Description: Yes, it was on my bucket list. See the Grand Canyon before I die. I had heard that some people took day trips from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, so when we had to visit family in Las Vegas, I decided to plan a trip to the Grand Canyon as well.
In the course of my research, I learned that visiting the Grand Canyon can mean visiting the West Rim (the part closest to Nevada), the North Rim (Utah), or the South Rim (Arizona). Some reviews I read had said that the West Rim could be underwhelming, so we changed our plans. Instead of a day trip to the West Rim, we decided to drive to the South Rim, stay overnight, and drive back to Las Vegas the following day.
Some notes....
THE DRIVE FROM VEGAS. The drive from Vegas was long, made longer than the GPS had projected, because of an accident that backed up the I-40 for several miles and added twenty minutes to our trip. We stopped by Hoover Dam on the way, and spent twenty minutes ooh-ing and ahh-ing. Closer to the Canyon, we had a pleasant surprise discovering Seligman, a tiny Route 66 town, and one of the inspirations for the Pixar movie "Cars." Our son loves "Cars" and we taking a pit stop at the town.
DUSK AT MATHER POINT. Our big disappointment was JUST missing the sunset by a few minutes; when we ran up to Mather Point, the sun had just set, and people had started leaving. But dusk was amazing; the light from the almost-full-moon illuminated enough of the Canyon for us to catch a few minutes of it before it became too dark to see, and in that split second, when I first saw the Canyon, I was completely blown away. There are no words to describe the grandiosity of the Canyon. The tip here is that if you do watch the sunset, *do not leave* when everyone else leaves! Stay until after the crowds thin out, and dusk becomes night. The sight of the Canyon at dusk is forever seared into my memory as one of the most beautiful things I have seen.
DESERT VIEW DRIVE. We woke up at 3:30 the next morning to catch the sunrise. It was a beautiful sunrise, but the first sight of the Canyon at dusk was still better. We grabbed breakfast, took a nap, watched the IMAX movie at the National Geographic Visitor's Center at Tusayan (a must-see; see my separate review), then headed, on the advice of the gentleman who had served us dinner the night before, along Desert View Drive. Desert View Drive is amazing. We stopped at maybe six or seven vista points, and each was as jaw-dropping as the previous one. Desert View Drive is also the serious hikers' choice for Grand Canyon viewing: this means less safety fences but also a more unobstructed view of the Canyon. Also, it seems that most organized tours to the Grand Canyon use the Hermit's Rest route, so I imagine that the Hermit's Rest Route was much more crowded.
If we had the time and enough money, I would have preferred to stay two nights instead of one. But we were on both a time and money budget. Besides, we weren't interested in doing any hiking since we were bringing our three-year-old son with us. So the back and forth overnight trip it was. After our Desert View Drive tour, we started to head back to Las Vegas.
THE DRIVE BACK. We debated whether or not we should do the Route 66 slight detour from Interstate-40, but we were tired and decided not to. WHAT A MISTAKE. The thing about the I-40 is that there is a looong stretch with no town and therefore no detour. Along that same stretch where we had been delayed on the way to the Grand Canyon, we were also delayed on our drive back from the Canyon, but this time we were delayed by three whole hours! A big truck accident completely stopped traffic, and it took us 2.5 hours to drive 10 miles.
But what can I say. As out-of-the-way it is, people flock every year, year after year, to the Grand Canyon's South Rim. I am not surprised. The Grand Canyon is worth the trip.
Close