Nothing Can Beat Seeing Grand Canyon National Park By Airplane!
One of the most spectacular natural beauties on earth is the Grand Canyon. In fact, it is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
The vistas are incredible and offer a window into the region's unique geology. The canyon is immense (over a million acres!) and there's a lot to see. Grand Canyon plane tours are the best way to see a large portion of this magnificent region.
Take a look at these interesting tidbits.
Air Tours From Vegas
Airplane tours of the Grand Canyon depart daily from Vegas. You have to decide if you want to take a landing tour or an air only tour, but both of them fly right over the immense Hoover Dam and beautiful Lake Mead. If you don't have a lot of time to spend, you should choose an air only tour, they are cheaper too. However, the landing tours are very popular. There are some really fun landing tours you are sure to enjoy.
For instance, a great landing tour is the one that comes with a helicopter flight to the canyon floor where you can take a raft tour of the Colorado River. Another fun tour comes with passes to the thrilling glass Skywalk. At its apex you'll be standing 70 feet past the edge of the rim and 4,000 feet above the canyon's bottom!
You can also choose to fly to the South Rim from Vegas and the flight only takes about an hour. Compare that to the 5-hour bus ride to get to the same place! When you arrive at the South Rim, you can enjoy a 2-hour bus tour of the region. You can also add on a thrilling chopper ride along the impressive Dragoon Corridor that is great fun.
About South Rim Tours
South Rim plane tours fly daily out of Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN) in Tusayan, AZ. You can choose a 30 or 50-minute flight. I strongly recommend the longer tour.
You will see many spectacular formations on your flight, one of them is Marble Canyon located in the eastern area of the National Park. Other sights near the Park's eastern boundary include the Colorado Confluence (the point where the Colorado and the Little Colorado River come together) and the only bridge connecting the South and North Rims.
Your plane will then head for the pristine wilderness of the North Rim, isolated and closed to the public from November through April. Abundant plants and wildlife (California condors, elk, mountain lions, gray fox, big horn sheep and a variety of hawks) thrive in the North Rim? s stand of Ponderosa Pines, the largest in the country. After that, you will fly along Dragoon Corridor, which is the widest and deepest part of the canyon as you head back to the airport in Tusayan.
Wrapping Up
The Grand Canyon is so immense, it is impossible to see very much of it from the ground in a single day. It would be a shame to see only a small portion of the National Park while you're there. Even from a plane, you won't see all of the canyon, but you will get to see a lot of it. That sums up why airplane tours are so popular at the Grand Canyon!
The vistas are incredible and offer a window into the region's unique geology. The canyon is immense (over a million acres!) and there's a lot to see. Grand Canyon plane tours are the best way to see a large portion of this magnificent region.
Take a look at these interesting tidbits.
- The widest point is 18 miles across but the average width is 10 miles
- It is 277 miles long
- It is more than a mile from the top of the rim to the canyon floor
- It took the Colorado River hundreds of millions of years to create the chasm by eroding the rock of the Kaibab Plateau
- Some of the most ancient exposed rock is found here in the Vishnu Basement layer, the other two strata are the Supergroup layer and the Paleozoic layer
Air Tours From Vegas
Airplane tours of the Grand Canyon depart daily from Vegas. You have to decide if you want to take a landing tour or an air only tour, but both of them fly right over the immense Hoover Dam and beautiful Lake Mead. If you don't have a lot of time to spend, you should choose an air only tour, they are cheaper too. However, the landing tours are very popular. There are some really fun landing tours you are sure to enjoy.
For instance, a great landing tour is the one that comes with a helicopter flight to the canyon floor where you can take a raft tour of the Colorado River. Another fun tour comes with passes to the thrilling glass Skywalk. At its apex you'll be standing 70 feet past the edge of the rim and 4,000 feet above the canyon's bottom!
You can also choose to fly to the South Rim from Vegas and the flight only takes about an hour. Compare that to the 5-hour bus ride to get to the same place! When you arrive at the South Rim, you can enjoy a 2-hour bus tour of the region. You can also add on a thrilling chopper ride along the impressive Dragoon Corridor that is great fun.
About South Rim Tours
South Rim plane tours fly daily out of Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN) in Tusayan, AZ. You can choose a 30 or 50-minute flight. I strongly recommend the longer tour.
You will see many spectacular formations on your flight, one of them is Marble Canyon located in the eastern area of the National Park. Other sights near the Park's eastern boundary include the Colorado Confluence (the point where the Colorado and the Little Colorado River come together) and the only bridge connecting the South and North Rims.
Your plane will then head for the pristine wilderness of the North Rim, isolated and closed to the public from November through April. Abundant plants and wildlife (California condors, elk, mountain lions, gray fox, big horn sheep and a variety of hawks) thrive in the North Rim? s stand of Ponderosa Pines, the largest in the country. After that, you will fly along Dragoon Corridor, which is the widest and deepest part of the canyon as you head back to the airport in Tusayan.
Wrapping Up
The Grand Canyon is so immense, it is impossible to see very much of it from the ground in a single day. It would be a shame to see only a small portion of the National Park while you're there. Even from a plane, you won't see all of the canyon, but you will get to see a lot of it. That sums up why airplane tours are so popular at the Grand Canyon!
