Las Vegas Photo Gallery - Day Trip to the Grand Canyon

Las Vegas isn't all about gambling. There are a few national parks in the area with stunning natural scenery. Ideally, it's a full week driving a loop covering 4 of them, but I came at the last minute and alone, hence driving, paying the admission fees, and finding motels on short notice wouldn't be very economical.

Luckily, there are plenty of bus tours that offer day trips to the Grand Canyon. As the park is quite large, you need to decide which part of the park to visit on a rushed day tour. The North Rim is less popular and is closed in the winter. The South Rim gets quite busy as it receives most of the canyon's visitors, while the West Rim has a scary glass walk extending 70 feet out 4000 feet above the canyon.

The literature pointed me south, with a view that the media had portrayed over the decades. My $77 bus tour was scheduled for 14 hours, and includes a few stops to break the long drive.

Leaving Vegas on a bus full of tourists, the first stop was the 726 foot-high Hoover Dam. Built during the Great Depression in the 1930s, 3500 men worked on the dam on average daily, with 96 perishing during construction.

Route 66, or the Mother Road, is the first all-weather highway from Chicago to Los Angeles. Symbolizing hope, progress, adventure, and the automobile's impact on the country, the route reduced the driving distance by over 200 miles, and was the preferred route to head west.

Seligman, Arizona celebrates this highway's history, and there were some spring flowers to throw in as a bonus. Originally a railroad town, it suffered badly when the Interstate opened in 1978, diverting traffic away from Route 66.

Carved by the Colorado River over the past 6 million years, the Grand Canyon has some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth. Stretching along 277 river miles, explorer John Wesley Powell called the place "Grand" when he came in 1869. President Teddy Roosevelt called it "the one great sight every American should see" upon declaring it as a National Monument in 1908.

Covering over 1900 square miles in Arizona, park shuttles roam along the different attractions on the South Rim, although I didn't have a chance to catch them as there were long lines. The downside with the day trip is there is limited time to explore or hike so I stayed along the Rim Trail to take in the views.

The Grand Canyon Railway connects the park with Williams, Arizona, taking 2 hours and 15 minutes to travel 65 miles. That wouldn't get me back to Las Vegas though.

A day trip bus tour offers a good introduction to the Grand Canyon, but you need much more time to experience its power, serenity, and different viewpoints. Nevertheless, if you are in town for the first time and want a day in nature, the bus tour is a good way to get a taste, but do return for a more in-depth visit later.