Exploring the North Rim

At the canyon’s North Rim [1], you’ll find fewer tour options and no shuttle buses to whisk you between overlooks and sites. This side of Grand Canyon is most easily explored by car.

Many of the North Rim’s scenic highlights lie along the Cape Royal Road, which travels more than twenty miles across the Walhalla Plateau [2] to Cape Royal [3] and Wotans Throne. Shopping [4], dining [5], and entertainment choices are more limited here too, allowing Mother Nature to take center stage.

The focus of your explorations will be the North Rim’s exquisite natural setting. Hiking [6], trail riding [7], and scenic drives [8] take you through lush forests and meadows sprinkled with wildflowers to overlooks with sweeping canyon vistas. Pack a picnic, wear comfortable shoes, and plan to enjoy the fresh pine-scented air and natural quiet.

North Rim Visitors Centers

The North Rim Visitors Center (928/638-2481, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. daily) is located at Bright Angel Point [9], at the end of Highway 67. The large parking area on the left at road’s end is convenient to the visitors center, which is the building nearest the parking lot’s south edge. You can hang out on the shady veranda and watch an informational slide show, or go inside to talk with rangers and browse through displays on flora, fauna, and history.

In the visitors center, a large three-dimensional map of the canyon—showing major viewpoints, landforms, and trailheads as well as park, forest, and reservation boundaries—helps travelers get their bearings. Weather forecasts for the North Rim [1], South Rim [10], and nearby areas are posted here daily.

Housed within the visitors center is the Grand Canyon Association (GCA) bookstore, with an excellent selection of books, maps, videos, and other items. Proceeds benefit the association, which partners with the park to create interpretive materials. Restrooms are located around the back of the building, where there’s also a shady ramada with public phones and vending machines.

You can preview your visit to the rim with a stop at the Kaibab Plateau Visitors Center (928/643-7298, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily mid-May-mid-Oct., shorter hours later in the season), operated by the U.S. Forest Service in Jacob Lake. This visitors center is outside the park, 45 miles north of Bright Angel Point. Displays emphasize the Kaibab Plateau [11] and Kaibab National Forest, although information on Grand Canyon National Park is also available here. A three-dimensional map of the plateau and canyon rim indicates forest roads, and you can purchase forest maps here if you plan to make any back-road excursions. The GCA stocks the visitors center with books about the canyon.

North Rim Entrance Station

The North Rim’s sole entrance station is 12 miles from Bright Angel Point on scenic Highway 67, at the boundary between Kaibab National Forest and Grand Canyon National Park. The highway is usually open to travel mid-May-mid-October. In winter, deep snows often cover the high meadows between Jacob Lake and the entrance station, closing the highway, which is then gated and locked at either end. When the entrance station is staffed, you can pick up a copy of The Guide, [12] the park newspaper. The North Rim edition is updated each May.