<p>Great news: S1 got a last-minute internship offer near Santa Barbara. Not-as-great news: We live in Houston, TX! </p>
<p>He says he could drive alone, but the mom in me won’t allow that, so I’ll be taking 3 days off work and we’ll drive over. Luckily, H has airline miles to get me back home!</p>
<p>So…S1 called today and said “let’s drive up and peek at the Grand Canyon on the way”. Can anyone give me a “quick” way to see it without cutting into our trip too much? We literally just want a great photo vantage point and that will be adequate! It will be in just a couple of weeks and there’s a ton to do - did I mention the contractors are starting my master bath remodel the Monday before? hahaha…trying my best to roll with the punches!</p>
<p>At least my boss was very nice about needing days off with little notice! Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Hello, I just did this a couple of weeks ago. In short, everyone says to just park in the visitor’s center and take the free buses around. I thought we would do that but as we got closer there were signs saying “lots 1, 2, 3, and 4 filled, use lots A, B, C and D.”</p>
<p>Well, there were no signs to get to the mysterious lettered lots so we just turned left and parked at the next parking area which was some place called the Geology Museum. Easy! I think it’s better than parking at the main visitor area parking lot which is near Mather Point and is much more crowded. It was nice to have our first view of the canyon be a bit less crowded than that area.</p>
<p>One mistake we made was to walk with the sun in front of us. Pretty soon we realized we’d either have to backtrack, or walk another mile or so (to the next bus stop) with that sun in our faces. It would be better to walk with the sun behind you and take the bus back in the sun-ward direction. D3 also had on flip-flops and jeans. Too hot and not enough arch support. We got there around 4 PM and the sun was setting at 7 PM (Arizona does not do DST).</p>
<p>Also, that last bit of road is 50+ miles in a dead straight line. Very tiring to drive straight for that long. If he can stay overnight in the village just before the National Park (Tusayan), he could go back and revisit without feeling exhausted. </p>
<p>My son and g/f drove up on a Saturday and left early Sunday. To me, that is too much a quickie, but they had fun with the drive. Both felt satisfied. So, go with it. </p>
<p>you can take the buses for free (included with your park admission) that go to all the major places to get good views of the canyon. Could see a few of the places in a couple hours. The blue by the visitors center is easy. Take the Yellow over to Yaki Point (sp?) to get a different view, and the Red toward the Hermit to get some good shots of the river. Then return to visitors center where you probably parked.</p>
<p>I guess we just completely lucked out finding parking. We stayed at El Tovar and snagged a spot within easy walking distance of the entrance of the hotel. There are six hotels/lodges on the rim, with El Tovar being the one closest to the ‘photo op’ viewing point. There is a large parking lot near these lodges, but as I said, perhaps we lucked out arriving at 4pm or so. You can walk an easy mile in either direction from El Tovar w/o encountering significant elevation changes, and still manage to see enjoy different vantages. </p>
<p>It was much warmer than the air temperature would have led us to believe…and we move very fast, so we warmed up quickly. Hiking shoes are not needed, but sneakers would be better than flip flops (my usual footwear).</p>
<p>If you do end up parking near the lodges, go inside El Tovar and have a drink. It is a neat old hotel. We loved our two nights at the Canyon and wish we had stayed longer. Bring your own water or a water bottle as bottled water is not sold w/in the park. There are bottle refill machines scattered but we didn’t see that many.</p>
<p>P.S. We never took a bus b/c we like to walk and walking seemed faster than waiting for the bus, getting on and off the bus, etc, but that is the same reason I never took a bus in NYC. It also felt good to walk after the four hour drive to and from the canyon.</p>
<p>Yes, you can do this and it is worth it. Are you “walkers?” Imo, that is the best way to see the canyon on a short visit. Park in the first parking lot you come to. Get out and walk along sidewalk trail all the way to the lodges, where you can buy a drink and food if it is not too crowded. Then catch the bus back to the parking lot and you are done.</p>
<p>Yes, thanks! We are good walkers and what bay described sounds perfect! From the east is there a clear path there that will be obvious from Google maps?</p>
<p>I think we just typed in Grand Canyon village. We drove from Scottsdale and did not have any trouble finding our way, but that probably isn’t of any help to you. I think you just head to Flagstaff and head north.</p>
<p>Kudos to you @greenwitch! Our recent trip was our first visit to the canyon, and while we traveled miles and miles on foot horizontally, we only climbed down 1.5 miles. I definitely want to visit again and try the full descent. Did you sleep at Phantom Ranch?</p>
<p>you may want to check out the information and maps available online in advance but if you will only be there for a few hours, but also want more than one view of the canyon, you should plan to do a combination of taking the shuttle buses and walking along the trail along the south rim (there are about nine stops on the red Hermit’s Rest route with each stop about a mile apart)</p>
<p>I wish! I was there at one of the lodges in 1976 but this time we were only there for a few hours. I told D3 that the canyon hadn’t changed much since then, maybe it got an inch or two deeper.</p>
<p>It will cut in to your trip, hours off route. However, those drives with young folk to new parts of the country are priceless, so go for it! </p>
<p>Looking it up, you will need to meet up with I 40 at a point, either in Texas or New Mexico. This will perhaps put you in a better spot in CA to access Santa Barbara while avoiding a lot of LA. I 40 goes through Flagstaff. </p>
<p>The more interesting route to the canyon from Flagstaff is heading straight north from Flagstaff on Highway 89. En route are two National Monuments of interest, Wupatki, which has a variety of Anasazi ruins, and Sunset Crater, which is a rather recently erupted volcano (1300s), with some amazing displays that you can drive by on the road through the park. Either can be briefly seen in an hour. </p>
<p>Heading north, go a little farther north from the Grand Canyon turnoff, to Cameron Trading Post.<a href=“http://www.camerontradingpost.com/”>http://www.camerontradingpost.com/</a> Have lunch there, a Navaho taco if you’ve never had one, or even stay overnight. The restaurant has a great view of the Little Colorado, a rather impressive canyon in it’s own right. After eating, go back to the Grand Canyon turn off, and enter the park. There are numerous turn offs to see the canyon in the park, with different vistas. IF parking is not bad, you can see the canyon quickly from a few of these eastern vantage points. For time efficiency, you might want to avoid Grand Canyon village and crazy parking, which is where the lodges and so on are located, though this is the classic canyon view. Driving through the park is not fast, but does take you west. Head south on HWY 64 to Williams from the Grand Canyon Village area to rejoin I 40 at Williams. </p>
<p>@barrons, He’s in college, but I wouldn’t let anyone I loved drive alone across country alone unless I had to. I worked with a guy who fell asleep driving, flipped his car and almost died. I always think of him and the giant scar he had across his face from the accident.</p>
<p>H has frequent flier miles so I’ll ride with him and fly back. I have hardly seen him in 4 years, so I don’t think he’s in danger of me over-parenting him :-).</p>