The Northern view of the Canyon

Every stop at the canyon is a highlight. Angel's Window is very photogenic and pretty. Cape Royal has spectacular views and is located in a very pretty area. Take a picnic with you.

Quick Tips:

Go to the visitors centre to get up to date information and advice. Refer to the maps and paperwork you are given when entering the park it is full if useful information. Keep to the trails as wandering can be dangerous, however don't be afraid to wander a little to get the best views.

Make sure you have comfortable footware, suncream, a hat ,and plenty of water with you.

Best Way To Get Around:

The only way round the Cape Royal trail is to drive and at each stop walk--sometimes a few feet, sometimes a few miles.

Cape Royal Drive is an excellent drive to take when visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The drive is approximately 23 miles each way, and it is not a loop. You can either drive down and take each view point as it comes or drive straight to the end and then stop off on the way back, we chose the former.

Our first stop was Point Imperial which is located at the end of a three mile spur road. Point Imperial is the highest point on the North Rim at 8,803 feet and overlooks the northeast side of the park. There are picnic areas and toilets located near the parking area. From the car park you walk to a railed overlook, which offers truly outstanding views. From here you can see the Vermillion Cliffs and Echo Cliffs which are way off into the distance. Look down and you can see straight down to the bottom of the canyon, awesome. If you can tear yourself away from this view you can then travel back down the spur to Vista Encantadora where again there are picnic tables, but no toilets. Again you will see magnificent views.

The next stop on the drive is Roosevelt Point, which is one of the few places you can see the Colorado River running through the canyon. This vista has even more fantastic views where you can really see the vastness of the canyon itself.

The next stop, Walhalla Overlook, is quite a ways down the trail, but in my view offered some of the best views of all. Don’t be fooled and stay near the parking area where there are good views, but walk along to the end of the parking section and there is a pathway to another railed overview. Here you can see for miles. It is truly breathtaking.

If you can pull yourself away travel a little bit further and you come to Cape Royal. There is a large car park here with toilets and picnic areas. There are several options you can take here. You can take the Angel’s Window trail which leads you to stunning views--yes, more. Here the view takes its name from a triangular hole in the cliffs through which you can see the Colorado River snaking through the canyon. It is beautiful. The other option is to take the trail which takes you above Angel’s Window and give some of the best views the canyon has to offer. You have travelled 23 miles to get here, but believe me it would be worthwhile driving 200 miles for this view. It is spectacular.

All the trails on this drive are short and easily walked. We went at the beginning of July and didn’t encounter any queues. In fact at most of the stops we were the only people there. Not sure if it is always like this at this time, or we were very lucky.

Whilst in the Grand Canyon area, we decided to take a helicopter flight. We were spending our last night back in Vegas, so booked a trip leaving there. The trip we chose included limousine pickup from our hotel, flights by Sundance Helicopters, landing in the canyon with picnic and return flight to Vegas. We chose the 6pm flight as we though we might be lucky enough to see the sunset.

We actually didn’t take off until 6.30pm. The pilot was really nice and made everyone feel comfortable and relaxed. Although the copter catered for six passengers, we were only sharing with two young women from Hong Kong.

We took off and made our way across Vegas, then over the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. The views were great, you could see how huge Lake Mead really is, something you cannot appreciate from the ground. As we flew he kept pointing out places of interest and explained the history of the area and how the town of boulder was established, etc.

After the dam we flew toward the Grand Canyon, at one point it looked as though we were going to be crashing straight into a mountain, however at the last minute the pilot pulled up and took us over the top. Once we were flying over the canyon, you could see for miles, we flew down the middle of the canyon over the Colorado River eventually coming to land on a large rocky platform.

We were then told we could go off and explore, but to be careful of falling off the edge, snakes, spiky cactus . . . By this time the sun was starting to go down and the temperature had decreased to a little over 110F. We wandered around and took photos, chatted to our companions, etc. After ten minutes the pilot called us over to the picnic. This was set up on table and benches under a canopy, beautiful. We each had a wicker basket containing croissant, muffin, drinks, etc. We also had champagne.

After about half hour we took off again, by now the sun was beginning to set and beautiful colours were being cast across the sky. A little further into the flight and the sunset turned into one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. It was so red, it was stunning. The pilot said it was one of the best this year. As we got closer to Vegas it was pretty dark and we had the added advantage of seeing Vegas by night. We flew in from the south, over Freemont Street and above the strip, with great views of the hotels. We landed safely back at the airport and had the opportunity of buying photos of us standing by the helicopter. We were then taken back to our hotel by limo at about 9.45pm.

My advice – do it, it’s great, a definite must!