Grand Canyon South RIM

I don't have the answers to your questions but I bet others will.

I will suggest, however, to all who visit the Canyon in summer to think about visiting the North Rim (too, or in place of the South). There's a great short-distance hike to a beautiful sunset overlook just a smidge to the east of the Lodge. Plan to arrive 1-2 hours before sunset to get a great spot--it does attract crowds, but nothing like the crowds at the South Rim.

If traveling to the North Rim, be sure to stop at Jacob Lake Inn which is no more than 25 yards off your access route. They have great home made cookies!...and some of the highest gasoline prices in the state.

This is a timely post. I am taking some guests to the Grand Canyon train where we will ride to the South Rim, look around for a few hours, and ride back to Williams. This will be great for the kids as they've never been.

I have been there two times.Last August was the last trip.Once your gps gets you there.Get the map at entrance gate.You will have no problems.Every thing is well marked.Of course fire the gps back up when you get ready to leave.One day will be good if you start early.We stay outside the park so we could get going first thing the next day.Many beautiful areas to see.Make sure to see the sunset over the canyon.

There are many overlooks accessible by car that offer spectacular views of the canyon. Desert View Drive (Highway 64) follows the canyon rim for 26 miles/42 km east of Grand Canyon Village to Desert View - the east entrance to the park. Desert View Drive is open to private vehicles throughout the year. Hermit Road follows the rim for 8 miles/13 km west from Grand Canyon Village to Hermits Rest. Hermit Road is closed to private vehicles much of the year, but the park runs a free shuttle bus to provide transportation to overlooks.

We took the train to the south rim several years ago, it was a spectacular trip. The train trip includes bus rides to several lookouts. Enjoy your trip!

Be advised that the road down to the North Rim is closed until May 15 each year. But according to the maps in the Garmin and Google, it's closed until June 1. The north rim is much higher elevation than the South Rim and there is still snow to be seen until May. We took the trip down around May 20th or so and the road was open, but Nuvi thought it was closed and refused to route us down the one and only road from Jacob Lake to the park entrance. The Nuvi went nuts and was recalculating every other minute. I finally shut it off for that last leg of the trip.

Does your Nuvi after a while of recalculating start to get a disgusted sound when she says "Recalculating"? I have named the GPS, "Betty" in honor of the voice we heard on aircraft and were fondly called "Bitching Betty's"

I had my 855 shut off on me because I would not go to the route it was telling me. Jill told me that I was not a good driver, because I wasn't paying attention to her direction. My wife and I had a good laugh about that.

Hermit Road is closed to private vehicles much of the year, but the park runs a free shuttle bus to provide transportation to overlooks. This is an exception to the ban on private vehicles.

I use both Street Atlas & Streets & Trips with various GPS receivers, connected to my laptop. I found the computer maps highly inaccurate for navigating around Grand Canyon Village on the south rim -- I was even told by a park staffer that GPS is 'no good' at the Canyon. GPS does work just fine there - but the built-in road maps have to be valid, and it turned out neither SA or S&T's maps were valid for the Village area.
I had only a day to spend on my last visit to the south rim, and spend many hours just wandering around the rim area walking from one view point to the next, stopping at the various historic buildings, talking to people, and just hanging out. I enjoyed it immensely, but it was my second visit.
Hermit's Rest Road is closed to private vehicles much of the year, but the park runs a free shuttle bus to provide transportation to overlooks. Very early in the morning I rode the shuttle bus out to Hermit's Rest and back again as the sun rose, while most of the visitors were still waking up. It was very cold that morning, so I didn't get out of the bus longer than a few minutes at a time. Fantastic scenery with the rising sun, found it much fun just riding out to the end & back again. By the time the shuttle returned to its starting point, the day had warmed up.
After an afternoon wandering all along the rim I did have to use my hand-held Garmin Etrex to get back to my parking spot.

Art. Sounds like you had a good day there. I was using an old handheld Magellan in 2008. I had all my waypoints entered before I left home. I found the office and my outlying hotel room ok. Riding the shuttle buses worked great for us.

you can get to all those overlooks by hopping on and off the free park shuttle. For sunset viewing, Yaki point is great !

Have Fun !

PS. bring a raincoat, July is the beginning of monsoon season

The park map is your best bet to get around to various points of interest. You will be at the Grand Canyon, you want to look at the views and scenery not your GPS screen...oh, yea and the traffic.

thank you been thinking that there has to be places that are not the tourist spots every person that goes there gets almost the same picture i am going to be headed that way this fall and was looking for a neat spot that had less tourist traffic.

If it's less tourist traffic you want, and if it's before the North Rim closes for the winter, and if you've got the right attitude and right vehicle, let me suggest the North Rim's Point Sublime:

http://www.zionnational-park.com/grand-canyon-sublime.htm

Use the map at the gate and you'll be fine. If you come from the south You'll come through Yavipai (sp) go about 3 miles to the entrance after that just follow the road to Mather Point. From this point you can walk to Bright Angel or ride the shuttle bus. Get the newspaper that tells about the shuttle buses. North Rim is my favorite. Less congestion and your right there at the rim and closer to hiking to the bottom. If you go out the eat side there are several pull outs and rim views worth seeing. Grand View and Desert View.

Not much foot traffic. Just a few mules.
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q297/spokybob/IMG_0376d.j...