Exploring The Grand Canyon South Rim

The South Rim entrance is located about an hour out of Willams and around 5 hours from Vegas, which is where we came from for our day trip. Plan your trip here strategically. Make pit stops for gas and snacks but don't over stay at these stops because you'll want as long as possible at The Grand Canyon!

First things first, know which viewpoints you want to stop at! We skipped the Visitors Centre and turned right onto Desert View Drive. From there it won't be long until you come to your first glimpse of the canyon! "Woah" is what came out of both mine and my partners mouths at the same time. We pulled into the turn out and had a look at the most amazing hole in the ground I have ever seen. We spent some time just looking and watching the storm clouds rolling over in the distance, every now and then some lightening would flash through. The Grand Canyon is just that... Grand.

Yaki Point is the first of many view points we checked out along Desert View Drive. There was a barrier up stating that this turn off was for the shuttle bus only, but I had done my research and knew I had to see this point. We decided to be 'tourists' and take the left turn anyway and I am so glad we did because it appeared we were not the only people to do this. There isn't a parking lot but plenty of areas to pull over and hop out to explore.

After spending more time here than anticipated, we ended up making our way back out of the park around 5pm. The traffic had built up and there is only one road out my friends so be prepared for a long and slow drive. We were lucky enough to come to a stand still because there was a car accident and a tow truck had to come through so park rangers had stopped traffic both ways. Be prepared for stuff like this to happen and don't let it get to you! It's all part of the fun :)

On the way out we came to ANOTHER standstill of traffic, but this time there was no car accident. There was a pack of wild female elk walking through the forest in the distance! It would have been so wonderful to stay and watch the sun set over the South Rim but we had a long drive ahead of us so we made our way back to Vegas stopping at a gift store on the way out to buy a magnet and some snacks.

Tip: Do you research and look up which viewpoints you want to see the most! For us these were Yaki Point and Yavapi