The Grand Canyon offers serene and stunningly beautiful scenery unmatched anywhere else. It can be a bit challenging to keep the kids interested as you explore the park. Surprisingly, my then 7 and 4-year olds learned quite a bit and have fond memories of it.
It is a doable 3-day weekend trip from Southern California to the South Rim. We’ve gone here twice during January/February timeframe for the main reasons of avoiding crowds and the intense heat during the summer. Another reason to visit during winter is that some areas are accessible by cars instead of relying on the park shuttles.
Pre-purchasing your tickets before entering the park is highly recommended to bypass the lines at the gate entrance. We stopped by the Chevron station in Valle, AZ. There was a big store there with souvenirs and snacks. By the entrance was a machine that dispensed tickets — only Visa and Mastercard were accepted.
There was a long line of cars when we went in February at 2PM during President’s Day weekend as we expected. I could only imagine how it would be in the summer and be stuck behind myriad of RVs and cars trying to get in. Those with prepaid tickets could go into lanes 1 or 5. We went straight though Lane 1 with no one in front of us.
Photo Op Tip : Before entering the South Rim entrance, there was a sign on the right hand side of the road for Grand Canyon National Park. They have a few parking spaces and little path to the sign. Have no tripod for the family tourist picture? No worries.. there was a built-in tripod there for the perfect tourist shot.
We went about 5 miles from the South Rim entrance to the Grand Canyon Visitor’s center which are available for informative talks, trip planning around the canyon and to ask rangers questions. There was plenty of parking and clean restrooms. It was within walking distance to Mather Point (your first opportunity to take in the beauty of the canyon).
Grand Canyon Junior Rangers
The US parks have a great and free program for kids that is both educational and fun. It allows them to earn badges while doing activities to remember their trip and learn about each park. Get a Junior Ranger Activity booklet at any Grand Canyon visitor center with activities arranged by age groups.
To earn a Junior ranger award, each child must attend at least one ranger program and complete activities suited to their age. The ranger programs are listed on the park newspaper (The Guide) handed to you at the entrance. We went to the shortest ranger program which is ideal for the younger kids. It lasted 15-20 minutes at Yuvapai Station. It was very informative regarding the geology of the canyon. Kids were able to touch and hold the rocks passed around.
Once they’ve completed their activities, they could go to any station in the park and find a park ranger. The park ranger went through their booklet and awarded them with a certificate and a plastic badge specific to the park. They also get sworn in to protect the park, environment, etc. We saw other kids proudly wear these badges throughout the park as our little ones did.
Animal Sightings
The trip highlight for my kids was seeing a family of female big horn sheep (ewes) with their young ones crossing the road. This caused a bit of traffic as we all stopped to take pictures. Less than a mile later we spotted bull elk with big horns and an elk cow grazing along the side of the road. We spotted a few more on each side of the road on the way to Hermit’s Nest Trail. We were here around 5-5:30 PM so maybe this was the better time to spot them when they came out to eat.
We were told by a park ranger that Hermit’s Nest was a great place to see the sunset. There were parking spaces, picnic benches on one of the ledge by the canyon for easy sunset viewing. It was breathtaking to see the sun disappear behind the canyons and see the varying colors on the canyon as the sun set.
The Eastern Route
We spent our second day at the Grand Canyon exploring the road towards the east entrance called Desert View. There were a lot of look outs and different vantage points of the canyon. This was a less winding drive than the more popular western route.
We passed by the Tusayan Ruins & Museum. Entry was free and restrooms were available. The museum was really small with some books for sale. It also had some artifacts and information about the Pueblo Indians. Outside was a short loop trail that took us to the dwellings, plaza, storage room of the Indians. These may be harder to see during the winter months when they are covered with snow. Kids could learn about the Indians and how they used to live and living off the land by walking through this short trail. Unfortunately for us, some of the more interesting spots were all covered with snow.
We drove a few miles east and went to Desert View where they had stores and a cafe. The most visited place here was the Watchtower. There was also a little area for a picture spot right outside the tower. This view was totally different from what we saw anywhere else. There were areas where the canyon seemed closer and we saw more of the Colorado River. A little mountain in the distance called Cedar Mountain was also visible.
We went into the watchtower to explore this unique structure. The watchtower was a made of stones and looked like it could have been part of the ruins. It was actually a structure re-created and built in 1932 of pre-historic towers found scattered in the Southwest. Inside were various windows in different sizes with incredible views of the canyon.
There were four floors inside the watchtower. The bottom floor was a gift and souvenir shop including Navajo Indian artifacts and pottery. This gift shop was not the most kid-friendly place since there were many breakables.
The second and third floors have Indian Art on the walls, The ceiling had more Indian Art that looked similar to petroglyphs. There were also standing telescopes for looking out into the canyon on the highest floor. It was quite popular with the kids. Go to the top level which had one of the best views for taking pictures. The Grand Canyon offered many attractions for families even during the winter and outside its most visited months.