Tour The Correct Area Of The Grand Canyon

When you land in Las Vegas at McCarran airport, you are immediately subjected to marketing in the form of billboards and posters advertising day trips to the Grand Canyon. They show pictures of the canyon itself and discuss that you can leave Las Vegas in the morning and be back in the evening to play the slots. You will even be able to walk on the famous “Grand Canyon Skywalk” which is a glass bridge suspended over the canyon floor. One thing that these people considering the trip need to ask themselves is “if the Grand Canyon is a protected area, how can they construct a glass walkway and drill it into the side of the canyon walls?” The answer is that you are actually not visiting the Grand Canyon National Park, and are probably not getting the tour that you thought you were.

The Grand Canyon is very long, and the federally protected area of it is only a portion. This is the “South Rim” area, where the traditional pictures that you have seen of the canyon were taken. This is where the activities take place, the rafting and hiking, the exploration trips and donkey rides. For many years, people have made the 4.5 hour trip from Las Vegas to this area to see the beauty of the Grand Canyon with its plants and animals.

The “West Rim” of the Grand Canyon is only 2 hours drive from Las Vegas. It is quite different than you have seen in the pictures, far more barren and desolate. For many years the Indian tribes that control the land have looked for ways to attract visitors from Las Vegas to the area, and finally found it with the Skywalk. Once the tourist attraction was finished, the marketing campaign began to “visit the Grand Canyon” without telling anyone that they are actually visiting the area they thought they were.

It is important when booking a trip to the Grand Canyon to understand which area you are visiting, and that way you can avoid the disappointment that would come with a once-in-a-lifetime trip being ruined when you do not get the views you have seen in magazines.