The craziness of the Grand Canyon can’t really be described in words so I won’t bother trying. You have to go there yourself.
I’ve noticed a phenomenon common to almost all national parks: the more difficult the place is to get to, the cooler the people you’ll meet there. At the rim of the Grand Canyon is the usual assortment of tourists: crabby families from Nebraska, suburban tweens who have no grasp of nature at all and demon children screaming from strollers. Surprisingly, I only heard one parent threaten to throw his child over the edge. We hiked 6 miles and 3,080 vertical feet down into the inner canyon and found well-traveled, hardy souls from all over the country and world. These are the people who understand that you can’t hike into the Canyon wearing flip flops and carrying a can of coke. They’re the people who have interesting stories and are on amazing National Park road trips like us.
A little more information about the hike we did … We started at the Bright Angel Trailhead that leaves the rim just west of the major cluster of lodges in Grand Canyon Village. We did a 12 mile round-trip hike to Plateau Point and back via Bright Angel Trail and Plateau Point Trail. Bright Angel drops 3,080 feet from the rim in a series of twisting switchbacks to Indian Garden, a spring-fed oasis of large, green trees. There are rest houses at mile 1.5 and mile 3 where you can catch your breath. Indian Garden is 4.5 miles from the rim and has a ranger station, water filling station, a campground, toilets and picnic tables. Just past Indian Garden we split off onto the Plateau Point trail that is mostly level for another 1.5 miles to a point of rock that juts out over the inner canyon. The Colorado river is still 1,300 feet below. The view of what you have to climb back up is intimidating to say the least, but 7.5 hours after leaving the rim in the morning, we were standing back at the top. Awesome.