Between 1924 and 1996, if you had seen a California condor in Arizona, you would most likely have been in a zoo; none of these giant birds still lived free in a state where once they had been plentiful. In 1996, however, six captive-raised condors were released atop the Vermilion Cliffs (north of Grand Canyon National Park). Since then, between 6 and 10 birds have been released annually, and there are now more than 50 condors flying free over northern Arizona. In 2003, for the first time in more than a century, a pair of condors hatched and raised a chick, and since then, several more condor pairs have successfully raised offspring.
Condors are curious birds, and they are often attracted to human activity. Consequently, they are often seen in or near Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim. Look closely at their wings: if there’s a large number on the wing, it’s a captive-raised condor, but if there isn’t, it’s one of the handful of birds hatched in the wild in recent years.
One of the best places to spot condors is en route to the North Rim on House Rock Valley Rd., north of U.S. 98A between Lees Ferry and Jacob Lake. A few miles up this road, you’ll find interpretive plaques and a viewpoint from which you can see the condor release site, high atop the cliffs to the east. There’s also a small population in the West Canyon that sometimes fly out onto the grasslands near Grand Canyon Caverns (p. 281). For more information on the condor-release program, visit the Peregrine Fund website (www.peregrinefund.org), which is the organization that administers the program.
The first two stops are Trailview Overlook and Maricopa Point, both on the paved section of the Rim Trail, within 1½ miles of the village. If you just want a short, easy walk on pavement, get out at Maricopa Point and walk back to the village. From either overlook, you can see Bright Angel Trail winding down into the canyon from Grand Canyon Village. As the trail heads for the bottom of the canyon, it crosses the Tonto Plateau, about 3,000 feet below the rim. This is the site of Indian Garden, where there’s a campground in a grove of cottonwood trees. The views from these two overlooks are not significantly different from those in the village, so if you’ve already had a look from that vantage point, you can safely skip them.
Powell Point, the third stop, is the site of a memorial to John Wesley Powell, who, in 1869 with a party of nine men, became the first person to navigate the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. There’s a spectacular view here of Point Imperial and other North Rim landmarks. Also visible at Powell Point are the fenced-off remains of the Orphan Mine, a copper mine that began operation in 1893. For a while it went out of business (it was too expensive to transport the copper to a city to sell it), though it re-opened after uranium was discovered in 1951. The mine was shut down in 1969; the area is still closed for ongoing testing for residual contamination.
The next stop, Hopi Point, is one of the three best stops along this route. From here you can see a long section of the Colorado River far, far below, looking like a tiny, quiet stream; in reality the section you see is more than 100 yards wide and races through Granite Rapids. Hopi Point juts into the canyon, making it one of the best spots in the park for sunrise and sunset photos (shuttle buses run from 1 hour before sunrise to 1 hour after sunset).
The view is even more spectacular at the next stop, Mohave Point. Here you can see the river in two directions. Three rapids are visible; on a quiet day, you can sometimes even hear Hermit Rapids. Like almost all rapids in the Canyon, Hermit Rapids are at the mouth of a side canyon where boulders, loosened by storms and tumbled along flooded streams, get piled up. Don’t miss this stop; it’s got the best view on Hermit Road.
Next you come to the Abyss, the aptly named 3,000-foot drop created by the Great Mojave Wall. This vertiginous view is one of the park’s most dramatic. The Abyss’ walls are red sandstone, which resists erosion more than the soft shale does in the layer below. You can also see some free-standing sandstone pillars (the largest of them is called the Monument). For a good road hike, get out here and walk westward to either Pima Point (3 miles) or Hermit’s Rest (4 miles).
The Pima Point overlook, set back from the road, is another good place to get off the bus. From here, the Greenway Trail leads through the forest near the canyon rim, providing good views undisturbed by Hermit Road traffic. From Pima Point, you can see the remains of Hermit Camp, which the Santa Fe Railroad built down on the Tonto Plateau. Open from 1911 to 1930, this was developed as a luxury destination, where guests slept in canvas-sided cabins, an early version of today’s “glamping.”
The final stop on Hermit Road is Hermit’s Rest, named for Louis Boucher, a prospector who came to the canyon in the 1890s and was known as the Hermit. Built in 1914 as a stagecoach stop, the log-and-stone Hermit’s Rest building, designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, is on the National Register of Historic Places; it’s one of the most fascinating structures in the park. There’s a snack bar here, making it a great place to linger while you soak up a bit of park history. The steep Hermit Trail, which leads down into the canyon, begins just past Hermit’s Rest.
| Pack a Lunch |
Lunch options are limited inside Grand Canyon National Park, so if you are driving up from Flagstaff, either pack a picnic lunch or stop at someplace in Flagstaff like the Aspen Deli (20 N. Beaver St.;
Desert View Drive
While the vast majority of visitors to the Grand Canyon enter through the south entrance and head straight for crowded, congested Grand Canyon Village, you can have a much more enjoyable experience if you take the east entrance instead. From Flagstaff, take U.S. 89 north to Ariz. 64 in Cameron (be sure to stop at the Cameron Trading Post, p. 243) and then head west. Following this route, you’ll get great canyon views sooner—even before you enter the park, you can stop at viewpoints on the Navajo Reservation for vistas of the canyon of the Little Colorado River. At every stop you can also shop for Native American crafts and souvenirs at numerous vendors’ stalls.
Desert View Drive, the park’s only scenic road open to cars year-round, extends for 25 miles between Desert View, just inside the park’s east entrance, and Grand Canyon Village. Along Desert View Drive, you’ll find not only good viewpoints, but also several picnic areas. Much of this drive is through forests, and canyon views are limited; but where there are viewpoints, they are among the best and least crowded in the park.
Desert View is the first stop on this scenic drive, and with its historic watchtower, general store, snack bar, service station, information center, bookstore, and big parking lot, it is better designed for handling large numbers of tourists than Grand Canyon Village. There’s never a wait here, unlike at the south entrance to the park. From anywhere at Desert View, the scenery is breathtaking, but the very best perspective here is from atop the Desert View Watchtower. Although the watchtower looks as though it was built centuries ago, it actually dates from 1932, designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter to resemble the prehistoric towers that dot the southwestern landscape. Built as an observation tower and tourist rest stop, the watchtower incorporates Native American designs. The curio shop on the ground floor is a replica of a kiva (sacred ceremonial chamber); the second floor features work by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie and carvings by another Hopi artist, Chester Dennis, with pictographs on the walls that incorporate traditional designs; and the upper two floors’ walls and ceiling feature images by artist Fred Geary, reproductions of petroglyphs from throughout the Southwest. From the roof—at 7,522 feet above sea level, it’s the highest point on the South Rim—you can see the Colorado River, the Painted Desert to the northeast, the San Francisco Peaks to the south, and Marble Canyon to the north. Several black-mirror “reflectoscopes”