Lonely Planet Grand Canyon National Park

One look at the reds, rusts and oranges of the canyon walls and the parks spires and buttes, and you cant help but wonder about the hows and whys of the canyons formation. Luckily for laypeople with rock-related questions, the South Rim has answers, primarily at Yavapai Point and Geology Museum and the Trail of Time installation, and both rims offer geology talks and walks given by the parks knowledgeable rangers. For a more DIY experience, hike into the canyon with a careful eye for fossilized marine creatures, animal tracks and ferns.

By Jennifer Rasin Denniston, Writer

I came to Grand Canyon for the first time with my toddler and newborn in tow. Frazzled and exhausted, and always the skeptical traveler, I was prepared to be underwhelmed. But seconds after walking onto the veranda of the North Rim lodge, I understood. My canyon isnt about the view alone, which I knew from postcards and books, photographs and oil paintings. Its power lies in the grounding silence and dusty quiet, the smells of ponderosa and desert, the clarity that comes from feeling so very small. We return year after year.

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The canyon doesnt have a photographic bad side, but it has to be said that the views from the are stunners. Each has its individual beauty, with some unique angle that sets it apart from the rest a dizzyingly sheer drop, a view of river rapids or a felicitous arrangement of jagged temples and buttes. Sunrises and sunsets are particularly sublime, with the changing light creating depth and painting the features in unbelievably rich hues of vermilion and purple.