This was the last day of our Grand Canyon trip. We got to the park around 8:30 AM to avoid the long lines at the entrance. There’s a place to check online and see a real-time camera feed from outside the Grand Canyon gate, so you can get an idea of how long the line is. We were told that if you arrive before 9:00 AM, the wait time should be minimal.
Our first stop was the visitor center. There are different bus lines that start at the visitor center and take you to various parts of the park. From the visitor center, we visited Mather Point, which is only a 5-minute walk away. Mather Point has several overlooks of the Canyon. After that, we took the blue bus to the Village, a place where you can rent a cabin, have lunch, and more. It serves as a base camp of sorts. From there, we took the red bus to different locations on the south rim, each offering a different view of the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon was carved out by the Colorado River. The south rim, where we were visiting, is about 1000 feet lower in elevation compared to the north rim. The canyon is about 10 miles wide, with about 3 miles from the edge of the south rim to the riverbed and 7 miles from the riverbed to the edge of the north rim. Because of this difference in elevation, the vegetation on the north and south rims is also different. The south section is drier and warmer, while the north rim is cooler and gets more rain and snow.
When you look at the layers of rocks and stones that the Colorado River has cut through, you can see evidence of the Earth’s evolution over hundreds of millions of years. You can even trace back to when the North American continent was part of the Supergroup Rocks and located at the Earth’s equator. For millions of years, this now dry inland terrain was at the bottom of a shallow ocean or swamp. For another million years, it was a desert, which is how all the sandstones were formed. The Geology Museum at Yavapai Point provided a lot of interesting information about the Grand Canyon, and we really enjoyed our visit.
After a whole day exploring the south rim of the Grand Canyon, we wrapped up our 3-day trip to the national parks and started heading back to Vegas in the afternoon.