Las Vegas Trip – Grand Canyon National Park
Before we set up our final plan to Grand Canyon National Park, we originally planned to visit Death Valley National Park instead, first reason because Death Valley is closer to Las Vegas compared with Grand Canyon, second reason is SL had been to Grand Canyon National Park five years ago and he said it wasn’t an attracted place to him. All after all, I still decided to choose Grand Canyon National Park before Death Valley because it once has been named as seven wonders in the world. Finally, we made it and brought a lot of memory and inspiration from Grand Canyon National Park. Though I still don’t know if Death Valley is really nice or not, I still never regret that I chose to visit Grand Canyon because it is really a wonderful place from my perspective.
On our second day of Las Vegas trip, we departed to Grand Canyon National Park from hotel at 4:30am, it was about five hours driving distance between Las Vegas and Grand Canyon National Park, well it actually doesn’t need this long but that isn’t a direct route between these two point, so that we need to go south, then east and go north again. Finally, we arrived to Grand Canyon National Park at around ten o’clock after long-haul driving but I was just too excited to visit there because it was one of the seven wonders in the world. The entrance fee is USD25 for each vehicle, which is valid for seven days entry.
To prevent pollution, the National Park provided free shuttle to visitors to travel inside the park, there are four scenic routes in total, red, blue, purple and green, but only red route is inaccessible by car and the others can reach by personal vehicle. Sometimes, it would be long waiting queue at shuttle station especially at the start and end point of red route, therefore we would think driving is more convenient for use on other accessible viewpoint.
Generally, purple route is Tusayan Route which take visitors from some point outside of National Park into blue and green route shuttle transfer station, blue route is Village Route which transports visitors among some viewpoints and facilities in the National Park, green route is Kaibab Trail Route which transfer visitor between Yaki Point at Desert View Drive and blue route transfer point (however this route doesn’t take you until Desert Viewpoint and you need to drive to there) and the last red route is Hermits Rest Route and only accessible by shuttle bus which takes visitors from blue route transfer point until the last stop Hermit Rest and there are some view point stops.
Before the trip, SL kept telling me there is no much special in Grand Canyon National Park and we most properly would finish it within few hours, therefore I only planned a day in the Park. However, the real scenario is totally different as what he said as I am totally attracted by the gigantic view in Grand Canyon, it definitely cannot be completed within a day if I wanted to stop at every view point for some sightseeing and photos taking, it needs at least two day to call the complete Grand Canyon National Park tour but it still don’t take hiking into account. If I wanted to do some hiking at their viewpoints, then I couldn’t count how many days you need because it’s depend on your selection and your strength.
Due to time limitation, therefore we only selected some viewpoints to visit and we almost skipped all facilities on blue route, Canyon View Information Plaza and we parked our car there, then we took shuttle to Yavapai Geology Museum, we thought there might not have parking lot at first but we were wrong, else we would stop our car at Village Route Transfer for convenient and time saving. Then we stopped at Bright Angel Lodge and walked from there to Hermits Route Transfer for sight seeing on the way. Along the Hermits Rest Route, we took some stop points when description from driver attracted us, they are included Maricopa Point, Powell Point, Hopi Point, Mohave Point, The Abyss, Monument Creek Vista, Pima Point and the last stop Hermits Rest, well we almost visited every view point except Trailview Overlook.
After long wait at Village Route Transfer, we finally got back to our car at five o’clock and immediately started our Kaibab Trail Route by car, we only stopped at Desert View, Navajo Point, Moran Point and Grandview Point. Then, it was about 6:30pm when we decided to head back to Las Vegas.
During tour in Grand Canyon, we found amazing with its spectacular view, surely that is no normal people managed to create this type of view in that huge area, natural and evolution of time can only process and change it, therefore we should learn how to appreciate the greatness of natural.
When we were at somewhere nearby Bright Angel Lodge around lunchtime, we were able to see some condors were flying around sky above Grand Canyon, there were many visitors stopped to snapshot them, they were just like doing air show in the sky. Among visitors, one was saying it was just like once in a lifetime air show by condors, though this might not be the only time in Grand Canyon, it probably really be the last time to us if we won’t visit there for the rest of our life.
For additional information, there is a Bright Angel Trail at Bright Angel Lodge, which is quite long and from there you can reach to Colorado River, however the park doesn’t recommend hiker to hike until the River and back within a day because people would probably be too exhausted and thirsty for this long distance and dry weather trail, a lot of brave hikers were died because they challenged themselves on that. So, please don’t challenge your body too much if you are not sure your limitation. Due to we ran out of time, so that we only did short hike at Bright Angel Trail to reach the first point (a hole) that we wanted to take picture.
After some viewpoints, SL always liked to tell me his point that isn’t different between different viewpoints and Grand Canyon still look the same, however I denied because every viewpoint surely has their special point, like we are about to see condors were flying nearby Bright Angel Lodge or we could see Colorado River at end of Hermits Rest route, of course it is another view along Desert View Drive, we should learn how to see them at different mind because they have different beautifulness at different viewpoints. That was a joke between SL and I during our visit, but it brings out what I want to say:
On our second day of Las Vegas trip, we departed to Grand Canyon National Park from hotel at 4:30am, it was about five hours driving distance between Las Vegas and Grand Canyon National Park, well it actually doesn’t need this long but that isn’t a direct route between these two point, so that we need to go south, then east and go north again. Finally, we arrived to Grand Canyon National Park at around ten o’clock after long-haul driving but I was just too excited to visit there because it was one of the seven wonders in the world. The entrance fee is USD25 for each vehicle, which is valid for seven days entry.
To prevent pollution, the National Park provided free shuttle to visitors to travel inside the park, there are four scenic routes in total, red, blue, purple and green, but only red route is inaccessible by car and the others can reach by personal vehicle. Sometimes, it would be long waiting queue at shuttle station especially at the start and end point of red route, therefore we would think driving is more convenient for use on other accessible viewpoint.
Generally, purple route is Tusayan Route which take visitors from some point outside of National Park into blue and green route shuttle transfer station, blue route is Village Route which transports visitors among some viewpoints and facilities in the National Park, green route is Kaibab Trail Route which transfer visitor between Yaki Point at Desert View Drive and blue route transfer point (however this route doesn’t take you until Desert Viewpoint and you need to drive to there) and the last red route is Hermits Rest Route and only accessible by shuttle bus which takes visitors from blue route transfer point until the last stop Hermit Rest and there are some view point stops.
Before the trip, SL kept telling me there is no much special in Grand Canyon National Park and we most properly would finish it within few hours, therefore I only planned a day in the Park. However, the real scenario is totally different as what he said as I am totally attracted by the gigantic view in Grand Canyon, it definitely cannot be completed within a day if I wanted to stop at every view point for some sightseeing and photos taking, it needs at least two day to call the complete Grand Canyon National Park tour but it still don’t take hiking into account. If I wanted to do some hiking at their viewpoints, then I couldn’t count how many days you need because it’s depend on your selection and your strength.
Due to time limitation, therefore we only selected some viewpoints to visit and we almost skipped all facilities on blue route, Canyon View Information Plaza and we parked our car there, then we took shuttle to Yavapai Geology Museum, we thought there might not have parking lot at first but we were wrong, else we would stop our car at Village Route Transfer for convenient and time saving. Then we stopped at Bright Angel Lodge and walked from there to Hermits Route Transfer for sight seeing on the way. Along the Hermits Rest Route, we took some stop points when description from driver attracted us, they are included Maricopa Point, Powell Point, Hopi Point, Mohave Point, The Abyss, Monument Creek Vista, Pima Point and the last stop Hermits Rest, well we almost visited every view point except Trailview Overlook.
After long wait at Village Route Transfer, we finally got back to our car at five o’clock and immediately started our Kaibab Trail Route by car, we only stopped at Desert View, Navajo Point, Moran Point and Grandview Point. Then, it was about 6:30pm when we decided to head back to Las Vegas.
During tour in Grand Canyon, we found amazing with its spectacular view, surely that is no normal people managed to create this type of view in that huge area, natural and evolution of time can only process and change it, therefore we should learn how to appreciate the greatness of natural.
When we were at somewhere nearby Bright Angel Lodge around lunchtime, we were able to see some condors were flying around sky above Grand Canyon, there were many visitors stopped to snapshot them, they were just like doing air show in the sky. Among visitors, one was saying it was just like once in a lifetime air show by condors, though this might not be the only time in Grand Canyon, it probably really be the last time to us if we won’t visit there for the rest of our life.
For additional information, there is a Bright Angel Trail at Bright Angel Lodge, which is quite long and from there you can reach to Colorado River, however the park doesn’t recommend hiker to hike until the River and back within a day because people would probably be too exhausted and thirsty for this long distance and dry weather trail, a lot of brave hikers were died because they challenged themselves on that. So, please don’t challenge your body too much if you are not sure your limitation. Due to we ran out of time, so that we only did short hike at Bright Angel Trail to reach the first point (a hole) that we wanted to take picture.
After some viewpoints, SL always liked to tell me his point that isn’t different between different viewpoints and Grand Canyon still look the same, however I denied because every viewpoint surely has their special point, like we are about to see condors were flying nearby Bright Angel Lodge or we could see Colorado River at end of Hermits Rest route, of course it is another view along Desert View Drive, we should learn how to see them at different mind because they have different beautifulness at different viewpoints. That was a joke between SL and I during our visit, but it brings out what I want to say:
SL: You See, that is all the same in Grand Canyon National Park, you won’t find them different one.Grand Canyon National Park information: http://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm
Me: No, every point is different, you see, you saw this rock at your left at last viewpoint but it is at your right now. And you see there, we were there just now and we couldn’t take picture for it, but now we are at another point and we can see how it looks like to Grand Canyon.
SL: =.=”
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