Visit Grand Canyon National Park for free

Flagstaff is located close to lots of national parks. Day trips to Grand Canyon National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, Montezuma Castle National Monument, Tuzigoot National Monument are easy.

Of course, even closer are the three Flagstaff Area National Monuments, Walnut Canyon National Monument, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and Wupatki National Monuments.

This summer, the difficult question is which parks to visit. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the National Park Service will offer three fee-free weekends this summer to encourage Americans seeking affordable vacations to visit these national treasures. The 147 National Park Service sites across the country that charge fees, ranging from $3 to $25 for entry, will waive these entrance fees during the weekends of:

• June 20-21 (Father's Day!)
• July 18-19
• August 15-16, 2009

The waiver does not include other fees collected in advance or by contractors—such as fees charged for camping, reservations, tours and use of concessions. However, many park partners including tour operators, hotels, restaurants, gift shops, and other vendors will offer additional discounts and special promotions on those dates.

Be sure to check out my National Parks Travel Examiner articles about visiting national parks this summer.

Grand Canyon National Park Announces Parking & Road Construction

Visitors to the Grand Canyon South Rim this summer may see a few traffic delays, but in the end, we'll all benefit from more parking and easier movement around the park.

"The National Park Service (NPS) will begin implementing the first phase of the South Rim Visitor Transportation Plan at Grand Canyon National Park this spring. Parking and roadway improvements will occur adjacent to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center (Visitor Center) at Canyon View Information Plaza (CVIP). Phase I of the construction project is expected to begin in April and be completed by the end of November 2009.

The NPS will implement an array of transportation strategies to promote alternative travel modes to the park and better integrate connections between parking, transit, wayfinding and trip planning.

The South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park hosts almost 4 million visitors a year, yet visitor needs and experiences are considerably underserved by significant parking shortages, resource degradation and safety risks at and around Mather Point due to pedestrian/vehicular conflicts; and by difficulty accessing the Visitor Center." Read more ...

Grand Canyon National Park to Run Shuttle from Tusayan Again

The free shuttle service to and from Tusayan and the Canyon View Information Plaza will be offered again this year. This relieves a bit of the traffic congestion at the Park Entrance and within the South Rim area.

"The National Park Service (NPS) will offer a pilot shuttle bus program between Grand Canyon National Park and the neighboring town of Tusayan again this year. The service will be available from May 16 through September 13 and will run at 15 minute intervals between 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.

The first bus will leave Tusayan at 8:00 a.m. and at Canyon View Information Plaza at 8:40 a.m. The last buses will leave Tusayan and Canyon View Information Plaza at 9:30 p.m."

Read more . . .

Celebrate Wildlife Day at Grand Canyon National Park

On May 2, 2009, you'll want to take the family up to Grand Canyon National Park for the second annual Celebrate Wildlife Day Shrine of the Age on the South Rim. Activities will run from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., do you'll be able to choose what you want to do and leave when you're ready.

See the announcement for what's on the agenda.

Grand Canyon National Park North Rim Opening

Alot of hikers have been waiting for this announcement from the National Park Service:

"The Arizona Department of Transportation will open Highway 67 to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park on Friday, May 15 by 7:00 a.m. Grand Canyon Lodge North Rim, a Forever Resorts property and Grand Canyon Trail Rides will also commence their season operations on May 15, continuing through noon on October 16, 2009. Grand Canyon Lodge North Rim operations include lodging, camper services, food services, groceries and a service station. All concessions facilities will open at 10:00 a.m. with the exception of the dining room which will open at 11:30 a.m. for lunch. Lodge check-in will commence at 4:00 p.m."

Read more . . .

Grand Canyon National Park Archeology Day

It's a beautiful time of year at the Grand Canyon. Maybe it's time to take a little day trip before summer gets into full gear. March 28 sounds like a good day to visit, especially if you're interested in archaeology.

From Grand Canyon National Park news release:

On Saturday, March 28, 2009, Grand Canyon National Park will host Archeology Day in honor of “Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month”.

“Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month” was created 26 years ago by the State Historical Preservation Office and the Governor’s Ad Hoc Archeology Advisory Group (now the Governor’s Archeology Advisory Commission) to inform the public about archeology in the state of Arizona. In Grand Canyon National Park alone, over 4300 archeological sites have been recorded to date, and archeologists estimate that the park may have as many as 50,000 – 60,000 sites. Some of the artifacts found in the park date back almost 12,000 years, testimony to the vast extent of the human history of the area. That human history lives on as descendents of these ancient peoples continue to utilize the area today.

Archeology Day, much like “Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month”, is intended to help park visitors learn more about the people who lived here long ago and to gain a greater understanding of the work that archeologists do and what can be learned from their research.

All of the park’s Archeology Day activities and programs are being offered free of charge on the South Rim. All activities are family friendly and, with the exception of the evening program, will be offered at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, located at the Canyon View Information Plaza, between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

For more info: Archaeology Day

Havasupai at Arizona Geology Blog

From Lee Allison's Arizona Geology Blog on October 22, 2008: "The Havasupai Tribe announced a $1 million donation that will allow them to build an early warning system for floods and repair damage from the August flood that devastated their Grand Canyon home."

Please read the rest of the post and play the videos of the the flood.

This donation should help to assure that the Havasupai have warning should this type of disaster threaten them again.

Flagstaff Weekend Events--So Much To Do

Flagstaff Route 66 Days has arrived. Lots of things going on tonight through Sunday. See the calendar of events here.

In addition, if hot cars amid "the cool pines of Arizona's High Country" is not for you, then head over to FlagstaffArizona.org and check out the calendar for the weekend. There's just too much to highlight it all here.

You have your choice of everything from a public recycling tour this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. to NAU Women's Soccer or NAU Football to the Grand Canyon Music Festival on the South Rim.

Sounds like there is something for everyone. Now, if we only knew what to do first.

More Wayne Ranney Books

On August 11, 2008 we talked about Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau by Ron Blakey and Wayne Ranney. Today I want to share information about four other Ranney books:

• Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories and Mystery
• The Verde Valley: A Geological History
• Canyon Country
• Sedona Through Time: Geology of the Red Rocks

If you're interested, you can find out how to order them at Wayne Ranney. I got mine through Amazon.com.

All are small, but very readable and extremely informative, overviews of the geologic history of these four areas on the Colorado Plateau.

Thunder Over The Coconino

This Saturday, August 23, 2008, you can take a little trip up to the Grand Canyon Valle Airport for Thunder Over The Coconino. It's billed as their "4th Annual "Thunder Over the Coconino" Aircraft Fly-In, Historic Car Rally, and Chili Cook-off."

Sounds like fun. Imagine seeing vintage planes and cars, including a P51 Mustang and a 1929 Ford Tri-Motor, in an atmosphere filled with the spicy aroma from great pots of chili. What's better than that?

You can get all the details at Grand Canyon Valle Airport. If you need more help, the telephone number and email address are listed at the bottom of that page.

Don't forget to sign up to enter your prize-winning chili in the competition.

Grand Canyon Online

Courtesy National Park Service

Have you visited the Grand Canyon National Park website recently? Lots of information is available, including the Fall 2008 South Rim Guide in pdf format.

You can also grab the webcam at Yavapai Point on the South Rim, listen to Ranger Minutes, podcast, watch short video called Flight Into Canyon, or read Canyon Sketches eMagazine.

There is a great deal of history, including a priceless ebook, Polishing the Jewel: An Administrative History of Grand Canyon National Park by Michael F. Anderson. The only disappointment is that there isn't a lot of ecology and environment material, but Polishing the Jewel does make up for that.

Isn't it fantastic that we have the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon as a day trip? A World Heritage Site, 1,218,375 acres big, right in Flagstaff's own back yard.

Sunflowers and Sunshine

After the storms, its a beautiful morning in Flagstaff. Hoping to hear that all are safe up at the Grand Canyon--flash floods and a dam break have led to some evacuations of Havasupai residents of Supai and tourists in the area.

Update at 6:05 p.m. today: Governor Napolitano announced all who are known to have been in the Canyon are safe.

Flagstaff

August 18, 2008

Flagstaff, circa 1890, Part II

We continue our trip (Part I) back to the Southwest of the late 19th century, as John L. Stoddard leaves Flagstaff by stage coach on his way to the Grand Canyon.

"One glorious September morning, leaving our train at Flagstaff, we started in stage-coaches for a drive of sixty-five miles to the Grand Canon. I had looked forward to this drive with some misgiving, dreading the heat of the sun, and the dust and sand which I had supposed we should encounter; but to my astonishment and delight it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It was only eleven hours in duration, and not only was most of the route level, but two-thirds of it lay through a section of beautifully rolling land, diversified with open glades and thousands upon thousands of tall pines and cedars entirely free from undergrowth. It is no exaggeration to say that we drove that day for miles at a time over a road carpeted with pine needles. The truth is, Arizona, though usually considered a treeless and rainless country, possesses some remarkable exceptions; and the region near Flagstaff not only abounds in stately pine, but is at certain seasons visited by rainstorms which keep it fresh and beautiful. During our stay at the Grand Canon we had a shower every night; the atmosphere was marvelously pure, and aromatic with the odors of a million pines; and so exhilarating was exercise in the open air, that however arduous it might be, we never felt inconvenienced by fatigue, and mere existence gave us joy. Decidedly, then , it will not do to condemn the whole of Arizona because of the heat of its arid, southern plains; for the northern portion of the state is a plateau, with an elevation of from five thousand to seven thousand feet. Hence, as it is not latitude, so much as altitude, that gives us healthful, pleasing temperature, in parts of Arizona the climate is delightful during the entire year."

"A portion of this stage-coach journey led us over the flank of the great San Francisco Mountain. The isolated position, striking similarity, and almost uniform altitude of its four peaks, rising nearly thirteen thousand feet above the sea, have long made them famous. Moreover, they are memorable for having cast a lurid light upon the development of this portion of our planet. Cold, calm, and harmless though they now appear, the time has been when they contained a molten mass which needed but a throb of Earth's uneasy heart to light the heavens with an angry glare, and cover the adjoining plains with floods of fire. Lava has often poured from their destructive cones, and can be traced thence over a distance of thirty miles ; proving that they once served as vents for the volcanic force which the thin crust of earth was vainly striving to confine. But their activity is apparently ended. The voices with which they formerly shouted to one another in the joy of devastation have been silenced. Conquered at last, their fires smolder now beneath a barrier too firm to yield, and their huge forms appear like funeral monuments reared to the memory of the power buried at their base. Another fascinating sight upon this drive was that of the Painted Desert whose variously colored streaks of sand, succeeding one another to the rim of the horizon, made the vast area seem paved with bands of onyx, agate, and carnelian. About the hour of noon we reached a lunch.station at which the stages, going to and from the Canon, meet and pass. The structure itself is rather primitive ; but a good meal is served to tourists at this wayside halting.place, and since our appetites had been sharpened by the long ride and tonic.giving air, it seemed to us the most delicious of repasts. The principal object of one of the members of our party, in making the journey described in these pages, was to determine the advisability of building a railroad from Flagstaff to the Canon. Whether this will be done eventually is not, however, a matter of vital interest to travelers, since the country traversed can easily be made an almost ideal coaching.route; and with good stages, frequent relays of horses, and a well-appointed lunch-station, a journey thus accomplished would be preferable to a trip by rail."

"Night had already come when we arrived at our destination, known as Hance's Camp, near the border of the Canon. As we drove up to it, the situation seemed enchanting in its peace and beauty ; for it is located in a grove of noble pines, through which the moon that night looked down in full-orbed splendor, paving the turf with inlaid ebony and silver, and laying a mantle of white velvet on the tents in which we were to sleep. Hance's log cabin serves as a kitchen and dining-room for travelers, and a few guests can even find lodging there; but, until a hotel is built, the principal dormitories must be the tents, which are provided with wooden floors and furnished with tables, chairs, and comfortable beds."

" This kind of accommodation, however, although excellent for travelers in robust health, is not sufficiently luxurious to attract many tourists. The evident necessity of the place is a commodious, well-kept inn, situated a few hundred feet to the rear of Hance's Camp, on the very edge of the Canon. If such a hotel, built on a spot commanding the incomparable view, were properly advert is ed and well.managed, I firmly believe that thousands of people would come here every year, on their way to or from the Pacific coast — not wishing or expecting it to be a place of fashion, but seeking it as a point where, close beside a park of pines, seven thousand feet above the level of the sea, one of the greatest marvels of the world can be enjoyed, in all the different phases it presents at morning, noon, and night, in sunshine, moonlight, and in storm. Early the next morning I eagerly climbed the little knoll at the foot of which our tents were located, for I well knew that from its summit I should see the Canon. Many grand objects in the world are heralded by sound : the solemn music of Niagara, the roar of active geysers in the Yellowstone, the intermittent thunder of the sea upon a rocky coast, are all distinguishable at some distance ; but over the Grand Canon of the Colorado broods a solemn silence. No warning voice proclaims its close proximity ; no partial view prepares us for its awful presence. We walk a few steps through the pine trees from the camp and suddenly find ourselves upon the Canon's edge. Just before reaching it, I halted for a moment, as has always been my wont when approaching for the first time any natural or historic object that I have longed for years to look upon. Around me rose the stately pines ; behind me was a simple stretch of rolling woodland ; nothing betrayed the nearness of one of the greatest wonders of the world. Could it be possible that I was to be disappointed ? At last I hurried through the intervening space, gave a quick look, and almost reeled."

"The globe itself seemed to have suddenly yawned asunder, leaving me trembling on the hither brink of two dissevered hemispheres. Vast as the bed of a vanished ocean, deep as Mount Washington, riven from its apex to its base, the grandest canon on our planet lay glittering below me in the sunlight like a submerged continent, drowned by an ocean that had ebbed away. At my very feet, so near that I could have leaped at once into eternity, the earth was cleft to a depth of six thousand six hundred feet — not by a narrow gorge, like other canons, but by an awful gulf within whose cavernous immensity the forests of the Adirondacks would appear like jackstraws, the Hudson Palisades would be an insignificant stratum, Niagara would be indiscernible, and cities could be tossed like pebbles. As brain grew steadier and vision clearer, I saw, directly opposite, the other side of the Canon thirteen miles away."

"It was a mountain wall, a mile in height, extending to the right and left as far as the eye could reach ; and since the cliff upon which I was standing was its counterpart, it seemed to me as if these parallel banks were once the shore-lines of a vanished sea. Between them lay a vast, incomparable void, two hundred miles in length, presenting an unbroken panorama to the east and west until the gaze could follow it no farther. Try to conceive what these dimensions mean by realizing that a strip of the State of Massachusetts, thirteen miles in width, and reaching from Boston to Albany, could be laid as a covering over this Canon, from one end to the other ; and that if the entire range of the White Mountains were flung into it, the monstrous pit would still remain comparatively empty ! Even now it is by no means without contents ; for, as I gazed with awe and wonder into its colossal area, I seemed to be looking down upon a colored relief.map of the mountain systems of the continent."

And here we leave John Stoddard as he admires the magnificent Grand Canyon.

Excerpted from John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Volume X, 1989, Boston, Balch Brothers Co. Now in public domain.

Back in Time--A Trip to the Grand Canyon

1871 William Henry Jackson

Thomas Moran Fishing

circa 1929 George A. Grant

From Yavapai Point, Looking up Bright Angel Creek

circa 1930 Henry G. Peabody
Bright Angel Trail

circa 1930 Henry G. Peabody
Road at Grand Canyon

circa 1936 Natt N. Dodge
North Rim Forest Fire

Credit all photos: National Park Service Photograph Collection