Driving Tours

Start: Grand Canyon Lodge.

Finish: Point Imperial, at the northeastern end of the park.

Time: About 4 hours -- more if you do any hiking.

Highlights: Sparse crowds and lovely views of the eastern canyon.

Drawbacks: Has only one viewpoint (Cape Royal) from which to see the central canyon. The Colorado River is not visible from as many points on this drive as on the South Rim drives. From the Grand Canyon Lodge, I recommend driving 23 miles directly to Cape Royal, on the Walhalla Plateau. Make your stops on the way back to the Grand Canyon Lodge. That way, you can do the short hikes near Cape Royal while your legs are fresh, then stop at the picnic areas, closer to the lodge, on your way back.

1. Cape Royal

Lined by cliff rose and piñon pine, a gentle, paved 0.3-mile (each way) trail opens onto some of the most stunning views in the park. It first approaches a natural bridge, Angel's Window, carved into a rock peninsula along the rim. Through the square opening under the bridge, a part of the lower canyon, including a slice of the Colorado River, can be seen from the trail. This opening in the Kaibab Limestone was formed when water seeped down through cracks and then across planes between rock beds, eventually eroding the rock from underneath.

The left fork of the trail travels about 150 yards, ending at the tip of the peninsula above Angels Window. With sheer drops on three sides, Angels Window is a thrilling place to stand.

The right fork of the trail goes to the tip of Cape Royal. From here, Wotans Throne, a broad mesa visible in the distance from many South Rim overlooks, looms only 1.5 miles to the south. Also to the south, and nearly as close, is Vishnu Temple. Closer still is Freya Castle, a pinnacle shaped like a breaking wave. Across the canyon, the tiny nub on the rim is the 70-foot-high Watchtower at Desert View.

Cape Royal offers a spectacular panoramic view of the Canyon at sunrise and sunset. It is a popular spot for weddings, and a wonderful area to picnic.

Optional stop--The Cliff Springs Trail (3 miles north of Cape Royal, in a small pullout). This 1/2-mile walk ends at a small spring in a side canyon, and is terrific for bird-watching.

2. Walhalla Overlook and Walhalla Glades

Ancestral Puebloans no doubt enjoyed the views from here. Follow the tan line of Unkar Creek as it snakes down toward Unkar Delta. Enriched by the river deposits of the creek, the soil and abundant water at the delta made for excellent farming. Many Ancestral Puebloans lived there, growing corn, beans, and squash on terraces that caught runoff and left deposits of rich soil.

When the canyon heated up, they also spent time on the North Rim, at dwellings such as the ones across the street from this overlook. A flat dirt path leads to Walhalla Ruins, which includes the foundations of two small pueblos. In this area, the Ancestral Puebloans could farm, taking advantage of the extra moisture and a growing season that was lengthened by the warm breezes blowing out of the canyon. In addition to farming, the Puebloans also gathered food and hunted the abundant game on the rim.

Optional stop--Cape Final Trail (about 5 miles south of Roosevelt Point). This gentle, 1.5-mile-long (one-way) hike follows an old jeep trail to an overlook at Cape Final.

3. Roosevelt Point

This is one of the best places in the canyon to see the confluence of the gorge of the Little Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. They meet at nearly a right angle, unusual in that most tributaries enter at close to the same direction as the larger rivers. Geologists have used this observation to buttress arguments that the ancestral Colorado River exited the canyon via the Little Colorado gorge, but little evidence supports this theory. The cliffs south of this junction, which form the southeast wall of Grand Canyon proper, are known as the Palisades of the Desert. Those north of the confluence are called the Desert Facade.

4. Vista Encontada

By starting your driving tour of the Walhalla Plateau early in the day, you can reach Vista Encontada in time for a late picnic lunch. You'll find several tables near the rim. While you picnic, you can look down an upper drainage of Nankoweap Creek and at the rock pinnacle known as Brady Peak.

5. Point Imperial

A 3-mile spur road leads from the Cape Royal Road to Point Imperial, which at 8,803 feet is the highest point on the North Rim and the best place on either rim to view the northeastern end of the park. To the northeast, 3,000 feet below the overlook, you'll see the brownish-green plain known as the Marble Platform. The Colorado River cleaves this platform between Lees Ferry and where Grand Canyon proper yawns open just east of here. Because the Marble Platform has the same rock layers as Grand Canyon, Marble Canyon is considered by geologists to be the uppermost section of Grand Canyon.

Bordering the Marble Platform on the north are the Vermilion Cliffs. Located along the Utah-Arizona border, these cliffs are also the next steps up in the Grand Staircase, a geological formation in which progressively younger rock formations rise like steps from Marble Canyon to Bryce Canyon in southern Utah. The Vermilion Cliffs run southwest to northeast. Where this formation turns toward the south near Lees Ferry, you will find the unrelated edge of a fold called Echo Cliffs.

Looking southeast, you can see where the gorge of the Little Colorado River intersects the Grand Canyon. Past that confluence, the landforms of the Painted Desert stain the horizon a rich red. This desert, made up of badlands and other erosional features carved from the soft clays of the Chinle Formation, surrounds the Little Colorado River and one of its tributaries, the Puerte River. Like the Vermilion Cliffs, the Painted Desert is made up of "younger" rocks than are found in Grand Canyon.