Frommer’s EasyGuide to the Grand Canyon & Northern Arizona

By Gregory McNamee and Bill Wyman

Frommer's books aren't written by committee or by travel writers who simply pop in briefly to a destination and then consider the job done. Our authors are passionate local experts like Greg McNamee and Bill Wyman, award-winning journalists who live in Arizona and love sharing their home state with awed visitors. This insider's take introduces readers to the best and most authentic local experiences, providing unique insights into the history, natural wonders, and contemporary culture of this southwestern powerhouse. Most important, McNamee and Wyman will tell you straight out what's worth your precious vacation time— and what you can skip with no qualms.
Inside this light, portable guide you'll find:
• Detailed Color Maps
• Exact pricing, opening hours, and other important details so that there's no guessing or ugly surprises
• Star ratings to clue you in on great finds and values
• A look at both Arizona's fascinating history and its vibrant present
• Detailed information on outdoor attractions and activities, from the best hiking trails, to horseback riding opportunities, scenic drives and more
• Tips for saving money, whether you need to pinch pennies or have room in the budget for a splurge

• Language: English
• Publisher: FrommerMedia
• Release date: Jun 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781628875409

Gregory McNamee

Gregory McNamee is a widely published author, editor, and photographer who lives in Tucson, Arizona.

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Frommer Media LLC

Copyright © 2019 by Frommer Media LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to [e-mail].

Frommer’s is a registered trademark of Arthur Frommer. Frommer Media LLC is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Frommer's Arizona and the Grand Canyon, 20th Edition

ISBN 978-1-62887-406-8 (paper), 978-1-62887-407-5 (e-book)

Editorial Director: Pauline Frommer

Editor: Holly Hughes

Production Editor: Lynn Northrup

Cartographer: Roberta Stockwell

Photo Editor: Meghan Lamb

Indexer: Maro Riofrancos

Cover Designer: Dave Riedy

For information on our other products or services, see www.frommers.com.

Frommer Media LLC also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic formats.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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How to contact us

In researching this book, we discovered many wonderful places—hotels, restaurants, shops, and more. We’re sure you’ll find others. Please tell us about them, so we can share the information with your fellow travelers in upcoming editions. If you were disappointed with a recommendation, we’d love to know that, too. Please write to: [e-mail].

Frommer's Star Ratings System

Every hotel, restaurant and attraction listed in this guide has been ranked for quality and value. Here's what the stars mean:

AN IMPORTANT NOTE

The world is a dynamic place. Hotels change ownership, restaurants hike their prices, museums alter their opening hours, and buses and trains change their routings. And all of this can occur in the several months after our authors have visited, inspected, and written about these hotels, restaurants, museums, and transportation services. Though we have made valiant efforts to keep all our information fresh and up-to-date, some few changes can inevitably occur in the periods before a revised edition of this guidebook is published. So please bear with us if a tiny number of the details in this book have changed. Please also note that we have no responsibility or liability for any inaccuracy or errors or omissions, or for inconvenience, loss, damage, or expenses suffered by anyone as a result of assertions in this guide.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

The author of Tortillas, Tiswin, and T-Bones: A Food History of the Southwest, Gregory McNamee was the first writer to document the Sonoran hot dog, which has since become an international sensation. He has also written The Ancient Southwest: A Guide to Archaeological Sites; Monumental Places: Arizona’s National Parks and Monuments; and many other books. He has lived in Tucson since 1975. Visit him at www.gregorymcnamee.com.

Bill Wyman is a former assistant managing editor of National Public Radio in Washington, where he oversaw the network’s arts, digital, and media coverage across its signature news shows. He was a senior editor at Salon, the pioneering Internet magazine. His work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York magazine, and other publications. He grew up in Arizona and currently lives in Phoenix.

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1The Grand Canyon & Northern Arizona

The Grand Canyon South Rim

Fast Facts

The Grand Canyon North Rim

Flagstaff

Williams

Havasu Canyon & Grand Canyon West

Kingman

2Arizona in Context

3Planning Your Trip to Arizona

Arriving

Getting Around

Tips on Accommodations

Tours & Guided Trips

Outdoor Sports

Fast Facts

1

The Grand Canyon & Northern Arizona

The Grand Canyon—the name is at once both apt and inadequate. How can words sum up the grandeur of 2 billion years of the earth’s history sliced open by the power of a single river? Once an impassable barrier to explorers and settlers, the Grand Canyon today is a magnet attracting millions of visitors from all over the world. The pastel layers of rock weaving through the canyon’s rugged ramparts, the interplay of shadows and light, the wind in the pines, California condors soaring overhead—these sights and sounds never fail to transfix hordes of visitors gazing awestruck into the canyon’s seemingly infinite depths.

While the Grand Canyon is undeniably the most awe-inspiring natural attraction in the state, northern Arizona contains other worthwhile (and less crowded) attractions. Only 60 miles south of the great chasm stand the San Francisco Peaks, ancient volcanoes sacred to the Hopi and Navajo as the home of spirits that bring rain to the parched desert below. Amid expansive ponderosa pine forests stands the city of Flagstaff, one of the highest cities in the U.S., with its well-preserved downtown historic district.

The Grand Canyon South Rim

60 miles N of Williams; 80 miles NE of Flagstaff; 230 miles N of Phoenix; 340 miles N of Tucson

A trip to the Grand Canyon is an unforgettable experience, whether you spend days hiking deep in the canyon, ride the roller-coaster rapids of the Colorado River, or merely stand on the rim peering down in amazement. A mile deep, 277 miles long, and up to 18 miles wide, the canyon is absolutely overwhelming in its grandeur, truly one of the great natural wonders of the world. Clarence Dutton, a 19th-century geologist who published one of the earliest studies of Grand Canyon geology and who named many of its features, held it in such reverence that he named land formations for the gods and sages of the ancient world: Solomon, Apollo, Venus, Thor, Zoroaster, Horus, Buddha, Vishnu, Krishna, Shiva, Confucius.

Something of this reverence infects nearly every first-time visitor. Nothing in the approach to the Grand Canyon prepares you for what awaits. You hardly notice the gradual elevation gain or the subtle change from windswept sagebrush scrubland to juniper woodlands to ponderosa pine forest. Suddenly, it’s there. No preliminaries, no warnings. Stark, quiet, a maze of cathedrals and castles sculpted by nature.

Layers of sandstone, limestone, shale, and schist give the canyon its colors, and from dawn to dusk, the interplay of shadows and light creates an ever-changing palette of hues and textures. In this landscape layer cake of stone, we can read 2 billion years of geologic history.

In the more recent past, the Grand Canyon has been home to several Native American cultures, including the Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi), best known for their cliff dwellings in the Four Corners region (see chapter 7). About 150 years after 13th-century Ancestral Puebloans and Coconino peoples abandoned the canyon, nomadic people from the west moved into the area. Today, the Hualapai and Havasupai tribes, descendants of the ancient Patayan people, still live in and near the Grand Canyon on the south side of the Colorado River.

Some geologists believe the erosive action of the Colorado River carved the Grand Canyon in a 17-million-year span; others think it took much less time. Either way, it’s clear that the canyon has a complex geologic history—it’s written all over the landscape.

The story of the Grand Canyon begins eons ago, when vast seas covered this region. Sediments carried by seawater were deposited and, over millions of years, those sediments were turned into limestone and sandstone. According to the most widely accepted theory, the Colorado River began its work of cutting through the plateau when the ancient seabed was thrust upward to form the Kaibab Plateau. Today, 21 sedimentary layers, the oldest of which is more than a billion years old, can be seen in the canyon. Beneath all these layers, at the very bottom, is a stratum of rock so old that it has metamorphosed, under great pressure and heat, from soft shale to a much harder stone. Called Vishnu Schist, this layer is the oldest rock in the Grand Canyon, dating from 2 billion years ago.

In 1540, Spanish explorer Garcia Lopez de Cárdenas became the first European to set eyes on the Grand Canyon, but it would be another 329 years before the first expedition traveled through the entire canyon. John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran, was deemed crazy when he set off to navigate the Colorado River in wooden boats. His small band of men spent 98 days traveling 1,000 miles down the Green and Colorado rivers. So difficult was the endeavor that when some of the expedition’s boats were wrecked by powerful rapids, part of the group abandoned the journey and set out on foot, never to be seen again.

Miners, ranchers, loggers, and farmers followed, but they soon found that the Grand Canyon was worth more as a landmark than as land to be worked. The Grand Canyon has become one of the most-visited natural wonders on the planet. By raft, by mule, on foot, and in helicopters and small planes—approximately four million people each year come to gaze into this great chasm.

In the recent past, however, there were those who regarded the canyon as mere wasted space, suitable only for filling with water. Upstream of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River stands Glen Canyon Dam, which forms Lake Powell (p. 323); downstream lies Lake Mead (p. 478), created by Hoover Dam. The Grand Canyon might have suffered the same fate, but luckily the forces for preservation prevailed. Today, the Grand Canyon is the last major undammed stretch of the Colorado River.

The Colorado—named by early Spanish explorers for the reddish-brown color of its muddy waters—once carried immense loads of silt, much of which now gets deposited on the bottom of Lake Powell. As a result, the water in the Grand Canyon is much clearer (and colder) than it once was. Today, only when rainstorms and snowmelt feed the side canyons of the Grand Canyon does the river still flow murky and red from heavy loads of eroding sandstone.

While the waters of the Colorado are usually clearer than before, the same cannot be said for the air in the canyon. Yes, you’ll find smog here, smog that has been blamed on both Las Vegas and Los Angeles to the west and a coal-fired power plant to the east, near Page. Scrubbers have been installed on the power plant’s smokestacks, but there isn’t much to be done about smog drifting from the west.

Far more visible and frustrating is the traffic congestion at the South Rim during the spring-to-fall busy season. Some five million people visit the park each year, and South Rim traffic in summer has become almost as bad as it is during rush hour in any major city. Finding a parking space can be the biggest challenge of a visit to Grand Canyon National Park. But don’t let these inconveniences dissuade you. Despite the crowds, the Grand Canyon more than lives up to its name. It’s simply one of the most memorable sights on planet Earth.

Essentials

Arriving

In summer you can expect at least a 20- to 30-minute wait at the South Rim entrance gate just to get into the park. If at all possible, travel to the park by some means other than car. Alternatives include taking the Grand Canyon Railway from Williams, flying into Grand Canyon Airport and then taking a taxi, taking the Arizona Shuttle from Flagstaff, or joining a guided tour to the park. You can walk to plenty of scenic overlooks, hiking trails, restaurants, and lodges in the Grand Canyon Village area, and free shuttle buses operate along both Hermit Road and Desert View Drive.

Over eons, the Colorado River carved through layers of richly colored stone to create the ever-changing spectacle called the Grand Canyon.

By Car   The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is 60 miles north of Williams (and I-40) via Ariz. 64 and U.S. 180. Flagstaff, the nearest city of any size, is 80 miles southeast. From Flagstaff, you can take either U.S. 180 directly to the South Rim or U.S. 89 to Ariz. 64 and the park’s east entrance (the second route has much less traffic). Be sure you have plenty of gasoline in your car before setting out for the canyon; there are few service stations in this remote part of the state, and what gas stations there are charge exorbitant prices. There are no gas stations in the national park itself. You’ll find service stations outside the park’s south entrance in Tusayan, at Desert View near the east entrance (no cash sales in winter), and east of the park at Cameron.

Extended waits at the entrance gates, parking problems, and traffic congestion have long been the norm at the canyon during the popular summer months, and even in spring and fall there can be backups at the gates and limited parking space. However, extra ticketing lanes and additional parking lots built in recent years have somewhat alleviated the congestion at the south entrance.

By Plane   The closest airport with commercial service is in Flagstaff (p. 257). From there, you’ll need to arrange other transportation the rest of the way to the national park. At the Grand Canyon Airport in Tusayan, 6 miles south of Grand Canyon Village, the only regularly scheduled flights are day-tours from Las Vegas on Scenic Airlines (www.scenic.com;

 

800/634-6801

), Grand Canyon Airlines (www.grandcanyonairlines.com;

 

866/235-9422

or 702/835-8484), and Maverick Airlines (www.maverickairlines.com;

 

800/962-3869

or 702/405-4300). Tours of an hour or two cost $140–$160, while longer