Sights in Grand Canyon National Park
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Deer Creek
If you're lucky enough to have joined a Grand Canyon rafting tour, Deer Creek Falls tumbles into the Colorado River downstream of Granite Narrows below Mile 136. From this welcoming trailhead you head 150m (500ft) up a steep, bushy slope to a stunning overlook. From here the trail leads into Deer Creek Narrows, an impressive slot canyon whose walls bear remarkable pictographs.
The narrows end in an inviting cascade. Above, lush vegetation lines the trail as it meanders along the cottonwood-shaded creek. The trail crosses the creek and ascends open, rocky slopes to Deer Creek Spring, the trail's second waterfall. From here retrace your steps back to the river. Despite havi…
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South Rim
About 90% of Grand Canyon national-park visitors head for the South Rim. Just north of Tusayan, Arizona is the park’s south entrance station. A short drive further ahead next to ever-crowded Mather Point is Canyon View Information Plaza to help you get oriented. After stretching your legs, continue north to Grand Canyon Village. Duck inside the 100-year-old Hopi House, one of the park’s many Native American–inspired designs by famed Western architect Mary Colter, and the equally historic El Tovar Hotel and cliffside Kolb Studio. At the northeastern end of the village, panoramic views of the canyon unfold at Yavapai Observation Station, which has an intriguing geolog…
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Marble View
Our favorite of the many Kaibab Forest overlooks, this viewpoint makes a spectacular picnic or camping spot. From the meadow, covered with Indian paintbrush and hiding Coconino sandstone fossils, views extend over the eastern edge of the canyon to the paper-flat expanse beyond.
This is not a quintessential Grand Canyon overlook that you see in postcards and books. Instead, you're looking down where the Colorado River first cuts into the rocks from Lees Ferry, at the point where it only hints at the rapids and canyon beyond.
Marble View is off Hwy 67, 13km (8mi) south of Kaibab Lodge. From Hwy 67, the road seems to end at an overlook; be sure to take the narrow road through…
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Havasu Canyon
One of the Grand Canyon's true treasures, this is a hidden valley with four stunning, spring-fed waterfalls and inviting azure swimming holes in the heart of the Havasupai Reservation. Because the falls lie 16km (10mi) below the rim, most trips are combined with a stay at either Havasu Lodge in Supai (the only village within the Grand Canyon) or at the nearby campground. For a spot at Havasu Campground you need to book six months to a year ahead.
Parts of the canyon floor, as well as the rock underneath the waterfalls and pools, are made up of limestone deposited by flowing water. These limestone deposits are known as travertine, which gives the famous blue-green water it…
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El Tovar
With its unusual spires and dark-wood beams rising behind the Rim Trail, elegant El Tovar remains a grande dame of national park lodges. Spacious rooms (many with sleigh beds and rim overlooks), a dining room with panoramic views, and wide, inviting porches with rocking chairs offer visitors a comfortable and elegant place to relax after a long journey to the park. You don't have to be a guest here to enjoy its old-world ambience.
El Tovar was built in 1905 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and designed by architect Charles Whittlesey as a blend between a Swiss chalet and the more rustic style that would come to define national park lodges in the 1920s.
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North Rim
On the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, more than 8000ft above sea level, solitude reigns supreme. Rugged and remote, it boasts meadows thick with wildflowers and dense clusters of willowy aspen and spruce trees. The air is often crisp, the skies vast and blue. If crowds make you cringe, this is where to head for wild isolation. There is only one road in, after all. It’s colder and wetter here, too, and the North Rim is only open for business from mid-May to mid-October. However, the views are spectacular and the lack of huge crowds makes visiting the North Rim a more peaceful, if more spartan, experience of the canyon’s majesty.
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Widforss Trail
Named after Gunnar Widforss, an early-20th-century artist who lived, worked, died and was buried at the Grand Canyon, the Widforss Trail meanders through stands of spruce, white fir, ponderosa pine and aspen to Widforss Point. Tall trees offer shade, fallen limbs provide pleasant spots to relax, and you likely won't see more than a few people along the trail.
Though the total elevation change is only 134m (440ft), rolling terrain makes the first couple of miles a moderate challenge. This is a particularly pretty hike in late September or early October when the leaves are golden, and the point makes an excellent backcountry campsite.
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Lipan Point
One of the most spectacular viewpoints on the South Rim gives a panoramic eyeful of the canyon and makes a magnificent spot to watch the sunset. From here, you'll get an unobstructed view of Unkar Rapid just to the west. To the northeast, the sheer cliffs called the Palisades of the Desert define the southeastern wall of the Grand Canyon, beyond which the Echo and Vermilion Cliffs lie in the distance.
You can also catch glimpses of both 75-Mile Creek and Unkar Creek, which feed into either side of the Colorado; on the north bank, look for the gentle slopes of Unkar Delta at the sinuous kink in the river.
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Kolb Studio
Photographers Ellsworth and Emery Kolb arrived at the Grand Canyon from Pennsylvania in 1902 and made a living photographing parties going down the Bright Angel Trail. Because there was not enough water on the rim to process the film, they had to run 4.5 miles down the trail to a spring at Indian Garden, develop the film and race back up in order to have the pictures ready when the party returned. Eventually, they built a small studio on the edge of the rim, which has since been expanded and now holds a small bookstore and an art gallery with changing exhibits.
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Watchtower
Scramble to the top of Colter’s stone tower at Desert View and pat yourself on the back for having reached the highest spot on the rim (7522ft). Unparalleled views take in not only the canyon and the Colorado River but also the San Francisco Peaks, the Navajo Reservation and the Painted Desert. The Hopi Room has festive murals depicting the snake legend, a Hopi wedding and other scenes.
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Tusayan Ruins & Museum
Near the East Entrance, 22 miles east of the Village, you’ll come across what’s left of the nearly 900-year-old Ancestral Puebloan settlement of Tusayan. Only partially excavated to minimize erosion damage, it’s less impressive than other such ruins in the Southwest. A small museum displays pottery, jewelry and 4000-year-old twig animal figurines.
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Yavapai Observation Station
At the northeastern end of the village, panoramic views of the canyon unfold at Yavapai Observation Station, which has an intriguing geology museum.
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Hopi House
Hopi House is one of the park’s many Native American–inspired designs by famed Western architect Mary Colter.
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Desert View Watchtower
Scramble up the five-story stone Desert View Watchtower, the highest point on the South Rim, for spectacular views.
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Tusayan Museum
At the South Rim you can pause to walk around the 800-year-old pueblo ruins: Start at the Tusayan Museum.
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