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Going to the Grand Canyon- drive or bus tour?
Just wanted to hear anybody's experiences with either. We are in Vegas and want to see the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. We already have a rental car. Driving seems much cheaper for 3 of us, and I like the flexibility of being able to stay as long as we want at any stop. I'm also ok with that amount of driving in one day.
Also from Vegas- which part of the canyon should we go to? My wife really wants to try the skywalk- but I am not sure if it's worth it.
The National Park is really cool but with the Hoover Dam makes for a really long day 4hrs to the park and 4 hrs back. The advantage is that you can hike down into the canyon a few miles to get a much better feel of the scale of it. Hiking about an Hour down into the Canyon is really neat.
The tour of inside the Hoover Dam is worth it if you like the Enginnerrimg feats type stuff as is running across the new bridge and looking down on the Hoover damn. You need to book tours in advance
So if you leave at 6am spend 2-3 hours at the damn (need to check hours and first tour times) get to the Grand Canyon (National Park) at 1, Hike down in the canyon for 2-3 hours, Then go to the various rim viewpoints, stay until sunset than drive back getting back to the Hotel around midnight makes for a fantastic but exhausting day.
I think skywalks in general are gimmicks so haven't ever done the Grand Canyon one but it is significantly closer than the national park.
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I've driven from Phoenix, which is only about a half hour shorter. Peaceful drive, relatively easy. Was rather amusing going from about 110 in Phoenix to Calgary weather by Flagstaff because of the elevation change. So make sure you account for the fact that it's not going to be Vegas hot at the Canyon.
Coming from the south, I obviously hiked along the south rim around Grand Canyon Village. Didn't go into the canyon at all, but it was every bit as picturesque as you're led to believe. I've never been to the skywalk, but unless you're out for the thrillseeking aspect of the glass floor, I'm not sure the $250 US it would cost for three people is necessarily worth it. Even without the skywalk pass, it looks like the Hualapai still charge $50pp to access the west rim. The south rim entrance is $30 per vehicle.
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I did one of those quicky one day bus tours from Vegas (that also drove over the Hoover Dam back when you still could), and while we only saw the canyon from the top, it was still amazing. The Grand Canyon is one of the few things in this world that exceeds the hype.
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From Phoenix, it’s an easy drive to the Grand Canyon. Easy to get around the south rim area.
I was there in November and hiked down to the river, camped overnight (with a permit), then hiked out the next day. Fairly epic experience. Believe it or not, it’s a bit hard to climb 5,000 feet or so up from the river. Woof.
There’s a sign on the canyon rim, put up by park authorities, of a guy bent over and puking on the ground. Then a warning in several languages to be thoughtful about walking down there. A doable foray might be to take Bright Angel to Indian Gardens and back out, about halfway down. That’s still a hard climb back out on something called Jacobs Ladder.
It’s nice walking along the rim - you can go quite a long way and not too difficult.
Regarding the skywalk, never been there but, if you do a little googling on the topic, I believe you park some distance away and have to pay to take a shuttle in and, secondly, you are not allowed to take your personal camera or cellphone out onto the skywalk. There’s a photographer there and you have to buy from that guy. Thirdly, just relating from others who have been there, the drop below your feet on the skywalk actually isn’t that far as far as Grand Canyon vistas go. I’ve skipped it for those reasons.
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Certainly doable from Phoenix in one day, but it would be a long day, and you might not have as much time at the Canyon as you would like (3.5 hour drive one-way). You would have no time to stop in Sedona or Flagstaff. I'd recommend staying overnight if you are coming from Phoenix.
Just drove up from Phoenix in March, 4 hour drive 1 way but wasn't too bad.
We looked into a bus tour but you leave at 6am and your not back until 10-11pm so we declined. The only difference is there was no guide to tour you around and give you some pointers during your stay.
As others pointed out, the temperature is drastically different then what you'd expect. We left Phoenix in the mid 70's and by the time we were talking up to the canyon rim it was below 0. Needless to say shorts and flipflops was a bad idea... but I knew better.
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I took a bus tour from Vegas that went to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. It went to the reservation where the skywalk is. I enjoyed the bus trip, because I would rather watch the scenery and not have to worry about traffic. If you don't mind driving, I don't think it's a difficult trip. I really liked the Skywalk, but there isn't a lot of other stuff around there.
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Just wanted to hear anybody's experiences with either. We are in Vegas and want to see the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. We already have a rental car. Driving seems much cheaper for 3 of us, and I like the flexibility of being able to stay as long as we want at any stop. I'm also ok with that amount of driving in one day.
Also from Vegas- which part of the canyon should we go to? My wife really wants to try the skywalk- but I am not sure if it's worth it.
I appreciate any tips or suggestions.
Skywalk is not worth it IMHO.
If you have the money I'd do a helicopter trip. It's not cheap and both the wife and I thought we'd look back and say, "what a waste of money". We were wrong. We'd go again in a heartbeat.
Last edited by ernie; 04-03-2018 at 12:42 PM.
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Skywalk is a similar experience to the Jasper Skywalk. Seems cool but sort of a tourist trap.
Driving from Vegas is an EXTREMELY boring and long drive.
Because the best way to experience the GC is by walking down into it I would highly suggest driving and maybe even staying the night at the hotel on top so you can get a proper experience.
When I was there viewing it from the top was a bit of a let down honestly. It wasnt until I got down into the canyon that you truly realize its scope (its 50 miles across). We hiked it rim to rim so my experience will differ alot from just a day hike down. Start of the day at sunrise it was around 0C at the top and by 1pm it was 50C at the bottom (this was late May).
If you do decide to do a bit of hiking down then up, make sure you bring lots of water.
Last edited by temple5; 04-03-2018 at 01:12 PM.
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Skywalk is a similar experience to the Jasper Skywalk. Seems cool but sort of a tourist trap.
Driving from Vegas is an EXTREMELY boring and long drive.
Because the best way to experience the GC is by walking down into it I would highly suggest driving and maybe even staying the night at the hotel on top so you can get a proper experience.
When I was there viewing it from the top was a bit of a let down honestly. It wasnt until I got down into the canyon that you truly realize its scope (its 50 miles across). We hiked it rim to rim so my experience will differ alot from just a day hike down. Start of the day at sunrise it was around 0C at the top and by 1pm it was 50C at the bottom (this was late May).
If you do decide to do a bit of hiking down then up, make sure you bring lots of water.
The Canyon, incised by the Colorado River, is immense, averaging 4,000 feet deep for its entire 277 miles. It is 6,000 feet deep at its deepest point and 18 miles at its widest.
We were in Vegas for a week in February about five years ago and we rented a car, which is what I'd recommend. We drove to the National Park/south side, stayed the night near the park in Tusayan, and went back the next day.
It's a five-hour drive one-way from Vegas, and although driving through the desert is boring you can stop at the Hoover Dam for a couple of hours and some other places along the way.
Kingman is interesting because there's a massive airfield on the north side of the interstate where they store planes that are going to be decommissioned. At that time about a quarter of it was DHL airplanes. We actually saw a smaller Delta commuter plane being chopped up with some pretty fascinating equipment. I got out and wandered near a hangar and there's a sleepy museum in there that's manned by some retired veterans. They have all the time in the world to talk. I was nice and made a donation and he surprisingly let me into the airfield to look at all the abandoned planes. If you try to find this on Google Maps you can't as everything has been scrubbed so you can't see any of this (unless it's actually been completely obliterated since then).
The national park is incredible and I'd think you want to take as much time as you want being there which is why I say drive, plus I just want the freedom to do what I want as opposed to stuck on a tour. When we got there the first day it was before sunset, and with all the snow (at least two feet deep) the photos were incredible. The canyon is at an altitude of about 7,000 feet so it's 7-10 degrees Celsius cooler there than Vegas year-round. Entrance to the park is also dirt cheap. There's a really good visitor center outside the park in Tusayan run by National Geographic (I think) and they had an awesome IMAX movie.
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If you have the money I'd do a helicopter trip. It's not cheap and both the wife and I thought we'd look back and say, "what a waste of money". We were wrong. We'd go again in a heartbeat.
Going to the Grand Canyon- drive or bus tour?
