FEBRUARY 06, 2022 /TRAVEL, NORTH AMERICA, USA, ARIZONA

THE MAGNIFICENT GRAND CANYON

The Grand Canyon located in Arizona, USA is definitely a must visit place if you are traveling to the USA. The canyon is huge 446 km long, so you can visit different sides of it. While I was in Las Vegas, I decided to do a day trip to the west part of the Grand Canyon, and it was so worth it.

The grand canyon is carved by the Colorado River, today the Grand Canyon is a National Park. The area has been continuously inhabited by Native Americas, who built settlements in the canyon and its caves. Many of them consider the Grand Canyon a holy place. The Grand Canyon is one of those places that will leave you breathless of how beautiful mother nature is. I definitely recommend spending a few days to explore the Grand Canyon as well as take hikes so you can see the most and experience the canyon best.

The west side of the Grand Canyon is around 3h drive from Las Vegas. You can either rent a car and drive or go for an organized tour, there are various day trips with bus you can take to the Grand Canyon. 

The border Nevada-Arizona is around 30 minutes from downtown Las Vegas, after which you have 2 and a half hours to the canyon. You mainly drive through small towns and villages, it’s mostly flat and then you will spot the massive rock formation in the distance. There are various things and sights you can visit on the West side of the Grand Canyon.

One option is to book a helicopter ride over the grand canyon, which I think should be really cool.

A sight a lot of people opt to is the Skywalk, we intentionally thought of doing it, but after reading online reviews we saw that it was overpriced for what they offer, more like a tourist trap, so instead we decided for the Guano Point tour.

When you arrive at the Grand Canyon West Rim there is parking there, and then you proceed to buy your tickets (there are various tours you can take). Since it was late afternoon the only available tour they had was the Twilight Tour to Guano Point.  After getting the tickets we got on a shuttle bus that took us to Guano Point, the only way to get to any of the West Rim attractions is with their shuttle bus, you cannot walk or go with your own vehicle.

It was a short 2-3 minute walk from the shuttle to Guano Point. When I got there I was breath taken by the beauty of it. How enormous, powerful and beautiful it was. The view was amazing. You have a sight of the Colorado river and you can look over the other side of the canyon. You can walk around Guano point and enjoy the view over the grand canyon. There’s also a restaurant where you can have some drinks and food.

A couple of hours is more than enough to explore the West Rim of the canyon, I would suggest to go earlier in the day to avoid crowds.