Wheel Chair Accessible Trails at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon National Park is a huge park! The Grand Canyon is more than 270 miles long and we were not sure where to start our visit to this world famous site.

 We spent the night at Sedona and headed north towards Flagstaff - a town closest to the Grand Canyon. The drive from Sedona to Flagstaff was more than an hour and by the time we got to the National Geographic Visitor Centre, it was around 12p.m.

Before we started our hike, we wanted to learn more about the history of the Grand Canyon.  We were in time to catch the 30 minute IMAX show at the Visitor Centre. The IMAX film gave us a good account of the history and discovery of the mountains plus some magnificent scenery.

The beauty and enormity of the Grand Canyon is beyond description!

There are a number of Visitor Centres throughout the national park and they give out very helpful information to tourists and hikers.

Since the National Park is so big, there are many activities and trails that cater to all walking abilities and time schedules. As we had only half a day, we chose to start at Mather Point, the most popular lookout ( also wheel chair accessible! My mother would really enjoy walking this trail knowing that she has the option of not walking the entire trail and can rest in her wheelchair if she wants to ! )

Many opportunities for pictures at the Grand Canyon

From the Visitor Centre to Mather Point was only about a ten to fifteen minutes walk, and easy to do for everyone, including wheel chair bound people.This lookout point allows tourists/ walkers to have an excellent view of the canyon. When I first got to the railing of the lookout point and looked down to the canyon, my feet had a tingling sensation due to the height.

With my camera, I could only capture a mere fraction of the beauty and magnificent scenery of the Grand Canyon

We were 7118 feet high above and looking down  right at the edge of this deep canyon. Wow! The feeling of awe swept over me. How small I am compared to this majestic landscape!

Reaching the edge of Grand Canyon!

We continued our walk which was not strenuous at all as the trail was well marked,  smooth and well paved and maintained.

 ( Again, the trail was wheel chair accessible, doable for people in wheelchair. I kept thinking my 86 year old mom who would have really enioyed this spectacular scenery.)

Hiking on the rugged part of the Canyon trail

Some younger folks and the young at heart took up the challenge and attempted the more rugged  terrain and stepped close to the edge of some part of the trail in order to get some good shot of themselves and the majestic canyon.

Stan and I did that too! I kept saying to ourselves, if we were able to reach the summit of Mt. Fuji, we were able to hike some rugged hike.  We did and thank God we did not slip and hurt ourselves.

Our second stop was the Yavapai Point and the Geology Museum. This lookout point was special because it was selected for its best view and most representative of the Grand Canyon. There were many opportunities for picture taking at this lookout. But pictures and words could not do justice to this breathtaking, spectacular grand scenery!  The scenery opened in front of our eyes in 360 degrees! We tried to capture the grandeur and enormity of the Grand Canyon with our camera but to no avail.

We were glad that we were here to see and experience the magnificence and the scale of this natural wonder and indescribable beauty! 

 Wheel chair accessible  trails

We met John, an English tourist from U.K. As we walked on the Trail of Time, between Yavapai and Verkamp's Visitor Centre, we had a very interesting conversation and exchange about the trips we did and the places we had visited. It is great meeting other travelers and learn from each other!

By the time we reached  the Grand Canyon Village, it was well past 5:30p.m., therefore we did not have much time to explore the village. Fortunately,  there were shuttle buses throughout the park and we could  take the shuttle bus to where we parked our car. That was a bonus! ( Unlike Mt Fuji where we spent 6 hours hiking up and then had to hike back down ourselves in the dark!)

In fact, I liked the idea of the shuttle bus picking up passengers along the route and hikers could get on and off at any point where there were bus stops.

It was a fantastic trip to the Canyon! We were glad that no only did we visit this famous landmark, but we actually hiked on a section of the trail and took many lovely pictures of the Canyon!

R.T.
Grand Canyon, Arizona