Visiting the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is one of the most beautiful and adventurous destinations in the United States, or the entire continent for that matter. Other canyons around the world may rival or exceed it by certain measurements, but few have the same combination of immense scale, sheer desert cliffs, exposed geology, and seemingly endless viewpoints found here in Arizona.

Despite how amazing the canyon is, and despite the fact that I’ve been here three or four times, most of my visits have been spent taking in the views from the rim. Each trip was well worth it, but I still owe it to this place to experience more of the adventures it offers. Everything from scenic flights and canyoneering to hiking, camping, rock climbing, and rafting is possible within this enormous landscape.

I first visited the Grand Canyon nearly 20 years ago and returned maybe a year or two later, followed by another visit nearly a decade after that. The canyon wasn’t actually the main purpose of my latest trip to Arizona, and by the time I arrived I could only catch the sunset. Even after seeing it several times, standing along the South Rim and looking across the canyon still doesn’t feel ordinary.

Looking Into the Canyon

One of the difficulties of photographing the Grand Canyon is conveying its scale. From the rim, the landscape extends through layer after layer of cliffs, mesas, and side canyons, while the Colorado River lies thousands of feet below. Photographs can capture individual views, but standing at the edge makes it much easier to understand just how enormous the canyon really is.

Looking all the way down to the canyon floor also makes me want to eventually experience the Grand Canyon from somewhere other than the rim. The Colorado River looks surprisingly small from thousands of feet above, despite being the river responsible for carving much of the canyon over immense spans of geological time. Hiking down into the canyon or traveling through it by river would provide an entirely different perspective from the viewpoints I’ve experienced so far.

Wildlife at the Grand Canyon

While some of the best views in the world will always be the main reason people visit, the Grand Canyon is also an excellent place to see wildlife. As a matter of fact, the very first time I entered the park I nearly had a deadly encounter.

I entered the park at 5 a.m. and was driving in darkness when an entire herd of elk suddenly crossed the road. I didn’t have time to stop and literally drove between them in one of the closest calls I’ve ever had. On my latest visit I had a much safer experience when I saw the elk above.

Elk are among the largest mammals found around the Grand Canyon, while below is something considerably smaller: a tiny mouse.

Grand Canyon Souvenirs

The souvenir shops around the Grand Canyon naturally lean heavily into the landscape and geology of the Southwest. Along with the usual national park souvenirs, I found displays of colorful rocks and minerals that seemed particularly appropriate for a place where hundreds of millions of years of geological history are exposed across the canyon walls.

I’ve now visited the Grand Canyon several times, yet in many ways I’ve only experienced its surface. The views from the South Rim are extraordinary, but there is an entirely different Grand Canyon below the rim that I still want to explore. Eventually I’d like to return for a trip that takes me down into the canyon rather than simply looking across it from above.