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Top Attractions in Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the state of Arizona in the United States. It is contained within and managed by Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai Tribal Nation, the Havasupai people and the Navajo Nation. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of preservation of the Grand Canyon area, and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,093 feet or 1,857 meters). Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. While some aspects about the history of incision of the canyon are debated by geologists, several recent studies support the hypothesis that the Colorado River established its course through the area about 5 to 6 million years ago. Since that time, the Colorado River has driven the down-cutting of the tributaries and retreat of the cliffs, simultaneously deepening and widening the canyon. For thousands of years, the area has been continuously inhabited by Native Americans, who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves. The Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon a holy site, and made pilgrimages to it. The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540.

Tusayan Ruins

The Tusayan Ruins is an 800-year-old Pueblo Indian site located within Grand Canyon National Park, and is considered by the National Park Service to be one of the major archeological sites in Arizona. The site consists of a small, u-shaped pueblo featuring a living area, storage rooms, and a kiva. Tree ring studies indicate that the site was occupied for about twenty years, beginning around 1185. It is found on the "Desert View Drive" portion of Arizona State Route 64, 3 miles west of the Desert View Watchtower. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The site was excavated in 1930 by members of the Gila Pueblo of Globe, Arizona. Preservation work took place in 1948 and 1965. The site represents the survival of an isolated Pueblo II culture into the Pueblo III era. The Tusayan Ruin and Museum is a NPS interpreted location, which includes a trail from the museum thru part of the ruin. Tours may be ranger lead or self-guided. The Tusayan Museum was built in 1928 to a design by National Park Service architect Herbert Maier and sponsored by Laura Spelman Rockefeller as a "trailside museum.". It was expanded in 1934, and represents an interpretation of a Hopi structure.

Nankoweap Trail

The Nankoweap Trail is an unmaintained hiking trail on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, located in the U.S. state of Arizona. The Nankoweap trail descends 6,040 feet in 14 miles from the Saddle Mountain trailhead to Nankoweap Creek and on to the Colorado River. It is considered to be the hardest of the trails into the Canyon. Hikers have to carry and cache water as there is none in the 11 miles between the trailhead and Nankoweap Creek. In June 1996, a Boy Scouts group ran out of water in the vicinity of this trail, although they were not following the actual trail, but an off-trail route on a nearby ridge. Although one member managed to reach the Colorado River, another ultimately died from heat exhaustion and dehydration. This was covered in season 2 of I Shouldn't be Alive.

New Hance Trail

The New Hance Trail is a hiking trail on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, located in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is one of the "unmaintained" trails and, along with the similar Tanner Trail, is considered one of the most difficult trails on the South Rim. Unlike the Tanner Trail, there is no parking available at the trailhead, which is located about a 5 minute walk north of the South Rim main road. The trail ends at the Hance Rapids on the Colorado River. It is approximately 6.5 hiking miles and a 4400' descent from the South Rim main road at ~7040' to the Colorado River at ~2600' elevation. This trail has become used more in recent years. It is no longer only marked by the occasional cairn. While it remains a very rugged trail, the New Hance is now a real single track trail that is very distinct and relatively straightforward to follow the entire way from the South Rim Drive down to the river. Well-engineered switchbacks and other trail maintenance indicate that significant work, however irregularly, has been done on the trail over the years since John Hance first created the trail in the 1890s. The top one mile is the steepest and most rugged part of the trail, featuring hard switchbacks down a steep slope and numerous big step downs, two to four feet high, that must be carefully negotiated. Below the top one mile, the big steps become fewer in number and farther apart, and the trail becomes progressively less steep. However, occasional steep stretches and big steps may still be found along the entire length of the trail. There are a couple of isolated spots in the bottom wider areas of Red Canyon where the trail splits into multiple paths but they eventually converge again after a relatively short distance. While rugged and somewhat challenging to navigate, the New Hance Trail does not require specialized technical skills or equipment. It has graduated to a full-fledged "hiking trail". The trail's ruggedness and remote location has placed it out of reach of most tourists, so the New Hance Trail is almost exclusively used by overnight hikers and the occasional day hiker, typically well trained and properly prepared. There is no reliable source of water between the TH and the Colorado River. The small creeks and springs in the lower portions of Red Canyon may be flowing early in the year. However, the GCNP issues a warning on back country permits noting that the spring water may exceed municipal water standards for arsenic.

Grand Canyon Skywalk

The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a transparent horseshoe-shaped cantilever bridge and tourist attraction in Arizona near the Colorado River on the edge of a side canyon in the Grand Canyon West area of the main canyon. USGS topographic maps show the elevation at the Skywalks location as 4,770 ft and the elevation of the Colorado River in the base of the canyon as 1,160 ft, and they show that the height of the precisely vertical drop directly under the skywalk is between 500 ft and 800 ft . Commissioned and owned by the Hualapai Indian tribe, it was unveiled March 20, 2007, and opened to the general public on March 28, 2007. It is accessed via the Grand Canyon West Airport terminal or a 120-mile drive from Las Vegas. The Skywalk is east of Meadview and north of Peach Springs with Kingman being the closest city of some size.

El Tovar Hotel

The El Tovar Hotel, also known simply as El Tovar, is a former Harvey House hotel situated directly on the south rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. The hotel was designed by Charles Whittlesey, Chief Architect for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and was opened in 1905 as one of a chain of hotels and restaurants owned and operated by the Fred Harvey Company in conjunction with the Santa Fe railway whose Grand Canyon Depot was 100 metres away. It is at the northern terminus of the Grand Canyon Railway, which was formerly a branch of the Santa Fe. The hotel is one of only a handful of Harvey House facilities that are still in operation, and is an early example of the style that would evolve into National Park Service Rustic architecture. The Hotel is also featured in the 1983 film, National Lampoons Vacation.

Trans-Canyon Telephone Line

The Trans-Canyon Telephone line in Grand Canyon National Park crosses the Grand Canyon from the South Rim to the North Rim via the Inner Canyon. The lines were constructed in 1934 and altered in 1938-39 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and have been unchanged since their installation. Telephone lines are supported using 592 assemblies of 2-inch galvanized pipes and fittings, which could be easily transported and assembled with minimal impact to the canyon environment. It is a rare surviving example of open-wire copper weld technology. The line extends for 18 miles paralleling the Bright Angel Trail and the North Kaibab Trail, providing a direct link between the North and South Rims, as well as the Inner Canyon. A spur line ran along the South Kaibab Trail to the Tipoff. The line was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 13, 1986.

Isis Temple

Isis Temple, in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA is a prominence below the North Rim, and adjacent Granite Gorge. The prominence lies north of the north bank of the west-flowing Colorado River, and is just north of Middle Granite Gorge. The Trinity Creek and canyon flow due-south at its west border; its north, and northeast border/flank is formed by Phantom Creek and canyon, a west tributary of Bright Angel Creek; the creeks intersect about 3 mi southeast, and 1 mi north of Granite Gorge. Isis Temple is about 5 mi directly north of Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, Grand Canyon; the Village is the west terminus of Arizona Route 64-, and north terminus of U.S. 180, from Valle, Arizona, and Williams, . Isis Temple is part of an uplifted, and sub-faulted block, with a sub-peak landform, Cheops Pyramid, 5,392 feet about 1600-ft lower in elevation, and 1.0 mi southeast of the Isis Temple prominence. The Isis prominence is composed of erosion resistant cliff-formimg Coconino Sandstone.

Grand Canyon Lodge

The Grand Canyon Lodge is a hotel and cabins complex at Bright Angel Point on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, who designed a number of other hotels in national parks for the Utah Parks Company and other concessioners. Built in 1927-28, the Grand Canyon Lodge resort complex consists of the Main Lodge building, 23 deluxe cabins, and 91 standard cabins, some of which were moved to the north rim campground in 1940. All guests are housed in cabins detached from the main lodge, which serves as a dining, concessions and service facility. Constructed of native Kaibab limestone and timber, the complex was designed to harmonize with its rocky and forested setting. The Grand Canyon Lodge complex is notable for its setting and rustic design, as well as its status as the only complete surviving lodge and cabin complex in the national parks.
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