Grand Canyon Village: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Hermit Road runs 11 km west from the village to Hermits Rest, with a viewpoint every kilometre or so. From March to November it is closed to private cars, and the free red shuttle stops at every point, so you can ride out and walk stretches of the Rim Trail between stops. Outside those months you can drive it yourself. It is the side for sunset: the points stick out into the canyon and face the last light.
A short history of Grand Canyon Village
The village on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon owes its existence to the railway: in 1901 a branch of the Santa Fe line arrived here from Williams, and in 1905 the El Tovar Hotel opened right on the edge of the chasm. The architect Mary Colter designed several of the buildings for the Fred Harvey Company, among them Hopi House and the Desert View Watchtower. In 1919 the canyon was declared a national park, and the village became its centre. The canyon itself is about 1,800 metres deep, and the Colorado River carved it over millions of years.
The ten best sights in Grand Canyon Village
1El Tovar HotelThe grand old lodge on the rim, opened by the Santa Fe railway in 1905; walk in even if you are not staying
2Hopi HouseNative American crafts sold in a building made to look like a Hopi village; the upstairs gallery is worth the stairs
3Kolb StudioThe photographers' home and studio hanging off the rim at the Bright Angel trailhead; free exhibitions inside
4Lookout StudioA stone lookout built into the cliff edge in 1914; the terraces below it are the best quick view in the village
5Verkamp's Visitor CenterA family curio shop for a century, now a small free museum on life in the village
6Yavapai Geology MuseumBig windows over the canyon and a relief model of it; ten minutes here and the layers start to make sense
7Tusayan Ruin and MuseumThe low walls of an 800-year-old Puebloan village, 25 km east on Desert View Drive; a short flat loop
8Desert View WatchtowerThe stone tower at the east end of the rim; climb inside for the painted walls and the view of the river
9Mather PointThe first view for most visitors, five minutes' walk from the visitor center; busy, but it earns it
10Hopi PointThe point on Hermit Road that sticks furthest into the canyon; the classic sunset spot, so come early
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Grand Canyon Village →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Grand Canyon Village:
Free walking tours in Grand Canyon Village
Hermit Road, the west rim
Hermit Road runs 11 km west from the village to Hermits Rest, with a viewpoint every kilometre or so. From March to November it is closed to private cars, and the free red shuttle stops at every point, so you can ride out and walk stretches of the Rim Trail between stops. Outside those months you can drive it yourself. It is the side for sunset: the points stick out into the canyon and face the last light.
- Trailview Overlook · Look straight down at the switchbacks of the Bright Angel Trail and the green patch far below, the oasis long called Indian Garden. In 2022 it was renamed Havasupai Gardens, at the request of the Havasupai people who had farmed there until they were pushed out.
- Maricopa Point · Below the point stand the remains of the Orphan Mine, staked as a copper claim in the 1890s. It turned out to hold rich uranium ore, and uranium was mined here, inside the national park, from 1956 to 1969.
- Powell Point · The stone memorial here honours John Wesley Powell, the one-armed Civil War veteran who led the first known expedition down the Colorado through the whole canyon in 1869, in wooden boats.
- Mohave Point · One of the few places on the drive where the Colorado River itself shows, and on a still day you can hear the roar of Hermit Rapid rising from far below.
- Pima Point · Far below is the site of Hermit Camp, a tourist camp the Santa Fe railway ran from 1912 to 1930. Guests rode mules down the Hermit Trail, and supplies were sent down by an aerial cable from the rim nearby.
- Hermits Rest · Mary Colter designed the rest house in 1914 to look as if a hermit had piled it up himself, around a huge fireplace. The hermit was Louis Boucher, a Canadian prospector who lived alone below the rim for about twenty years.
Desert View Drive, the east rim
Desert View Drive follows the rim 40 km east from the village to the Watchtower, and it is open to cars all year. The viewpoints here are higher and more spread out, and the canyon opens wider as you go, until the Colorado swings into view in long bends. There is an ancient village ruin on the way and a general store at the end. Leaving the park this way, via Cameron, is also the road on towards Page and Monument Valley.
- Yaki Point · The South Kaibab Trail below was built by the Park Service in 1924-25 to get around Ralph Cameron, who controlled the Bright Angel Trail and charged hikers a toll. Private cars cannot drive to the point; the orange shuttle can.
- Grandview Point · In the 1890s Pete Berry built the trail below to reach his copper mine on Horseshoe Mesa, then opened the Grandview Hotel up here in 1897. Before the railway reached the village, this was where tourists came to see the canyon.
- Moran Point · Named for the painter Thomas Moran, whose huge canvas The Chasm of the Colorado was bought by Congress in 1874 and hung in the Capitol. His paintings did much to make the canyon famous long before it was a national park.
- Tusayan Ruin · A small Ancestral Puebloan village, built around 1185 and home to a few families for only a generation or so. You can still see the round kiva, the ceremonial room, among the low stone walls.
- Lipan Point · From here the Colorado makes a long bend around the Unkar Delta, a flat of river sand where Ancestral Puebloans grew corn about a thousand years ago. The tilted layers across the river are among the oldest rocks you can see in the canyon.
- Desert View Watchtower · Mary Colter built the 21-metre tower in 1932, modelled on the stone towers of the Ancestral Puebloans. The murals in the round room at its base were painted by the Hopi artist Fred Kabotie.
The village on foot
The paved Rim Trail links the visitor center with the historic village in about 5 km of nearly flat walking, always on the edge. The stretch from Yavapai Point west is the Trail of Time, where every metre of path stands for a million years of the rocks below you. The village itself is a collection of early 1900s buildings, many of them by the architect Mary Colter. Walk it one way and take the blue shuttle back.
- Mather Point · The point is named for Stephen Mather, a borax millionaire who became the first director of the National Park Service in 1917. Two years later the Grand Canyon was made a national park.
- Yavapai Geology Museum · The stone observation station opened in 1928, built right on the edge with walls of glass. Its windows were placed so that the views line up with the exhibits on how the canyon was formed.
- Verkamp's · John Verkamp opened his curio shop beside the Hopi House in 1906, and his family ran it for more than a century, until 2008. The Park Service turned it into a visitor center telling the story of the village.
- Hopi House · Mary Colter designed it in 1905, and Hopi builders put it up as a copy of the houses of Old Oraibi, a Hopi village that has been lived in for close to a thousand years. Hopi artists once lived and worked in it.
- El Tovar · The hotel is named after Pedro de Tovar, an officer of Coronado's expedition of 1540. Tovar never saw the canyon himself: he heard about it from the Hopi, and another officer, García López de Cárdenas, was sent to find it.
- Kolb Studio · The brothers Emery and Ellsworth Kolb photographed the mule riders setting off down the trail, then ran down to the water at Indian Garden to develop the prints, and were back up to sell them when the riders returned.
Getting to Grand Canyon Village and getting around
- Grand Canyon Depot · The Grand Canyon Railway from Williams ends here, right below El Tovar, in a log station from 1910
- Grand Canyon Visitor Center shuttles · Leave the car here; the free shuttles run along the rim, and Hermit Road is shuttle-only from March to November
- Grand Canyon National Park Airport · In Tusayan, 12 km south; scenic flights and helicopter tours over the canyon leave from here
Cheap eats in Grand Canyon Village
Inside the park all the food is run by the park concessioners, so there are no chains and no bargains: a deli, a few cafeterias and two proper dining rooms. The cheapest good lunch is a picnic from the market eaten on the rim. Tusayan, 12 km south at the park gate, has more choice and later hours. Carry water and snacks whenever you leave the village.
- Canyon Village Market & Deli · Sandwiches, salads and fried chicken to take to the rim, about $9-15
- Bright Angel Fountain · Ice cream and hot dogs at the trailhead, about $5-9; summer only
- Harvey House Café · Breakfast and diner plates in Bright Angel Lodge, about $14-22
- Maswik Food Court · Self-service counters with burgers, pizza and salads, about $12-20
- Yavapai Lodge Restaurant · Cafeteria-style meals near Market Plaza, about $12-20
- We Cook Pizza & Pasta · Big pizzas and a salad bar in Tusayan, a whole pie about $25-35
Museums in Grand Canyon Village
- Kolb Studio · Free art and history shows in the brothers' house on the rim
- Yavapai Geology Museum · The relief model and rock layers explained; free
- Verkamp's Visitor Center · Village history in the old curio shop; free
- Tusayan Museum · Pottery and tools of the canyon's native peoples beside the ruin; free
- Hopi House · Kachina dolls, pottery and jewellery; look before you buy
Nature and day trips near Grand Canyon Village
- Ooh Aah Point · About 1.5 km down the South Kaibab Trail; allow twice as long coming back up
- Shoshone Point · Quiet forest walk to an unsigned point; park at the dirt pull-off
- Pipe Creek Vista · A quieter rim viewpoint between the village and Yaki Point
- Navajo Point · Next to Desert View, the highest viewpoint on the South Rim
- Lipan Point · Wide river view; come for sunrise
Things to do in Grand Canyon Village with kids
- Grand Canyon Visitor Center · Pick up the free Junior Ranger booklet; kids earn a badge
- Trail of Time · Bronze markers every metre, a million years each, with real rocks along the way
- Grand Canyon IMAX Theater · The canyon on a giant screen in Tusayan; good on a hot afternoon
- Grand Canyon Depot · Watch the train from Williams pull in late morning
- Bright Angel Fountain · Ice cream reward at the end of the Rim Trail
Where to eat in Grand Canyon Village
- El Tovar Dining Room · The grand old dining room; book ahead, mains about $30-50
- Arizona Steakhouse · Steaks and southwestern dishes with windows on the rim, about $25-45
- Big E Steakhouse & Saloon · Steaks and burgers in Tusayan, about $20-40
- Plaza Bonita · Mexican plates in Tusayan, about $15-25
- Harvey House Café · A simpler dinner in the village without booking
Frequently asked questions about Grand Canyon Village
What is there to see in Grand Canyon Village?
The top sights in Grand Canyon Village are El Tovar Hotel, Hopi House and Kolb Studio. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Grand Canyon Village?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Grand Canyon Village without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Grand Canyon Village?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Grand Canyon Village, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Hermit Road, the west rim.
How do you get to Grand Canyon Village and get around?
The main ways are Grand Canyon Depot, Grand Canyon Visitor Center shuttles and Grand Canyon National Park Airport. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Grand Canyon Village, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Grand Canyon Village that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Grand Canyon Village for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.