President Woodrow Wilson designated Grand Canyon as the 15th national park on Feb. 26, 1919, after decades of lobbying to protect the 277-mile gorge carved to a depth of more than a mile by the Colorado River. In it’s first year as a national park, it was visited by about 38,000 people, and that number has gone up a little bit over the years. In 2018, more than 6.8 million people visited the canyon, most making the drive of about 280 miles from Las Vegas. On Tuesday, the Grand Canyon celebrates it’s 100th year as a national park, and festivities are planned throughout the week to mark the occasion. If you are not lucky enough to be there during this historic period, there will be plenty of pictures being posted on social media accounts to make you feel as though you were there. Make note that this is celebrating 100 years of the designation as a national park, which includes only the actual national park area. If you accidentally take one of the many tours from Las Vegas to the west rim instead of the south rim, you will not be within the national park area and will not see any of the celebration activities. If you want to make sure that you are going to be visiting the actual Grand Canyon national park area, you must inquire with your tour operator that you are going to the south rim. All Bindlestiff Tours that visit the Grand Canyon as part of the larger tours, as well as our overnight tours, visit the south rim.
The Grand Canyon national park itself is located outside Page Arizona and is roughly a 4 hour drive from Las Vegas. If you are unfamiliar with desert driving you are probably going to want to make sure you leave the driving to an experienced tour company like us, as many are not used to the fact that the majority of scenery during the drive will look the same, and the areas will be unpopulated. This is difficult for those not used to large stretches of unpopulated areas and driving for hours within these spaces. During our tours, you can simply sit back and let the driving and navigating to us, while we make sure that you see all the best areas while also remaining completely safe against the pitfalls of driving in the desert. Yes, for the majority of the space between Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon there will be no cell service, so in the event of something happening you need to be prepared. We take care of all of this for you, allowing you to enjoy your adventure trip without stress. Once at the Grand Canyon, there are many things to do including hiking the 12 miles of the south rim trail, which will provide some of the most scenic views on earth. The weather is perfect this time of year, and if you want to see the most iconic area in the world on it;s birthday, you need to make arrangements now.