Fun things to do in Grand Canyon National Park

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This is still in use, and a number of people come to the park on a train. The ride is from Williams Arizona (60 miles south) to Grand CAnyon. This was built in 1901 by Atchison, Topeka and Santa FE RR which had a newer track coming west and to here then. It wanted to promote tourism to the park, and aligned with Fred Harvey for hotel and eateries. The depot is two story and of original wood made in log cabin style. It is only one of three still remaining. It is used by Amtrak today.
The train operated until 1968, and later revived by a group in 1989 to bring back the railway rides. Cost to rework was $2 million. It carries over 200,000 visitors annually now.
The RR line closed in 1968, but revived in 1989 and now carries over 200,000 passengers annually.

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This is 80 years celebration of the finishing of the lodge. It is not changed at all; maybe some upgrades, and the new lodge that was built over the first in 1937 after a fire in 1932. It totally destroyed the old lodge. The huge wood beams make the inside seem as rustic as it is. Gilbert Stanley Underwood made the back porch area a spectacular view for the guests/tourists. The views never did change, though

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This is the main anchor of where people come and congregate. It gets very clustered around the back door on the trail. Many buses come here and drop off tourists for short stays of 1-2 hours and that brings in another 100-200 at one time. I had a hard time just getting through the crowd to see the hotel. The lodge has an ice cream shop, gifts shops, 2 restaurants, and a history room. The history room is a lot on Fred Harvey era, who had the concessions for food and operated the hotels. In 1935 Mary Colter designed the lodge and Fred Harvey built it.

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These are three sites near the Bright Angel lodge and worth the walk along rim trail to get to see the insides. The Kolb Studio is now a gift shop, was built in 1904 by Ellsworth and emery Kolb. they loved the park and every day, in good weather they took tourists down the Bright Angel trail a way and took photos of them on mule back. They did not work every day, so in the interim, they hiked all around the canyon. Daily, they went down to the canyon floor to process the photos. That takes going down in 4+ hours and getting back up same time. A long day. In 1911, they decided to follow the route of John Wesley Powell and explored the Green and Colorado rivers over 3 month period. They were close to losing their lives more than once. The result was they made a film and showed it for a fee to tourists in the studio, and later on road shows. The Lookout studio was designed by Mary Colter in 1914. Bucky O'Neill cabin is from 1895 and when he was a miner used it for shelter. later he became a judge, politician, and author. The building is the original.

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These have a lot of history form the days of old. Mary Colter designed and helped build Hopi House in 1905 and the theme was patterned after the Hopi name of Orabai, meaning Hopi village. It is two story and chuck full of gifts to buy. The Hopi Indians used to sell the goods themselves here when it first began. The Verkamp Curious was a gift store and from 1905 John and later family ran the store until 2008. It sold out to the park service. It is now the visitor center for main information.

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It was built in 1905 by Charles Whittlessey, and famed architect who also designed other structures for Fred Harvey group. This is a four story hotel and has 79 rooms. It is in the same condition as when built, but some porches were added. The lobby has open faced log supports. There is a gift shop, restaurant, and lobby relaxing area. It is a luxury hotel, and has been that since the Atchison, Topeka, SAnta Fe RR brought people here on its tracks back in early 1900's

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This is a great place to stop and see the exhibit inside the old structure as well as the ruins on the trial outside. There are Ranger programs every 1/2 hour to walk along the trail and explain the history of the Tusayan Pueblo Indians settling here and how they lived over 800 years ago. They had a good environment to find food, hunt, access to water and shelter in this area, and on a flat plateau, with suburb views. The living quarters were about 1 mile form the cliff edge, and in a forest area. Archeologists believe they lived here in late 1100's. These ruins are as they were found in 1930's when excavated.

The Western Bluebird is amongst many different birds that call the Grand Canyon home at some point during the year. Since the canyon has many different terrains, bird variety is unsurprisingly large. The bluebird is in the thrasher family that feeds on insects and berries. This particularly colorful male was putting on quite a show for us at El Torvar one afternoon.