East Rim Viewpoint

— When the Grand Canyon NP name comes up in photos and other media, there is often talk about the South Rim and North Rim. When we last visited the North Rim, we hiked some new trails as well as other favorites. One of the new areas and trails we explored was the East Rim Viewpoint trail.

The photo above is at the East Rim viewpoint. Way out near the horizon, you can see that dark canyon area. Besides the canyon view itself, it is noteworthy to mention that what you see between where I made the photo and the canyon rim is the Saddle Mountain Wilderness. This entire area where we were hiking is part of the Kaibab National Forest.

One of the trails we hiked while in the area was a section of the Arizona Trail, which runs from Utah to Mexico for nearly 800 miles (1,287 km). Getting to the East Rim Viewpoint is easy via a paved road (AZ 67) and a fairly well-maintained gravel road (FR 611) to the parking area. It is not a heavily traveled road and the trail has some picnic benches along the way.