The Grandest of Canyons

We visited the north rim of the grand canyon in july 03. as we only had a day to explore we decided to take the cape royal drive in order to see as much as possible in the time we had.

Cape royal drive is an excellent drive to take when visiting the north rim. The drive is approximately 23 miles each way, and it is not a loop. you can either drive down and take each view point as it comes or drive straight to the end and then stop off on the way back, we chose the former.

our first stop was point imperial which is located at the end of a three mile spur road. point imperial is the highest point on the north rim at 8,803 feet and overlooks the northeast side of the park. there are picnic areas and toilets located near the parking area. from the car park you walk to a railed overlook, which offers truly outstanding views. from here you can see the vermillion cliffs and echo cliffs which are way off into the distance. look down and you can see straight down to the bottom of the canyon, awesome. if you can tear yourself away from this view you can then travel back down the spur to vista encantadora where again there are picnic tables, but no toilets. again you will see magnificent views.

the next stop on the drive is roosevelt point, which is one of the few places you can see the colorado river running through the canyon. this vista has even more fantastic views where you can really see the vastness of the canyon itself.

the next stop, walhalla overlook, is quite a ways down the trail, but in my view offered some of the best views of all. don?t be fooled and stay near the parking area where there are good views, but walk along to the end of the parking section and there is a pathway to another railed overview. here you can see for miles. it is truly breathtaking.

if you can pull yourself away travel a little bit further and you come to cape royal. there is a large car park here with toilets and picnic areas. there are several options you can take here. You can take the Angel?s Window trail which leads you to stunning views–yes, more. Here the view takes its name from a triangular hole in the cliffs through which you can see the Colorado River snaking through the canyon. It is beautiful. The other option is to take the trail which takes you above Angel?s Window and give some of the best views the canyon has to offer. You have travelled 23 miles to get here, but believe me it would be worthwhile driving 200 miles for this view. It is spectacular.

All the trails on this drive are short and easily walked. We went at the beginning of July and didn?t encounter any queues. In fact at most of the stops we were the only people there. Not sure if it is always like this at this time, or we were very lucky.