Things to Do at the Grand Canyon South Rim: A Guide’s List

The overlooks, in the order we would do them

1. Mather Point. The first view, five minutes from the Visitor Center. Go before 9 am or after 4 pm; at midday it is a scrum. It is still worth it.
2. The Rim Trail, Mather Point to the Village (2.5 miles, flat, paved). Yavapai Point and the Geology Museum (look at the relief model, then look at the real thing), then Trail of Time, where every metre is a million years. Shuttles bring you back.
3. Grand Canyon Village. El Tovar (1905), Hopi House, Lookout Studio and Kolb Studio: Mary Colter's stone buildings on the very edge. Have a coffee on the El Tovar porch. Watch the mule trains come up Bright Angel.
4. Hermit Road overlooks (west). Hopi Point for sunset, Mohave for the river and Hermit Rapid, The Abyss for vertigo. Private cars are banned March to November; take the red shuttle or walk the Rim Trail.
5. Desert View Drive (east, 25 miles). Grandview Point (the widest view), Moran Point (the red layers Thomas Moran painted), Lipan Point (the river, the Unkar Delta, the best sunset on the East Rim), Navajo Point and the Desert View Watchtower, Colter's 70-ft stone tower with Hopi murals inside. Climb it.

Walk below the rim, even a little

The canyon changes the moment you drop below the edge. Two easy tasters: Bright Angel Trail to the first tunnel (10 minutes down) and South Kaibab Trail to Ooh Aah Point (0.9 miles down, 600 ft, 45 minutes to an hour back up). Carry water, start early in summer, and remember that down is optional and up is mandatory. Our day hikes guide covers the longer options.

Things worth your time

• Ranger programmes. Free, daily, listed at the Visitor Center. The geology and condor talks are excellent.
• The condors. California condors (9-ft wingspan) roost near the Village and Lookout Studio. Ask a ranger or your guide where they have been this week.
• Tusayan Ruin and Museum on Desert View Drive: an 800-year-old Ancestral Puebloan village, usually empty.
• Sunset. Hopi Point is the classic (and crowded); Lipan Point faces the right way and has a tenth of the people. Why we think sunset is non-negotiable.
• Stargazing. The park is an International Dark Sky Park. Even from the Village car park the Milky Way is astonishing on a moonless night.
• The bike paths. The Greenway Trail from the Visitor Center to Hermit Road is paved and car-free. Our e-bike and hike day rides it.

Things to skip (or at least not pay for)

• Driving lot to lot in the Village in summer. Park once, walk and use the shuttles.
• The IMAX in Tusayan, unless it is raining. The real thing is 10 minutes away.
• Trying to "see the river" from Mather Point. You can glimpse it; go to Lipan, Mohave or Desert View for a proper look.

How we fit it into a day

Our Grand Canyon day tour does most of this list in one 8 am to 5:30 pm day: hotel pickup in Flagstaff, the Village and Rim Trail on foot, a Route 66 café picnic at a quiet overlook, and the full Desert View Drive with the Watchtower, in a group of 10 or fewer, with a guide who has been explaining these rocks for decades. Park fees included.

See the Grand Canyon day tour from Flagstaff