Grand Canyon Ideas

The family and I will be in Vegas November 1-8th. We have two teenage boys. We want to get out of town for at least a day trip, maybe an overnighter, to the grand canyon.

Anybody out there have done this drive? Any ideas on things to do? To see? Routes to take? Detours to take? Interesting things along the way?

Thanks for any and all advice/suggestions.

I'm of the opinion it is too much for a day trip. Others disagree.
Both dawn and dusk are great times to be there. I enjoyed the train ride, while many say it's a ripoff.
On an overnight trip, you'll have time to take the scenic route of Rt 66. If you like wild animals there is a park called Keepers of The Wild in Valentine. I recommend it- if you like big cats and such. The guided tour gets pricey but is comfortable.
The walking tour is just that, a lot of walking.
Two alternative trips would be Oatman, via Rt 66 from Kingman or The Valley of Fire. Both are easily done in a day.

Take a helicopter tour and call it "good."

I've been meaning to write an article on side trips to the Grand Canyon. For now, I'll keep it brief.

1. Do NOT go to the West Rim. It is closer but a huge tourist trap. The canyon is not very deep that far west and the Indians (can I use that term anymore?) soak you for every little thing.

2. Go to the South Rim. Although the North Rim is much less crowded and more quaint, the South Rim is the famous part. If forced, I'd go with the masses and go to the South Rim. It is also slightly closer to Vegas.

3. For hiking, I'd take the Bright Angel trail as far down into the canyon as you have time for. Remember, it is easier going down than up. I would turn around after 1/3 of your allotted time. Indian Gardens, which is half way down, might be a good destination for people in good, but not great, shape.

4. If you can't get lodging in the canyon, which is tough and expensive, consider getting a motel in Williams and taking the train there and back as a day trip.

I live in northern AZ so some of what I write below I've done, others are just 2nd hand knowledge from other people that have done them, and in some cases I just know they exist, but can't give any opinion on them.

It is a long drive, around 5 hours to the south rim. It's pretty difficult to see much if you do it in just one day. I just checked and it appears it may be about 4 hours to the north rim, but I believe there is less there and it starts closing down on October 15th and may be closed by the time of your trip, I think that depends on when it snows). Grand Canyon West, with the skywalk, is an option too, but not a very good one from what I've read. It's closer, but just not the same and relatively expensive for what it is.

If you decide to spend a night you can do so in Williams or Flagstaff. There is a train from Williams to the canyon that I've heard good things about. Williams also has Bearizona, a drive through animal park, and the Deer Farm, (which I assume has deer, and I recall something about them being quite tame so you can hand feed them, but I have never been nor spoken with anyone that has).

Flagstaff also has some other interesting places to visit, including Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater, and Wupatki. As I recall all 3 are national monuments, with the first and last being Native American ruins and Sunset Crater being a volcano. It's odd driving through and seeing the lava flows; you'll think you were in Hawaii. While Sunset is one of the few that truly looks like a volcano most of the other mountains around it are volcanic in nature and there are more than 600 in the Flagstaff area.

Walnut Canyon is at about 7,000' and it's 180' to get down to the main ruins so if you're like me you can count on some huffin' and puffin' on the up climb.

Meteor Crater is around an hour east of Flagstaff. Astronauts trained there for the moon missions and it was used in the movie "Starman".

If you were to go the Route 66 way about halfway, near Peach Springs, you'll find "Grand Canyon Caverns".

Keep in mind that in early November it will be pretty chilly, (Flagstaff is slated for 32 tonight, below freezing tomorrow and the Arizona Snow Bowl is set to open for skiing on November 11th).

You should be able to find more information online for anything that might interest you.

I live in Northern Arizona as well. I say skip the Canyon and save your kids the boredom. Instead go to Williams and check out the shops and food on old Route 66. Then head over to Jerome for the most vertical town in the U.S., mining history and shops. Then to Cottonwood for the Out of Africa Wild life Park and zipline over the animal areas on a zip line tour.


ZCore13

I wanted to verify what I said before so I used GoogleMaps to measure the driving distance and time to both the North and South Rims. Here were the results:

South Rim:
274 miles
4:22 time

North Rim:
267 miles
4:32 time

That rings true to me. Going to the South Rim you'll be flying on 4-lane highways most of the time. The section from Williams to the rim also goes fast.

The trip to the North rim is on 2-lane highways much of the time. It's slower going but more scenic.

I still say that for a day trip, most people would probably feel more awed at the South Rim. To make a comparison to Hawaii, the South Rim is like Oahu and the North Rim is like the Big Island.

Why not go to Hoover Dam or Red Rock Canyon? I think this is much more realistic for a day trip. Put some drinks and some fruit in a styrofoam cooler with some ice.

I did red rock a couple of years a go. You can tour in your car along the park's road (im guessing $15 admission) and make stops at scenic points and do small (or large hikes). I really liked it. I think bike tours can be had there. Rock formations were RoadRunner cartoon-like, and the vegetation was really cool.

I originally chose it because when I heard "4 1/2 hours on a bus to get to the canyon" I said screw that! Anything closer? So we rented a car near the tram at T.I. On way back we did the Hover Dam Bypass bridge (a good uphill walk) but great views and dropped into the "Gambler's Bookstore". I was looking for a craps felt to make into coffee table. Sorry to say I was not impressed with the choices. But lots of thingys (chips, books, dice, magnets...) to look at.

Holy cow! I can't figure how to sync my Bluetooth but I got an image up here!
Looks like im ready for a TR posts in a couple weeks!!! Ya Hoooo!!

Cool Plants:


Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge:

Red Rock Canyon is free after 430, but they usually won't charge you after 4PM, in my experience.
In November, it should get dark fairly early and the desert comes to life at dusk. All the creatures who sleep through the desert sun come out. It's a whole different place from dusk on.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

We are leaning towards "take a helicopter tour and call it good.", lol.

I did the mule ride down Bright Angel trail if you have any questions.

The only grand canyon advice I can give is don't fall in.


Woman Falls To Her Death In Grand Canyon

Quote: MrV

Take a helicopter tour and call it "good."

I like this plan. But I'm not exploring things around here as a tourist seeing them for the first time, so I'm all 'blah' about some of the things visitors seem to enjoy, and probably not a good vacation planner.

Quote: Steverinos

November 1-8th.

Check the weather/road conditions before setting out. Believe it or not, even though it may still be getting close to 90-ish and everything is sunny in places like Las Vegas down on the desert floor, once you go east on Interstate 40 past Kingman, AZ you start climbing rapidly to much higher elevations, and it is actually possible to get snow in November. To give you an idea how much it changes when you make the drive up that high, next week the low temps up at Flagstaff are forecast to be about 32-35 with thunderstorms, at the same time the overnight lows just barely get under 70 & clear in Las Vegas. That early in November it isn't too likely to get a snowstorm, but when it does occasionally snow on that last stretch of mountainous highway as you're headed towards Flagstaff and climbing towards the high desert plateau, it can dump a lot of it and the road can suddenly become totally impassable, and people sometimes do get stuck in it for a day or so up there on that part of I-40. It only happens about three or four times a year, Nov-March, but do check before heading out.

Quote: Wizard

2. Go to the South Rim. Although the North Rim is much less crowded and more quaint, the South Rim is the famous part. If forced, I'd go with the masses and go to the South Rim. It is also slightly closer to Vegas.

We did the NORTH rim a number of years ago for a couple of nights, and we enjoyed it. I thought the Cabin price was reasonable, and we were close to the Rim. It was booked when I first looked, but I kept looking on-line until somebody cancelled and we found an opening.

Now this was in the summer time so I think we made a good decision going to the less crowded North Rim.