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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

The Grand Canyon is one of the most popular destinations on earth, due to the fact that the sheer magnitude of the space between the canyon walls is unlike anything that most people have ever witnessed. The Grand Canyon is world renowned as potentially the most magnificent view on earth, and as a result there are an unbelievable amount of travelers to the location every year. The Grand Canyon is remote, located near Page AZ and ultimately accessible only by car or bus. This means that you are either going to have to drive there from your home directly, or fly into a location that can be used as a starting point for your driving trip. The starting point of choice for most travelers who are destined to see the Grand Canyon is Las Vegas. Las Vegas makes the most logical sense for the beginning of your Grand Canyon tour, simply because Las Vegas itself is appropriately positioned in the middle of the longest stretches of desert between occupied areas. Las Vegas was born as a stopover town where you could reload with supplies and rest before continuing on your journey to the destination you were traveling to, but once air traffic allowed you to fly into Las Vegas from other places, then it made more sense to use as the starting point in order to cut drive time down. In addition to this convenience, Las Vegas is also built as a tourist location so there are ample restaurants and hotels to choose from while you are here. Most people touring the Grand Canyon will allocate a few extra days to visit Las Vegas while they are here, combining the vacation into two parts. Once you have landed in Las Vegas, you have to decide if you are going to

There are important differences between areas of the Grand Canyon that it is critical you understand before you pay money for a Grand Canyon tour. There has been a surge recently of complaints from tourists who feel as though they were sold something that they were not expecting when they booked tours through several Las Vegas tour companies. These companies were offering "tours of the Grand Canyon" but not explaining that the area of the Grand Canyon that they were being transported to was not the national park area. Instead, they are taken to the "west rim" which is an area controlled by the Navajo Indian tribe. While it might not seem like a big deal, when visitors notice that this area of the Grand Canyon does not look as spectacular as pictures they had seen before they realize that not only are they not seeing the area they expected but they probably do not have the time now to correct their mistake. It is important to ask the company providing your tour if you are visiting the "south rim" or the west rim." The "west rim of the Grand Canyon" is the area of land controlled by Navajo Nation that contains the Grand Canyon and is located about 2 hours from Las Vegas. It is not very well developed, and offers a single tourist attraction in the form of a glass walking bridge suspended from the canyon walls. Many naturalists have strong opinions about this man-made item spoiling the view of the canyon itself, but because this is private property controlled by Navajo Nation there is no protection against development. The bridge was created to give people a reason to visit this area instead of the actual national park area. It is approached much more in line with what

There are multiple places that you can view the Grand Canyon. Many people think that the Grand Canyon is only the area inside of the national park, but this is actually not true. The Grand Canyon itself is many miles long and stretches for large amounts of space outside of the protected area that is located near Page AZ. The real difference is that the most spectacular views and impressive scenery is within the protected space, and if you are looking to just see a smaller version of the dramatic canyon walls there are many alternative areas to visit. The specific area of the national park was created by judging the total area of the canyon that was controlled by the United States, then choosing the best area for tourists to visit. There are areas of the Grand Canyon that are not controlled by the US government, and instead are controlled by Navajo Nation. Naturally, these areas will have different rules regarding visitation and development. The difference between the main viewing areas in 2019 is the south rim or the west rim. The south rim is the traditional viewing point that was designated by the US government within the national park. It is protected from development, and has been outfitted with both convenience elements to make visitation to the area easy, as well as developed for tourist adventures. This means there is a wealth of things to do once you are in the area, ranging from donkey and helicopter rides to hiking and photography. Camping is also permitted within the national park area. The west rim is a more recent development. Navajo Nation installed a glass walking bridge into the canyon wall within their area in order to create a tourist attraction. This area is not protected from development so

If you are coming to Las Vegas and are planning at trip to the Grand Canyon while you are here, make sure that you end up booking a tour of the correct Grand Canyon. Most people are probably confused by that statement, thinking that there are more than one Grand Canyon. While it is certainly not true that there are multiple canyons known as "The Grand Canyon," there are multiple viewing points of the same Grand Canyon. You need to be careful when booking your tour that you are going to the one that offers the views that you are looking for. For many years this was not an issue, but over the course of the last 10 years it has become problematic, as a marketing campaign has begun to steer people to an area they might not have expected. We are talking about the differences between the Grand Canyon South Rim and the Grand Canyon West Rim. Traditional Grand Canyon tours go to the south rim, the area that has been designated as a national park by the US government. It enjoys a protected status and offers many things to do including hiking, rafting, helicopter rides and so forth. This area has been developed for tourist comfort and kept in it's natural state through protection measures, assuring that everyone who visits has an enjoyable experience. Tours of the Grand Canyon national park will provide you with the views of the canyon that you have seen in books and magazines over the years. The Grand Canyon west rim is an area of the Grand Canyon that is under the control of the Navajo Indian Tribe. This area is not protected against development, and as an attempt to increase tourist traffic to their area the tribe decided to build a glass

If you are planning to be in Las Vegas in the future and would like to use the trip as a starting point for a great national parks tour, we urge you to check out our Zion, Bryce and Monument Valley tour. This is a special tour and our most popular offering, which uses your Las Vegas vacation as the starting point for an adventure that will take you through the scenic and beautiful national parks that are within driving distance of the city. You literally do not have to do anything but bring your sleeping bag and we will take care of all the other details. We will pick you up at your hotel room or a designated area that we announce, and will assign a tour guide to you that is familiar with all of the areas that you will be touring. Ours are not the same types of tours that other companies give, where you just sit on a bus while the driver plays an informational DVD and you take pictures through the windows. Ours are considered "adventure tours" which basically means that we encourage our guests to get out and explore the areas we tour. We are going to get you there and provide you with the basic information you need,a s well as guiding you on hikes and other activities. How you spend the rest of your time in the location is up to you to decide. If you do not want to hike and move around too much, you are free to simply stroll and take pictures. If you really wanted to have an active time exploring and learning, that is available as well. Our three day tour is the most popular tour that we have for southwestern national parks. This is because it

If you are a fan of the outdoors, then you would probably enjoy exploration of some of the national parks and protected areas of our American southwest. Some of the most striking areas on earth are found in this region, ranging from the landscapes of Zion National Park to the hoodoos in Bryce or the incredible sand walls of Antelope Canyon. Of course the Grand Canyon is also one of the most recognizable places on earth due to it's absolutely magnificent views. All of these are located within a half-day drive of Las Vegas, and because of this fact it is a good idea to plan a little extra time out of your Las Vegas vacation to visit them. After all, you have already come this far and may never get another opportunity to see these kinds of places, so it only makes sense not to miss the opportunity. Las Vegas itself is actually a perfectly positioned starting point for southwestern national park tours. The city itself started as a stopover point for those traveling across the desert on their way to California. Because of it's location roughly half way across the path through the desert that was taken during the silver and gold rushes, the town became the point in the desert crossing where you could stop and reload with supplies, as well as have a meal and rest before continuing your journey. Only after years of promoting the ability to find activities like gambling that were not legal elsewhere did Las Vegas become a destination itself. Previous to that point, it was merely a conveniently placed town that people passed through. One of the interesting things that remained intact about Las Vegas even after it changed and evolved over the years was it's strategic location in proximity to

Generally our most popular tours that visit the Grand Canyon are multi-day adventures that will also visit other national parks in the area. We will generally approach it this way because the amount of time that it takes to drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon is relatively significant (roughly 4.5 hours) and will take a good portion of your day. When you travel that much of a distance to just get to the park entrance, it doesn't leave you a lot of time for exploration before the sun starts to go down. We prefer to have the Grand Canyon be a stop on one of our multi-park tours because we can minimize the driving time on any one day by traveling to the nearest park first, then on to the next one after that. Because the national parks are generally closer to each other than to the city, we find that our guests have a more interesting experience, and also get to see multiple national parks which are all unique in their own way. Our Grand Canyon tours will also visit Zion Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Monument Valley. Longer tours will also visit areas like Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell. We were called upon by our guests to provide a tour product that would visit the Grand Canyon alone, due to the fact that so many tourists in Las Vegas want to visit the canyon, but don't have enough time to spend three days doing it. For them, we have created our Grand Canyon overnight tour, which travels to and from the Grand Canyon on two different days, allowing a full day of exploration split between two consecutive days. This tour will also provide the unique experience of camping in the Grand Canyon overnight, which most tourists do