Grand Canyon and Ancient Arizona

customized and comfortable

The Grand Canyon is the Hopi place of emergence. The views come to life as you hear of Native people's relation to this wonder of creation and the colorful American history. Learn of the geological Grand Staircase which reveals about one-third of the earth's evolution and the natural history of this Colorado Plateau. We'll see a corner of the Navajo Reservation and a historical trading post, see quaking aspens on the shoulder of the San Francisco Peaks. This customized van journey takes you to the best viewing places so you can just relax and enjoy the grandeur. Walk through the historical district including the Hopi House modeled after prehistoric Hopi pueblo. Feel what is is like to be below the rim as you walk a ways down on legendary mule trails down a ways into the Canyon. Meet local Navajo artists on their Reservation at a tribal canyon overlook park, stop at an historical trading post. Our scenic loop takes us near the majestic San Francisco Peaks with quaking aspens and by other volcanic peaks. Customized journey 10 hours, South Rim loop beginning from Sedona or Flagstaff $160 plus tax per person (4 person min.) Lunch options (not included): historic hotel on the South Rim or bring picnic to eat a a rim overlook From May to October consider a longer journey to include the more remote North Rim for less crowded and more personal experiences of the Canyon.     option 2: add prehistoric great house ruin with earth-breathing hole and Sunset Crater volcanic field 12 hours $190 plus tax per person (4 person min.)

Words by Zane Grey in Call of the Canyon in 1924 still speak to us today:

"And at last Carley realized that sun and light and stars and noon and night and shade, all working in incesssantly and mutably over shapes and lines and angles and surfaces too numerous and too great for the sight of man to hold, made an ever-changing spectacle of supreme beauty and coloful grandeur.....The superficialities of the world shrunk to their proper significance. stronger than the recorded deeds of saints, stronger than the eloquence of the gifted uplifters of men, stronger than any words every written, was the grand, brooding, sculptured aspect of nature."

"But just to breathe that untainted air, just to see once the boundless open of colored sand and rock--to realize what the freedom of eagles meant would not that have helped anyone? And with the thought there came to Carley's quickened and struggling mind a conception of freedom. She had not yet watched eagles, but she now gazed out into their domain. What then must be the effect of such environment on people whom it encompassed? The idea stunned Carley. Would such people grow in proportion to the nature with which they were in conflict? Hereditary influence could not be comparable to such environment in the shaping of character."

 

Canyonlands Spectacular Journey Itineraries:

2 Days
North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon, Prehistoric Cliff Dwelling, Navajo lands, Vermillion Cliffs, Dinsaur footprints 3 Days
South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly, Navajo lands & culture

4 Days
North or South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Lake Powell boat cruise in Glen Canyon to Rainbow Bridge Natural Arch, Navajo lands6 Days
North or South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Lake Powell boat cruise in Glen Canyon to Rainbow Bridge Natural Arch, Navajo lands;
Utah's Zion and Bryce Canyons, hot springs along the Virgin River8 Days

Add to 6 day trip a loop deeper into Utah's color country: Capital Reef, Escalante Canyon, Valley of the Gods

Other special options: 
Colorado River raft trip on Hualapai Indian lands in the Western Grand Canyon
or from Page to Lee's Ferry

last update May 24, 2008