Many visitors to Las Vegas want to visit Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon National Park South Rim and North Rim have the awesome scenery associated with Grand Canyon http://www.nps.gov/archive/grca/photos/ The South Rim is open year-round. The North Rim is closed mid-October to mid-May due to wintry conditions at the higher elevation.
The best way to experience Grand Canyon is by spending at least one night in the national park. That allows ample time to visit the viewpoints, walk along the rim trail and see a sunset and sunrise over the canyon. It takes about five hours to drive from Las Vegas to either rim over good highways. The routes are easily navigated. The entry fee at either rim is $25 per car, good for seven days.
Visiting overnight by fixed-wing air tour from Las Vegas is also an option for the South Rim, but no air tours go to the North Rim of GCNP. Helicopter tours to a “north rim” are advertised, but they go to an area near Las Vegas called Grand Canyon West (also called the West Rim) which is not in the national park.
There are no helicopter trips from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon National Park. Helicopter tours from Grand Canyon National Park Airport at Tusayan, AZ, fly over a part of the canyon, but aircraft are prohibited from flying below the rim in GCNP.
Lodging information for the South Rim can be found at http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com and for the North Rim at http://foreverlodging.com/lodging.cfm... The National Park Service webpage for GCNP is http://www.nps.gov/grca For information about the year round climate at GCNP, se http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit...
In-park lodging is in heavy demand. Some lodges fill as early as a year in advance. Lodging at the North Rim is limited. Reservations should be made as soon as dates are known. If nothing is available, phoning the lodge operator may find cancellations that don’t appear on the websites. For information about lodging outside but nearby the park, follow the link to “Lodging” under “Plan Your Visit” on the NPS site. At the South Rim, Tusayan, AZ, has the closest lodging outside the park.
Sometimes a night in or near the park doesn’t fit into an itinerary. Some people choose to make a long day-trip from Las Vegas by renting a car and driving roundtrip to the South Rim. Others use tour companies which operate day trips from Las Vegas to the South Rim via bus, van or fixed wing aircraft.
To drive to the South Rim from Las Vegas, take US93 South to Kingman, AZ, then Interstate 40 East to Williams, then AZ64 North which joins US180 to the South entrance to GCNP. At Kingman, an alternate way is Route 66 to Seligman, then join Interstate 40 there. That adds about an hour to the trip. To reach the North Rim from Las Vegas, take Interstate 15 North to UT9 East a few miles past St. George, Utah, then UT9 East to Hurricane and UT59. UT59 becomes AZ389 in Arizona, continuing to Fredonia. There take US89 South to Jacob Lake, then UT67 South to the GCNP North Rim entrance.
A visit to the North Rim can be combined with Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park in Utah. A visit to the South Rim can be combined with other northern Arizona attractions such as Lake Powell and Sedona. Either rim may be made a part of a grand circle itinerary from Las Vegas through northern Arizona and southern Utah.
