Places close to Grand Canyon

If you have couple of days extra, you can make a day trip to Hoover Dam which is around 4 hrs from Williams. It’s an arch gravity dam on Colorado River on the border of the states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 to 1936. People who visit Las Vegas in Nevada also visit Hoover dam. There are also day tours to Grand Canyon from Las Vegas.

Another day trip from Grand Canyon is to drive to Petrified National Forest Park. This is around 4 hours from Grand Canyon.  Petrified national forest has a scenic drive 28 miles long and is the best way to see the park. There are two sections in the park, the north end has several interesting stops including Painted Desert and a spot to see petroglyphs carved on rocks. The south end has many trails including one where you can see petrified wood.

Winslow, Arizona is on the way to Petrified National Forest Park from Grand Canyon. The city became famous after being mentioned in an Eagles song “Take it easy” and the lyrics goes this way – “Well, I am standing in a corner in Winslow Arizona and such a fine sight to see”. And we being huge fans of Eagles had to visit the city and take a photo with the statue of a guy leaning against a pole at a corner signifying the song 🙂  

If you are staying in Cameron, you can see preserved dinosaur tracks within 30 mins in Tuba City. We even saw T-Rex tracks. There is no way to see the sights on your own since these prints are on Navajo land, who are a tribe of Native Indians. Once you reach the place, you will find several Navajo people waiting to show you around and they expect tips anywhere from 10-30$. Our guide upfront told us she needed 30$ 🙂 The guide will pour water into the tracks which makes it more visible.

  This is a guest post by Rishi Menon and Suchi Menon