Things to do at the South Rim

8 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

The South Rim is the part of Grand Canyon National Park that is open 24 hours a day, all year. Most visitors, the National Park Service notes, see the canyon from their car at the overlooks along the rim, and the viewpoints, trails, museums and shuttle buses are covered by the entrance fee. This page sorts what there is to do, from the free basics to the tours you book, and links to our detailed pages.

Viewpoints along the rim

Mather Point, a short walk from the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, is where most people see the canyon first. A little further west, the Yavapai Geology Museum sits on the rim with large picture windows and displays on the rock layers, open daily from 8 am to 6 pm. West of the Village, Hermit Road runs 7 miles to Hermits Rest with nine overlooks, among them Hopi, Mohave and Pima Points; from 1 March to 30 November 2026 it is served by the free red shuttle instead of private cars.

East of the Village, Desert View Drive is the only scenic road on the South Rim open to private vehicles all year. It runs 23 miles past Grandview Point, Moran Point and Navajo Point, the highest overlook on the South Rim, to Desert View. There stands the Watchtower, a 70-foot stone tower built in 1932 by the architect Mary Colter, with murals by the Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. Lipan Point on the same road is closed until 23 December 2026, and the trading post, market and deli at Desert View are closed for the winter. See our pages on the viewpoints, Hermit Road and the Desert View Watchtower.

Walking the rim

The Rim Trail stretches about 13 miles from the South Kaibab Trailhead to Hermits Rest, mostly paved and mostly level, and many shuttle stops lie along it, so you can walk a section and ride back. Between Yavapai and the Village it doubles as the Trail of Time, where each metre stands for a million years of the canyon’s geological history, with rock samples you can touch. Keep at least six feet (2 m) from the edge. Details are on our page about the Rim Trail.

Below the rim

The Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails lead from the rim into the canyon. A hike to the river and back is a two-day trip, and Phantom Ranch at the bottom has been closed since the flood with no reopening date. Day hikes on the upper sections are possible, but the water at the resthouses below the rim is off for the winter, and the Park Service warns that rescue in the inner canyon may be delayed and is not guaranteed. In summer it strongly discourages hiking below the rim between 10 am and 4 pm. Read our page on Bright Angel and South Kaibab, or go with a guide on one of the guided hikes.

The Canyon Vistas mule ride stays on the rim: four miles in about three hours, two of them in the saddle, starting from a barn about five miles east of the Village with a bus transfer. Riders must be at least nine years old and 57 inches (145 cm) tall, weigh under 225 lb fully dressed and understand fluent English. Rides can be booked up to 15 months ahead with Grand Canyon Lodges, and they fill early; the overnight rides to Phantom Ranch are cancelled through February 2027.

From the air

Helicopters and small planes leave from Grand Canyon National Park Airport in Tusayan, outside the park; they do not land in the canyon. The helicopter flights last 25 to 50 minutes and the airplane flight about 40. A reviewer of Maverick’s 45-minute flight called it a three-dimensional overview of the canyon, another found it perfect but expensive, and one flight booked for March was cancelled for snow. Compare the options on our pages about helicopter tours and airplane tours.

Guided tours on the ground

From Tusayan, Hummer, Pink Jeep and safari tours drive you to viewpoints along the rim in two to four hours, and one Pink Jeep tour follows dirt roads through the forest to the Grandview Lookout Tower. Reviewers like the guides but often point out that the stops are ones you could reach by car or shuttle yourself. Our page on Jeep and Hummer tours compares them, and tours from Tusayan and the Village covers the guided drives that start in the park.

The Grand Canyon Railway runs daily from Williams to the depot in Grand Canyon Village, 2 hours 15 minutes each way, with more than three hours at the canyon. For evening light, our page on sunset and sunrise lists the viewpoints and the tours that stay until dark.

Day trips from further away

If you are staying in Las Vegas, Sedona or Phoenix, a guided day saves the long drive: the South Rim is 278 miles from Las Vegas, 119 from Sedona and 231 from Phoenix by road. The coach tour from Las Vegas gives you about three hours around Mather Point and the Trail of Time in a 14-hour day; tours from Sedona come in through Desert View, and those from Phoenix stop in Sedona on the way. See tours from Las Vegas, tours from Sedona and Flagstaff and tours from Phoenix and Scottsdale.

Rangers, museums and condors

Ranger programmes run through the day; times and topics are posted on the park’s digital calendar and on signs at the information desks. Children can pick up a Junior Ranger booklet at the visitor centres, complete activities for their age group (from 4 to 7, 8 to 10, and 11 and up) and receive a badge in the park. The Grand Canyon Visitor Center shows two 24-minute films, and Kolb Studio and Verkamp’s Visitor Center in the Village are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm. California condors are sometimes seen on the cliffs below the Village rim in the late afternoon, and rangers give condor talks at Lookout Studio, roughly from March to October. More for families on our page about the South Rim with kids.

In Tusayan, outside the park, the Grand Canyon Visitor Center IMAX shows “Grand Canyon: Rivers of Time” on a screen six storeys high, at half past the hour. Several Pink Jeep tours include a ticket.

The nonresident fee

Each non-US resident aged 16 and older who visits Grand Canyon National Park pays a $100 nonresident fee on top of the entrance fee, whether they arrive by car or on a commercial tour; the $250 non-resident annual pass covers it instead. Children aged 15 and under pay neither. Tour operators collect it in different ways, and Papillon and Grand Canyon Airlines list no park fee for their flights without a Hummer tour. Our page on entrance fees and passes explains who pays what.