ditsjets7 said:
Hi! Inhane never been, my two boys will be 8 and 10 when we go. And I would love and appreciate any information. Thank you so much!!!!
Your boys are the perfect age for the Williams train ride. Williams is the gateway town located 60 miles south of the Grand Canyon. I would suggest spending the night there before going to the canyon. Take the train ride to the canyon. I will not spoil it for you but the return trip back to Williams in the afternoon will be the highlight of the trip that they will remember forever.
The north rim is beautiful but a very long trip for basically the same view you get on the south rim however there is a lot less to see and do on the north rim and it is 1000 feet higher in elevation so you will be even more out of breath there. The south rim is at 7000 feet and you must remember to drink copious amounts of water or you will get headaches.
There is a Skywalk at the west end of the canyon that is a long way to go and a total rip off. The view you get there is almost as good as the view you get from The Abyss at the south rim but there is no charge.
The east rim is a fantastic side trip to take. Plan a whole day. They have the Watchtower there and some fantastic views of the river. In almost every other place to can view the canyon there is rarely a view of the river because it is a mile beneath you.
If 5 pm rolls around and the sky has some nice clouds it is a great idea to hop on board the Hermit's Rest shuttle and head out to Hopi Point for sunset. If you want to see a great sunrise you have to go out to the east rim, since it has a better view of the sunrise than anyplace else on the south rim.
My number one suggestion is to not spend the whole time on the rim. There are two sensational trails heading to the bottom. Bright Angel, which is the trail made famous by the mules and there is South Kaibab. I am not suggesting you head to the bottom. You want to go one and half miles at the most. Both trails have a rest room at the one and half mile mark and DO NOT go any further, no matter how great you feel at that point. To exit from the mile and half point will take you several hours and it is basically like being on a stair master for several hours. Since you are lowlanders your white blood cells will make you extremely tired hiking out if you go further. Take a ton of water with you. The view from the rim is spectacular, it is one of the seven wonders of the world and you will not understand that until you have seen it in person. But it basically like looking at a post card. Once you hike down into the canyon you suddenly have the canyon in front of you, behind you, above you, below you and in every direction. The further down you hike the closer the north rim gets and looks even better since there is less haze to look through. If you don't feel like you can handle a hike like this then at least go down the trails a hundred yards or so just to get a feeling for what I am talking about.
As you hike down the Bright Angel Trail after you go a hundred yard or so you come to a very short tunnel. After you pass through the tunnel stop and look up and to the left. There are very old native America petroglyphs on the wall. Notice them in the photo of three sheep.
Hopi House is a souvenir stand on the south rim not to be missed. There are natives doing dances most afternoons which is really cool.
In Tusayan right across the street from your campground is an Imax theater showing a Grand Canyon film. Excellent movie and worth the time.
Every day there are free ranger programs you can attend. The best ones are the Condor talk usually given every afternoon and the fossil walk usually done every morning. Not dinosaur fossils, the top layer of the canyon is 250 million years old so all the dino stuff is long gone. But the fossils that are there are very cool and you can actually walk on them you will be so close to them. The kids should really love this.
There is more and I will add it in later after my fingers recover. I am poor typist. What month will you be there?