An estimated 5.9 million people visit the Grand Canyon a year, making it the second most popular national park following just behind the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. It’s a far cry from the annual visitation of 44,173 in 1919 when the park was created.
With its exhibits on the park’s natural and human history, Grand Canyon Visitor Center on the South Rim is an excellent starting point. You can leave your vehicle there and walk or take a shuttle bus to other landmarks along the South Rim. Right behind the visitor center are Mather Point and the 13-mile (20.9-km) Rim Trail to other stunning viewpoints like Yaki Point to the east and Yavapai Point to the west, where a geology museum illuminates nearly two billion years of canyon history.
Beyond Yavapai Point (1.3 miles/2.1 km) is the Village and the eclectic architecture of its historic structures, which together comprise a national historic landmark district. Many of the buildings were designed by pioneering female architect Mary Colter, including the distinctive Hopi House (1905), an homage to the indigenous architecture of the Southwest that now houses the park’s largest souvenir store and a Native American art gallery. Verkamp’s Visitor Center (1906) harbors a bookstore, information desk, and exhibits on the canyon’s pioneer history. Among other noteworthy structures are the Kolb Studio (1904) and Lookout Studio (1914), both vintage photo studios that now blend shopping and exhibit space.
The village train station (1910) is the terminus for the historic Grand Canyon Railway, a scenic passenger line that runs 64 miles (102.9 km) through the pine forest and meadows of the Coconino Plateau between the South Rim and Williams, Arizona. Passengers can ride the train as a day trip to the Grand Canyon or combine it with overnights at South Rim lodging.
Credit : National Geographic
Picture Credit : Google
