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The Grand Canyon is a vast wondrous beauty to see, but planning can be quite overwhelming. We started our trip from Phoenix, Arizona to Sedona then up to the Grand Canyon, so this post will go over the South Rim.
Bearizona
After visiting Sedona we stayed at a hotel in Flagstaff, AZ. From there we went over to Bearizona. Bearizona is a cute drive thru animal park. It was fun to see all the different animals. We stayed here for about 1/2 a day before driving up to The Grand Canyon.
Grand Canyon South Rim
After Bearizona we headed up to the Grand Canyon South Rim. We stopped at the visitors center and picked up a map for the park (see below). If you follow along this map, you’ll see the routes we took to see nearly all of the viewpoints on our trip.
We planned our visit throughout the park with the best view points of the sunset in mind. There are 3 different color coded routes that the buses travel. To view the points on the orange route, you’ll have to take that corresponding bus. If you are at an orange route point and you want to go to a red point, you’ll have to take the orange route bus, get on the blue route bus, and stop at the red route. The desert view area is only accessible by driving a car. It’s far less crowded and we saved this for the last day. In order to maximize your day, it’s best to pre-select the routes.
The first stop was Mather Point. We chose to stop at this point first because it’s right at the visitors center. The views were beautiful.
After Mather Point we decided we wanted an up-close and personal experience, so we parked at “Shrine of the Ages” area on the map, and rode a bus. We were dropped off at The Village and hiked up to Trailview Overlook, Maricopa Point, Powell Point, and ended at Hopi Point to watch the sunset. It ended up being a little over a 3 mile hike. Then we rode the bus back to our car because it was FREEZING. I loved hiking this area because it wasn’t crowded, and we could get a personal experience through the canyon.
The view from Hopi Point was absolutely gorgeous. It was mesmerizing seeing the Grand Canyon change colors. I LOVED this viewpoint to watch the sunset!
We were starving after our 3 mile hike to Hopi Point so we rode the bus back to our car and headed over to Yavapai Lodge and ate at the restaurant. We all had an Elk burger and it was AMAZING. I wanted to try an Ostrich burger, but they were all out by the time we were able to get there. This restaurant gets packed early on for dinner and there is limited seating. Sometimes you may have to wait on a table.
Desert View
The next day we had a full day at the Canyon, and we woke up to 23 degrees and snow on the ground. The climate here is much different than Phoenix. We wanted to start our day off on the Desert View side of the canyon, and watch the sunrise from there. We drove over to Moran Point to watch the beautiful sunrise and then drove to Desert View Watchtower, Navajo Point, Lipan Point, Grandview Point, and ended at Yaki Point. The interesting thing about these view points were the info-graphics that were at each point. It was very interesting to learn about the canyon at different spots. For example, at Desert View Watchtower, it talks about Indian tribes and gives information about them.
Bright Angel Trailhead
After it warmed up a bit around 11am, we headed over to Bright Angel Trailhead, where we hiked about .75 miles down into the canyon. This is a medium intensity hike, where it’s semi-easy to go down, but the trek back up is pretty hard. You can see in the picture that at times it’s straight up. We talked with some hikers who encountered a bull elk on the way back up (the day before), ON THE TRAILS! How awesome!? We also saw evidence of mountain goats, which would have been cool to see. Since we waited for it to warm up we didn’t get a good chance at seeing wildlife, but it was a great experience! Some people travel down into the Grand Canyon, stay overnight, and hike out the next day. That would be AWESOME, but I don’t know if I could handle that hike out. If you get the chance, I would highly recommended hiking down into the canyon here at the Bright Angel Trailhead. It gives a truly soul-touching experience seeing the Grand Canyon IN the Canyon. If we were more fit, I would have loved to go to the bottom!
East Part of South Rim View Points
After the Bright Angel Trailhead, we headed to the Outlook Studio and overlooked the Canyon. Then we got on the red bus and headed to Hermits Rest (the eastern most point of the South Rim). We made it a point to discover the east to west points to see all the viewpoints of the Grand Canyon – and we’re so glad we did!
Hermit’s Rest had a nice view point but also had coffee and hot chocolate, which was nice since we were still so cold! After Hermits Rest we went to Pima Point, The Abyss, Mojave Point, and ended up at Hopi Point again to watch the sunset. Our entire objective on this trip was to get to the best vantage points to see the sun rise and the sun set.
After the gorgeous sunset, we headed back over to Yavapai Lodge and had another Elk burger.
Drive Back to Phoenix
The next day we woke up and headed over to one of the points to watch the sunrise.
After the sunrise, we headed down through Oak Canyon, which was BEAUTIFUL! We stopped at an authentic Native American artisan market and purchased handcrafted Native American things like a tomahawk, bear figurine, ornament, and an arrow.
The plane ride home was beautiful. We watched the sunset over New Mexico!
Overall the trip to the Grand Canyon was a success! We had a good time!
