"Where is the Grand Canyon?" "…Are You Sure About That?"
Driving Tips, Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Maps Add commentsHey everybody what’s up? Hope you’re looking forward to Thanksgiving – we sure are! Sorry to be late with my Monday post, but I actually spent a good deal of time on the phone today convincing someone that really, honest and for true, the Grand Canyon is NOT in Colorado. Yes, the Colorado River runs through the Grand Canyon, but the Grand Canyon itself is in Northern Arizona. In Arizona…not Oklahoma… But this particular lady was dead-set sure that she’d heard that the Grand Canyon was in Colorado. I finally had to say something along the lines of “listen, I’m practically sitting on the edge of it and if I’m in Colorado I’ve got some serious back taxes to pay!”
I’ll give the lady this – she was close! I’ve seen folks miss the mark entirely on the Grand Canyon’s location. Once upon a time, back in the day (here I go again…), there was a wall in the reservations office at the Grand Canyon where clerks put misaddressed envelopes. This 
was BITD when people paid for their hotel reservations by check… y’know… paper? This wall had envelopes addressed to “Grand Rapids, Michigan,” “Grand Falls, Iowa,” and even “Keystone, SD.” It couldn’t figure out how that one came about, but someone kindly explained it to me: someone thought the Grand Canyon was in the neighborhood of Mt. Rushmore!
Folks, we’re not laughing at you, we’re laughing with you. The Grand Canyon area was one of the last in the country to be properly mapped, and to this day, the Grand Canyon can still be a bit hard to find, even with the advances in online mapping sites. If you’re encountering this same frustration, write this down: for Grand Canyon South Rim, use Zip Code “86023″ or “Grand Canyon AZ.” Another way to do it is to use the airport locator code for Grand Canyon National Park Airport, which is “GCN.” OR…. just hit the “maps” section of our website for some excellent area maps, including the Las Vegas Grand Canyon drive and the drive from the Phoenix area.
Grand Canyon North Rim I’ve found is a bit trickier, for example, on a certain mapping site (that we all know and love), if you put in “Grand Canyon North Rim,” it’ll point to what I assume is Hualapai Hilltop, somewhere around Havasu Canyon - which is not even close. The location “Grand Canyon Hwy, North Rim, AZ” will put you closer to where you need to be. Me, I just put in “Jacob Lake, AZ,” which comes up fine, and then the North Rim side of the park is another 45 miles from there. The reason I mention this is ’cause the North Rim highway is still open. All the facilities inside the park are closed, but Jacob Lake has a nice diner, or take a tip from GrandCanyon.com reservationist Leah V. and stop for a meal at “The Cliff” restaurant at Cliff Dweller’s Lodge on your way there or back. It’s about 90 minutes from the North Rim.
Have a great day everybody!
Alley Kaye 
P.S. Want to know what other restaurants we like around here? Order your special advance copy of our latest “work in progress,” the Dining Edition of “The Insider’s Guide to Grand Canyon!” Drop me a line at alleyk@grandcanyon.com
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January 17th, 2007 at 9:59 am
[...] Speaking of articles, last week, I posted an article on ArticleFeeder.com that addresses the lingering difficulty of locating the Grand Canyon and gives a complete list of my personal favorite tips and tricks to mapping the Grand Canyon accurately. So am I gonna give ‘em all out here, too? Actually, I already have. Several times in fact. If this sort of info is what you need right now, check out the article on Article Feeder.com under the “Travel and Leisure” section, or click here and you’ll get right to it. Heck, if you just need a Grand Canyon map, there’s a ton of ‘em on our maps page. If you want the Grand Canyon Village map, we’ve got that. Want a map of Northern Arizona? We’ve got that. Las Vegas Strip? Ditto. Downtown Phoenix? Got it. [...]