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From the Visitor Center, the 18-mile Scenic Drive leads into the park. The Windows Section, where Turret Arch is located, is off the actual Scenic Drive and is an absolute must. To get there, turn right off Scenic Drive just past Balanced Rock and follow the spur road for 2.5 miles. Double Arch, North Window, South Window, Turret Arch and Garden of Eden invite to short walks.
The tower is located 7,438 ft. / 2.267m high (on the eastern part of the South Rim). Even though the Watchtower looks like a historic building from the outside, it is by no means a relic of times gone by. The tower was built in 1932 by Mary E. Jane Colter around a steel frame, but as a "re-creation" of prehistoric American buildings she had studied. The masonry is authentic in its construction, and the murals inside the tower were created by Hopi Nation and artist Fred Kabotie. The Hopi people now operate a store there with extensive Native American souvenirs.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GCNRA) is a recreation and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyon in Utah and Arizona, covering 1,254,429 acres / 5,076.49 km2 of mostly rugged high desert terrain.
The lookout is named after Thomas Moran, a famous American landscape painter of the 19th century.
Moran Point was also about where the first Europeans, a Spanish expedition coming from Mexico, reached the canyon in 1540. They were led by local Hopi Indians to a place "elevated and full of low twisted pines ... lying open to the north," according to expedition leader Garcia Lopez de Cardenas in his memoirs written down in 1560. This narrows the site to the area between Moran Point and Desert View Point. Presumably, they wisely chose Moran Point to discourage the invaders - successfully, as it turned out; the Spaniards returned after three days.
Movie Director John Ford used the location for a number of his best-known Western movies and thus, "its 5 square miles / 13 square kilometers have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West."
The Windows Section is considered by some to be the beating heart of Arches National Park. The area contains a large concentration of arches and is one of the most scenic locations in the park.
There are deeper and narrower valleys on earth, but none is as famous as the Grand Canyon. Superlatives extend over an enormous area here: unique rock formations, grandiose light moods and the mighty primitiveness of nature.
The Colorado River has carved enormous valleys into the rock. A river needs a surface to attack in order to create such deep canyons. The Colorado Plateau provides this surface.
40 to 50 million years ago, the land was uplifted by tectonic pressure, by the collision of two earth plates. Surprisingly, during the uplift, the rock layers of the plateau remained almost untouched and continued to be stored horizontally.
Until about five to six million years ago, the Colorado Plateau was a flat desert of sandstone. But then meltwater streams drove the first gullies into the land.
The rock layers lying horizontally were able to offer varying degrees of resistance to the force of the water. The softer layers gave way more quickly and undermined the hard rock layers above. They remained standing and formed almost vertical walls and overhangs. This created the famous stepped slopes that characterize the Grand Canyon.
Stunning red sandstone formations, lush pine forests and Oak Creek surround magical Sedona, Arizona.
The Coconino National Forest is a 1.856-million acre / 751,000 ha U.S. National Forest located in northern Arizona in the vicinity of Flagstaff.
Lee's Ferry is a common launching point for river runners starting their journey through Marble Canyon and then onward to the Grand Canyon.
Lee's Ferry is considered the official beginning of Grand Canyon National Park on the Colorado River.
You can get close enough only enough --> danger of falling rocks.
The most recent recorded rockfall events occurred in the 1990s when one large slab fell in 1991 and then two additional large rockfalls occurred in 1995. Since the rockfalls, the trail beneath the arch has been closed.
From the Visitor Center, the 18-mile Scenic Drive leads into the park. Right at the beginning, the road winds up 400 feet in steep switchbacks to a flat area. The first stop is "Park Avenue". Here starts a short hiking trail with a length of one mile. This leads along huge rock formations to the stop "Courthouse Towers" and offers excellent views of the Tower of Babel, Sheep Rock and Three Gossips. Of course, you can also start the short hike from Courthouse Towers - but then the trail climbs continuously. This impressive environment makes every photographer's heart beat faster!
If you look north / northeast at Lipan Point, you can see a double loop of the Colorado in an S-shape. This is the Unkar Rapids, a rapid that has a drop of about 8 meters over 400 meters. It is also the delta of Unkar Creek, which flows into the Colorado from the north and which forms the delta through sand and rocks washed by it. This area also contains 52 ruins over 1,000 years old of the Anasazi Indians who lived there from about 850 to 1200 and used the fertile area to grow grain in terraces. The Unkar Delta represents one of the largest arable areas on the banks of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
Near Grand Canyon Village (at the South Rim) and the parking lot is Mather Point at an elevation of 2,170 metres, named after the first director of the national park Stephen T. Mather. North Rim is 16 kilometers away and is located about 200 m higher.
The rock formation "Isis Temple" is part of an uplifted, and sub-faulted block (about 3.5 mi / 5.6 km long and 2.0 mi / 3.2 km wide, with a sub-peak landform, The "Isis" prominence is composed of erosion resistant cliff-forming Coconino Sandstone.
...except for the palm trees in front of the Tower.
Eiffel Tower replica was built in 1999. Original plans for the Eiffel Tower called for a full-scale replica, however that would have interfered with the nearby McCarran Airport and designers therefore reduced it to approximately 1:2 scale.
Because of its forward position, Hopi Point offers very good views into the canyon to the west and to the east, which is particularly advantageous during sunrises and especially sunsets, making it a popular destination at those times of day.
The 710-foot /220 m high dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S. with a capacity of 27 million acre feet / 33 km3. The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a series of deep sandstone gorges now flooded by the reservoir.
The most poular trail starts at Devils Garden, the last parking lot of the road that leads through the national park. Until Landscape Arch, the trail is well developed and has only very few slopes. The path offers great views and interesting rock formations.
Grand Canyon Village offers a variety of lodging options for just about any vacation budget.
The historic El Tovar Hotel was declared a National Historic Landmark on May 28, 1987.
Cedar Mountain is a mesa on the edge of East Entrance to Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim). It is 2,146 meters high.
The replica of the Rialto Bridge was built as an outdoor attraction of the huge hotel/casino complex and inaugurated in 1999.
Hiking in the Fiery Furnace is a different experience from other trails in the park. To enter the area, you must accompany a ranger-guided hike or obtain a Self-Guided Exploration permit.
Visitors can drive through the park on a 17-mile / 27 km dirt road. The trip lasts for 2-3 hours. Especially before sunset the rock formations glow red.
Lake Powell is since 1972 part of the Glen Canyon NRA, established "to provide for public use and enjoyment and to preserve the area's scientific, historic, and scenic features.". As purposed for recreation as well as presevation, the area has been developed for access to Lake Powell via five marinas, four public campgrounds, two small airports, and numerous houseboat rental concessions.