May 25, 2021

The Grandest Of Them All – The Grand Canyon!

A road trip through Arizona is not complete without a visit to one of the 7 natural wonders of the world – the Grand Canyon. We chose to visit the national park as a day trip from our home base in Flagstaff where the various entrances to the south rim of the canyon are a little over an hour away. As with the other national parks that we’ve visited on our trip, the entrance was covered by our park pass, otherwise entrance was $35 per vehicle.

The crowds at the Grand Canyon are always busy, especially during the high season. Since we were visiting on a Saturday we knew it would be extra crowded. Because of this, we did a few things to make our experience more enjoyable:

Instead of entering the park through the main south rim entrance by the visitor center, we entered through the less popular East entrance. There was no wait to get in when we arrived (mid morning) and very little traffic. After entering from the East, you also have the opportunity to stop at the Desert View Watchtower location which provides a unique view of the canyon and has some nice gift shops, coffee shop, and amenities available.
Next on our journey through the park was a hike on the Shoshone Point trail which is about half way in from the East entrance to the central visitor center. There is a gravel parking area for the trail, but not a lot of signage so make sure you have it in on your gps. The dog friendly trail is 2 miles long total (in and out) and is a nice flat walk along a forested gravel path. Once you reach the end of the trail you have the opportunity to walk out on the rocky point itself which offers breathtaking panoramic views of the canyon. It also is a bit intimidating with sharp drop offs (some which team and some which are more of a visual illusion than reality) – we saw a few people choosing not to walk all the way out due to this. The best part of this area is that it has little foot traffic. We sat out on the point for an hour taking in the views and snapping some photos, and only a few other groups of people passed through. Definitely a hidden gem worth the hike! There is also a picnic shelter and bathrooms available near the point.

After completing our Shoshone Point hike, we did stop at the main visitor center area which offers a nice paved walking trail and many close by scenic overlooks. By the time we got there in the early afternoon, parking was quite full and the overlooks were packed. It definitely made us appreciate the lightly trafficked options we chose earlier in the day, but we were still happy that we stopped at this main location for some additional amazing views. Just be prepared for heavy crowds and people attempting to find spots to take photos around each other and packed parking.