Grand Canyon South Rim

After having a quick meal at Subway via Page, we heading our way back to Flagstaff direction, with final itinerary of the day, to have a visit to Grand Canyon National Park. We did a right turn after Cameron township and on our way to enter Grand Canyon South Rim through the east entrance. Around 10 miles into the road there was a view point called Little Colorado to the right of the road, but we decided to skip it so that we can have more time exploring the South Rim area. Around 30 miles of drive from Cameron township, we finally reach the east entrance toll and we paid 30 USD per car as the entrance fees to Grand Canyon National Park. Immediately after passing the toll, we are here in our first stop along the South Rim, the Desert View.

On our way from Page to Grand Canyon South Rim.

Small town by the road side.

Abhishek and BH were totally exhausted.

Peek on the view at Little Colorado view point area.

Finally, we are at the Grand Canyon South Rim East Entrance toll gate.

For visitors coming into the park via the East Entrance, a stop at Desert View provides the first views of Grand Canyon. You can easily recognize this stop with the signature watch tower close to the edge. We first walk toward the Desert View Point to the right of the tower, for our first view on Grand Canyon, and it was truly stunning. The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,093 feet or 1,857 meters). To the far right from the view point, you able to see Colorado River flowing through the Grand Canyon from this point.

We then have a walk into the watch tower and witness the view from higher ground. There was also a shop inside the watch tower offering various souvenir and Native American goods. Overall, this was a very good spot in my opinion which offer a good view on South Rim yet not too crowded. We have a minor stop at Navajo point just 5 minutes from Desert View by car, which having similar view before continue our drive along scenic Desert View Drive.

These two fellas have fully charged now.

Signature watch tower via Desert View.

My very first glance on Grand Canyon!

Towards the left from Desert View point.

Majesty in Stone and Light.

Panorama view from Desert View point.

Abhishek via Desert View point.

Waiting for my turn to snap photo.

Jophine via Desert View point.

Close up view.

Zoom out view.

There was once a tragedy happened here where 128 passengers and crew perished when the plane collided.

Higher view from the watch tower, Colorado River is visible on the far end.

View towards the car park area from the watch tower.

This guy should go to Bollywood. Seriously!

Inside the watch tower.

Another spectacular view of Grand Canyon from the watch tower.

Playing around inside the watch tower.

Taken from a window, looks like a photo frame.

The exterior view of the watch tower.

The lovely couple and the watch tower.

The watch tower by Grand Canyon and Colorado River.

The word 'Grand' was well place here for this gorgeous canyon.

The details about this historical watch tower.

Panorama view of the canyon and the watch tower.

View from Navajo Point, similar from the Desert View. You can see the tower on the very right of the photo.

Information board about Tribal Connections place via Navajo Point.

Continue our way along this scenic Desert View Drive.

While Jophine was driving, I am doing some calculation based on the predicted sunset time from my Garmin Fenix 3 watch, and target to be at Mather Point for sunset view, hence decided only to do the next stop at the Grandview Point before heading to Grand Canyon village. Before the construction of El Tovar Lodge near Garden Canyon, Grandview was the first place along the rim to be developed for tourists, with facilities including a hotel built in 1895, but this became disused after only a few years of operation, and little trace remains today. It was a small official viewpoint but mostly obstructed by trees, hence we walk further down following the Grandview trail and manage to get some nice spot for photo here!

The crowd at the Grandview point.

The view of Grand Canyon from Grandview point.

Quite some trees obstruct the view via this view point here.

Love the canyon view with a deciduous tree.

Another take on the same tree.

That platform should be a very good spot to take photo, but can't find way to reach it.

Gorgeous open view on the canyon.

Best photo spot of the day!

The maximum Jophine could make it toward the edge.

Photo for BH via Grandview point.

The informative detail of the Grandview trail.

Finally we manage to make it at Grand Canyon village car park 30 minutes before predicted sunset time, folks get relax a bit by having some hot coffee and ice cream from the store. While on the way to Mather point, we encounter a mule deer roaming around the car park area, not being defensive and just ignoring us even we get close by. At the time we reach Mather Point, the whole Grand Canyon start to having some awesome reddish color result from the sunset light reflected on it, and slowly the sun went down the horizon and area start to get dark, and it is getting colder and we have to move back to the car. Although the time is limited, but we glad that with proper time management and survey up front, we manage to execute almost all of our plan successfully, kudos to the team!

Oh ya, and we back to Flagstaff and having our dinner in Sawadee again, third time already but we are still enjoy it very much!