Thinking about taking advantage of the National Park System’s last Fee-Free Weekend of the summer today or tomorrow? You might want to steer clear of the Grand Canyon on Sunday. President Obama and family are doing an Air Force One version of Chevy Chase’s Family Vacation this week, stopping to tour both Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. Phoenix TV Stations are reporting that visitors to the South Rim on Sunday should expect some closures and delays.
Rather than sit in your Grand Canyon hotels and mope about the inconvenience, you should head instead to one of the canyon’s more remote and therefore less-visited sections. Here are three good options:
The North Rim: While the North and South Rims are separated by only 12 miles as the crow flies, people who want to get from side to side have two choices. They can either hike the 21 miles from rim to rim or drive 200 miles around the canyon to get to the other side. This “inconvenience” means that the North Rim only receives about 10% of the visitors that the South Rim does.
With an altitude of over 8,000 feet (1,000 feet higher than the South Rim), the North Rim is 10 degrees cooler on average than the South Rim. This difference in elevation also means that the North Rim receives more rain, making it more lush and full of animal life than the South Rim. Keep an eye out for bison, elk, mule deer, and the unique Kaibab squirrel wandering through the thick stands of aspen, pine and birch. A glimpse overhead might reveal a majestic California condor soaring over the canyon with its nine-foot wingspan.
Havasu Falls: This remote section of the canyon, which can be accessed via a 165-mile drive from Flagstaff combined with either a 12-mile hike or a 5-minute helicopter ride into the canyon, is famous for its stunning blue-green waterfalls that pour over red stone cliffs. The mineral rich water running over the falls leaves calcium carbonate deposits along the side, which create stunning travertine ledges.
A major flash flood in August of last year knocked out some of the falls and closed this section of the canyon until just recently. You could be one of the first people to visit the two new falls created by the flood, unofficially referred to as New Navajo and Rock Falls. (The Havasupai tribe that lives in this section of the canyon will be responsible for officially naming the new falls.)
Grand Canyon West: This newly developed section of the canyon is also on tribal lands and is quite remote. It is most easily accessed by a drive or helicopter flight from Las Vegas. The big draw here is the Grand Canyon Skywalk, which has received international acclaim since opening a few years ago. A 30-million-dollar architectural marvel, the Skywalk is a glass-bottomed observation deck that juts 70 feet out over the canyon’s rim, allowing visitor’s unobstructed views below their toes. If that sounds too vertigo-inducing for you, helicopter rides are also available here to port people to the bottom of the canyon for short, smooth-water raft trips on the Colorado River.
