California Condors in Grand Canyon National Park – DVD Bonus
By
Yellowstone is the worlds first national park and one of the largest in the contiguous United States. Sprawling across volcanic plateaus in the northwest corner of Wyoming, Yellowstone contains more than 2 million acres of steaming geysers, crystalline lakes, thundering waterfalls, and panoramic vistas.
Home to a remarkable diversity of mammals, birds and fish, it is one of the worlds foremost sanctuaries. Here every season brings special wonders and each of the parks five regions offers you its own experience.
For convenience purposes, Xanterra divides the park into different regions, or countries. Mammoth Country has fascinating thermal are and is home to elk, bison, and has an abundance of hot springs that have formed travertine terraces.
Geyser Country is home to Old Faithful, the worlds most famous geyser as well as other geysers and fumaroles, mud pots, and hot springs.
Lake Country is the domain of the native cutthroat trout, osprey, bald eagles, moose, bison, and bear which wander the coast of cold Yellowstone Lake.
Canyon Country features the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Hayden Valley and Lowe falls which is almost twice as high as Niagara Falls. This are houses elk, bison, and bear.
Roosevelt Country revisits the Old West, where visitors can see a stage coach forge a stream, deer, bison, or wolves in Lamar Valley.
Xanterra is the company that runs just about everything in the park. If you want to stay at one of the hotels, lodges, or cabins in the park you have to go through them. They also handle all the restaurants, general stores, and all other commercial activity in the park.
We took a Xanterra tour called Yellowstone in a Day. And the tour was well worth it. Not only was the guide very knowledgeable but the tour covered all the highlights on the park. Amazingly it also gave us enough time as each stop to fully see every stop.
The best place to stay when you go to Yellowstone, unless you are camping, is in Gardiner at the North Entrance of the park. You can get picked up for you tour here and it is the most convenient entrance and exit of the park.
We elected to stay in the park one night at the Yellowstone Hotel. While it was nice staying in the park, the hotel is very old and needs a lot of updating. We could actually hear every footstep of the people above us. Needless to say we did not sleep well.
When you leave the park, if you can, you should take the Northeast exit and go over Bear Pass. This road takes you to the main highway but after you go though the mountains and through some very, very beautiful scenery. Taking this road in the winter is not advisable.
The park is open all year round, but in the winter many roads might be closed due to snow.
If you want to see bison/buffalo this is the park to do it. We actually got luck and saw them hanging around the road. At night as we were driving to the hotel, they decided to start crossing the road right in front of us. We had to wait several minutes as they crossed. These huge animals are really scary to see so close up. But it was an awesome adventure.
Old Faithful is also a sight to see. It blows its top every 90 minutes or so. You can check at the visitor center when the next eruption will be. It is kind of like the fountains at Bellagio in Las Vegas but without the music, lights, and the water only goes in one direction.
The Hot Springs are really beautiful to see. And it is amazing to see the animals living in such climates. If you get real lucky you might see a bear or two.
Most of the park is inaccessible to cars since it is mostly forest and mountains.
Everyone in the family will get a kick out of this park.
Watch the video related to Grand Canyon National Park
This is a bonus feature from Grand Canyon for Kids National Park DVD and is available on location and from finleyholiday.com. Regarded as one of the rarest birds in the world, the California condor is the largest land bird in North America with a wingspan of over 9 feet and weighing up to 22 pounds. Once nearly extinct, the national park service, the Perigrine Fund and others have worked to re-establish condors in the wild.
Help answer the question aboutGrand Canyon National Park
how much cost for mule ride at Grand Canyon national park?
Related posts:
9 Comments
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
The easist section of the park to visit for handicapped visitors is the South Rim area north of Flagstaff (which is the most developed). Even here though, there will be some challenges because of the rough and uneven terrain and because many of the historic buildings were not designed for wheelchair access.
Handicap facilities and services are outlined in a document on the Grand Canyon National Park website (see link below). The most important thing to note is that most of the shuttles in the park are not wheelchair accessible, but special shuttle arrangements can be made if you call in advance (this is covered in the link below).
Generally speaking, the area around the lodges has fairly level paved trails running along the rim which would be fairly easy to navigate in a wheelchair and still provide good views. The drive-up overlooks at Yavapai and Mather points also have decent viewing areas that could be reached by wheelchair (although both involve going up some slopes). A particularly nice view could be had from the Yavapai Observation Station – a little geology exhibit and viewing room built right on the edge of the rim with large bay windows.
For lodging, Maswik and Yavapai Lodges are probably the most wheelchair accessible and have the best parking. All of the major eating places are also wheelchair accessible.
Note that one possible challenge is that there are a lot of little ups and downs in the lay of the land around the overlooks and lodges. Most of them are not very steep and all (that I can think of) can be reached by going up a slope, ramp or other incline without requiring steps, but the lodge area is definitely not a perfectly flat plain.
One other little note… the South Rim is at 7000 feet elevation and can have snow and icy patches on the ground well into April which can make it hard for everybody to negoiate the paths and walkways.
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
The South Rim and North Rim of the canyon are two very different places and because there are no bridges across the Grand Canyon it is a long 5-hour drive around to get from one to the other.
The South Rim of the canyon is more developed (more lodges, stores and overlooks) and is easier to reach because it is nearer to Phoenix and I-40. The North Rim has only one lodge and there are no major cities nearby (even the small towns of Fredonia and Kanab are a good 1.5 hours away). Because the North Rim is a 1000 feet higher in elevation, it is cooler in summer and has more pine trees. However, for the same reasons (colder and less developed), it is closed from mid-October to mid-May. So unless you are planning on going during summer, the South Rim is your only option.
As far as RVs and camping goes. Both the North Rim and the South Rim have large nice car-camping campgrounds with designated spots, picnic tables and bathrooms. If your RV is small enough to fit in a regular spot, than you could go there. However, if it is a large RV that needs a true full-size RV spot and hookups than your only option is going to be the South Rim where they do have a full size trailer park where visitors can rent a space (see links below).
As for which rim is better to visit (aside from RV options), that sort of depends on your interests and when you are visiting. I personally greatly prefer the North Rim during the summer because it is cooler and much more peaceful, while the South Rim can be a zoo between Memorial Day and Labor Day with difficult parking and crowded attractions. However, if you are going outside of summer, need to a full RV hook-up or want more shops and attractions than the South Rim is your best bet.
Note that you can make reservations for both the campground and trailer village and it is a good idea to do so well in advance as getting last minute spots (especially as summer gets closer) is difficult.
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
Tusayan, AZ is just south of the park enterance. There are a few hotels there. Check out Williams, AZ and Flagstaff, AZ as well. There is lodging for almost every budget in eithe of those 2 towns.
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
I know it is cold there right now! But, the temperatures can vary quite a bit from the rim to the bottom of the canyon.
From the National Park Service website http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/weather-condition.htm:
With an elevation spanning from around 2000 feet to over 8000 feet (760-2440m), the Grand Canyon area experiences a variety of weather conditions. This weather variety includes cold winters and mild pleasant summers, moderate humidity, and considerable diurnal temperature changes at the higher elevations, with hot and drier summers at the bottom of the Grand Canyon along with cool damp winters. Summer thunderstorms and winter snowfall adds to the weather variety in this region.
Spring
By mid-April, winter weather usually begins to break, and although snow is not uncommon in May, warm spells become more frequent. The winter cold gives way to a warming and pleasant spring period with average high temperatures gradually rising from the 50s and 60s (10-21°C) in April through the 70s to 80s (21-32°C) by June along the Rim, and from the 80s (27-32°C) in April to near 105 (41°C) by June along the river. Low temperatures will typically fall below freezing on the Rim in April and May and warm into the 40s (4-9°C) by June, with low temperatures from the 50s (10-15°C) in April to the 70s (21-26°C) by June along the river. Spring is typically breezy to windy with winds occasionally gusting over 40 mph (18 m/s) and dry with little precipitation occurring in May and early June. Due to the very dry airmass typical of the late spring months, late season frosts and freezes are still a possibility, with sub freezing temperatures being recorded as late as July at the North Rim. Snowfall has been reported as late as the middle of June.
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
I am unsure of what you mean by sources so I will answer in two different ways.
The natural source of the Grand Canyon is the Colorado River. In the prehistoric past, the Colorado River had become a wide, slow river similar to the Mississippi. It flowed across a flat plain down to the Gulf of California. A geologic uplift occurred and the Colorado's windy course began to cut down into the new plateau creating the deep, winding Grand Canyon.
The historic source of the Grand Canyon National Park dates back to 1848 when the Grand Canyon became a U.S. territory at the end of the Mexican American War. In 1857, the U.S Military traveled up the Colorado from the Gulf of California to the western reaches of the Grand Canyon. In 1869, the Powell Expedition mapped the depths of the Canyon.
Between 1869 and 1906, the Canyon was exploited as a commercial enterprise by the railroads. In 1906, portions were set aside as a game reserve followed by the creation of the Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908. On Feb. 26, 1919, Woodrow Wilson signed the law that created the Grand Canyon National Park.
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
Phoenix is the best price wise. Flagstaff is the closest but it might be more expensive. Phoenix is about 4 hrs away. Flagstaff is about 1-1/2 hrs away.
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
Big horn Sheep, condors, and reptiles…go to the link for more info…then you can research their adaptations by googling them
ex: "big horn sheep adaptations" etc.
Good luck!
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
Great answers so far, I might add-
http://www.bobspixels.com/kaibab.org/
July 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am
Yes, there are roads all over both of those parks. I have driven them.