store as well as a gas station.  And of course, there are plenty of views of the canyon itself.  We watched the sunset from here the first night.

Sunset in the Canyon

The more developed area of the South Rim is the Grand Canyon Village area, with Visitor's Centers, hotels, restaurants, shops, campgrounds and so on.  It gets quite crowded in this area, and free shuttle buses run during the day to help limit the amount of traffic in the area.

Clearly, the most exciting thing to do at Grand Canyon is to see the canyon itself.  We walked several sections of the Rim Trail, which (unsuprisingly) follows the rim of the canyon for 12 miles.  It is paved in several places, which was nice for us with a kid in a stroller. I was a little paranoid at the canyon, and wouldn't let Jackson walk anywhere near the rim.  Many of the major viewpoints have railings, but parts of the Rim Trail (and many other locations around the canyon) do not....so watch your kids!  While we were in Grand Canyon, I bought a book called Death in Grand Canyon which outlines all the ways people have died in the Canyon (accidents, slips, falls, dehydration, heat stroke, jumping off the canyon edge on purpose, etc).  I'm sure that contributed to my paranoia.  

The rim trail.  It's close to the edge.

Walking the Rim Trail

It seems like the Canyon looks different from many different viewpoints, and we spent a couple of days just exploring the rim at our leisure.  We did eat at the snack bar in the big General Store in Grand Canyon Village once...I remember the ice cream being really good!  We also took a look in the historic El Tovar hotel.  We really wanted to hike down the Brright Angel trail a ways, to see the canyon from the interior, but just couldn't bring ourselves to do it with the kid (even though he would have been in the backpack).  Looking down in the canyon almost makes you dizzy...it's so big that I think your brain has a hard time computing its vastness, and I was afraid we would get dizzy and fall....so we will save the hiking into the canyon for another time.  

Views in the Canyon

One of the many viewpoints in Grand Canyon

We did attend an excellent ranger program one night.  The program was about the ravens of the canyon, and the ranger was funny and highly interesting.  I had no idea that ravens were such intelligent birds.

Four days was a really good amount of time to visit, even though we just stayed on the rim.  It would not be out of line to spend a week in Grand Canyon, especially if you plan to hike down to the bottom and back.  Adding the North Rim (which takes about 5 hours to drive to from the South Rim) could easily add another couple of days.  I can't wait to go back!

Campground Review

Campground Stayed:  Desert View Campground

Campground Run by:  National Park Service

Available to Reserve?:  No

Cost per night:  $12/night.

Other notes:  There are flush toilets and water in the campground, but no showers.  The nearest showers are in Grand Canyon Village, 26 miles away

Review: This was my favorite campground of the entire trip.  Our site was huge, shady, relatively private, and had a great view.  One night, some deer came right into our site.  The Desert View area is very quiet compared to the Grand Canyon village area, which suits us well.  The bathrooms in the campground were always clean, and we had fun talking to our neighbors in the campground.  It is a short drive/several minute walk from a large general store.  We arrived early on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and had no trouble snagging a site, but by about 3 pm all of the sites were empty.  We stayed through the holiday weekend and the campground was full the entire time.  It gets very dark here, and we loved being able to look at the stars from our site.  The one slight nuisance was the ravens...they were huge and like to steal food!  But Jackson loved watching them and chasing them.  I would not hesitate to stay here again.

Our campsite in Grand Canyon