Touring the Grand Canyon can be challenging. This is primarily due to the fact that the Grand Canyon is a protected space under the Antiquities Act, and cannot have any development within a specific number of miles around it. This means that no matter how popular of a tourist attraction it becomes, there can be no commercial airline traffic that can land within a distance of the park that is not going to require a multiple hour drive afterward. In a nutshell, you are going to have to pick a city nearby and start from there, and most of those cities are around four hours away. Some tour operators will put the tours of the Grand canyon into packages that will visit multiple parks for this very reason, that the driving distances between the parks themselves is shorter than the distance from the original city to the first park, so they make “tour loops” that visit one after another over the course of multiple days. Some people, however do not have multiple days to visit a park. How is a person supposed to visit the Grand Canyon if they do not have three or more days to do it? You book a tour with an operator that will take you to and from the Grand Canyon overnight.
Tour operators from Las Vegas have begun offering tours to the Grand Canyon that take only one or two days. The issues arise when people choose a one-day tour and expect to see the iconic views of the canyon that they have seen in pictures. The area of the Grand Canyon that is only two hours drive away from Las Vegas is where the Skywalk is, and unfortunately it is not the view that you have probably seen in magazines. The view from this area is far less lush, and is mostly desolate. The area that you have seen in popular photographs is actually around a four hour drive from Las Vegas, and will generally require an overnight camping stay in order to be fully enjoyed. Luckily, numerous tour operators in Las Vegas offer this overnight tour, allowing for all of the exploration and hiking that you would want without rushing the tour too much. Travel to and from this area of the Grand Canyon proves to be too much to do in one day, so it is highly recommended that you arrange an overnight tour if you want to really experience its beauty.
Martin Wynn
Nguyen An Tra My
