The mighty Grand Canyon is just a hop-skip and a jump away from Zion (well part of it at least). There are multiple ways to see the Grand Canyon and some of them are a bit of a drive from Zion, but Toroweap is just a couple of hours away and offers views of the canyon that are hard to match.
Photo Credit: John Fowler on flickr
Below is an aerial video of the Grand that does a great job showcasing first of all how big the Grand Canyon is, I mean it’s massive and goes for miles and miles. It has many offshoot canyons as well like Havasu Canyon where the famous Havasupi Falls is located.
If you’re going to visit Zion National Park and have some extra time, then adding a Grand Canyon trip to your plan is a wise choice. You can see the Grand many different ways, from view points and overlooks like Toroweap, to hiking or riding donkeys to the bottom. But for the very adventurous among you the Grand also has some of the best white water river rafting in the world that will thrill and delight you as you float down the mighty Colorado River.
The Grand Canyon truly is an amazing place for so many different reasons. The canyon walls, the waterfalls, the rapids, the everything that calls your name to visit here. As stated before you can visit the Grand to just look off the side and take pictures of its granduer, but in truth to really experience it you must descend to the bottom. At many places you’ll find yourself in a completely different world.
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I experienced this when I hiked down to Havasupi Falls. The hike down was like hiking through a desolate wasteland of nothingness. But when I rounded the corner and first saw Havasupi Falls I couldn’t believe my eyes, “where on earth did that come from?” I heard myself muttering.
The Grand Canyon is a wonderful sister park to Zion and a wonderful park to add to your list if you’re out doing the national park tour for the first time. Zion offers more of a smaller more intimate beauty, whereas the Grand Canyon offers vast widespread vistas and huge deep canyons, complete with indian petroglyphs and ruins that will stoke your imagination of our early inhabitants. Truly the Grand is an amazing place that everyone should visit at least once.