Into the Grand Canyon

Wouldn't it be great just to drive down into the Grand Canyon?

I suspect the reason the National Park Service hasn't built roads down into the Grand Canyon (besides the extraordinary cost financially and environmentally) is that it would invite the average person down.  That would magnify the dangers exponentially.  Can you imagine being down in the Canyon when this cloud burst opened up?

Even so, back in the 1960's a highway map published by the American Automobile Association (AAA) represented hiking trails as highways and people came from all over looking for a way to drive in!

But again I say, you don't have to take but a few steps from your car to the rim's edge to make the trip well worth your while.  With a pair of average binoculars you will even be able to see at least five famous rapids of the Colorado River:  Hermit, Granite, Hance, Unkar and Lava Falls.  Hermit Rapid sports some of the largest waves on the river - up to 15 feet! - but they're not as chaotic as Granite Rapids.  If you're "scoping" out Unkar Rapids be sure to look for rafts tied up to the shoreline.  Their occupants are probably checking out the Ancestral Puebloan ruins on the Delta there where the ancients farmed.  (Farming down inside the Grand Canyon.  Can you imagine?!)

From the North Rim, if you go west for a couple of hours, you have a chance to see Lava Falls Rapids which is one of the most famous of the Colorado's canyon-run rapids.  Even 30-foot motorized rafts have flipped over in this cauldron of hydraulics!  They say that there are only two kinds of river guides in the Grand Canyon:  those who have already been flipped by the river, and those who are going to be flipped.  And you only have to pay about a thousand dollars a person for the privilege!