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Resources For Visiting Grand Canyon National Park

This is where you can find websites, helpful phone numbers, friends groups and cooperating associations, and, sometimes, books related to the park.

Grand Canyon National Park: www.nps.gov/grca

Visitor Information

General information: 928-638-7888

Backcountry information: 928-638-7875 between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except on federal holidays

River Permits Office: 800-959-9164 or 928-638-7843

 

Fees

 7-day vehicle access: $25

7-day access on foot, bicycle or motorcycle: $12 

Friends Groups and Cooperating Associations

Grand Canyon Trust carries a mission to protect and restore the Colorado Plateau — its spectacular landscapes, flowing rivers, clean air, diversity of plants and animals, and areas of beauty and solitude. The trust focuses on the 130,000 square mile Colorado Plateau that features 29 national parks and monuments and 26 wilderness areas — America’s densest concentration of celebrated landscapes.

Grand Canyon Association is a private, non-profit organization founded in 1932 to support the educational goals of the National Park Service at Grand Canyon.

The association provides financial support to Grand Canyon National Park. They publish canyon related books and fund exhibits, research, free publications, and naturalist programs. They provide support for the park's research library.

The association also funds Conversations on the Edge.  This lecture series features specialists from Grand Canyon National Park's Division of Science and Resource Management speaking about the National Park Service's work to monitor, manage and preserve Grand Canyon's natural and cultural resources for present and future generations. Lectures are presented in Glendale, Flagstaff and Prescott, Arizona.

The association also operates, the Grand Canyon Field Institute. The institute offers a wide variety of courses including Geology, Natural and Human History, Archaeology, Botany, Backcountry Skills, and more! Classes for every skill level. Call (928) 638-2485 to get your free course catalog.

Helpful books

Encounters With the Archdruid

Here are three stories of the Sierra Club’s David Brower and encounters with people whose ideas for wild places clashed with his. Written by a friend of David Brower who was an invited guest on these memorable outings, this is a fascinating account of how four different men came together to wrestle over the futures of some of our nation’s priceless pieces of heritage.

 

The Grand Canyon Reader

In a wonderful new book, Lance Newman has compiled an outdoor literary fan's best's best of short stories, essays, and poetry regaling the Grand Canyon. Within the covers you'll find Ed Abbey, John McPhee, Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez and more.

 

Trains of Discovery: Railroads And The Legacy Of Our National Parks

Historian Alfred Runte traces the history of the locomotives that pulled visitors throughout the National Park System.Helping you navigate all these lines is a two-page map of the country on which the author locates "relevant units of the National Park System" and then connects them with red lines depicting historic rail lines that reached the parks and blue lines to show you the lines still in existence.

The National Parks, Our American Landscape

If the cover photo of The National Parks, Our American Landscape, doesn't encourage you to call in sick and head into the national parks, well, perhaps one of the hundreds of other images inside this book will.

Ansel Adams in the National Parks

Long after his death we continue to celebrate the brilliance of Ansel Adams, who arguably defined landscape photography, often while working in national parks to capture the magnificence of nature.

Running Dry, A Journey From Source To Sea Down The Colorado River

Part travelogue, part warning shot across the bow, Jonathan Waterman in his latest book takes us on a year-long journey down the Colorado River from source to the Sea of Cortez that should scare the wits out of those in the Southwest convince them to read the dusty writing on the wall.

One Best Hike: Grand Canyon

Although the book is titled One Best Hike: Grand Canyon, what Elizabeth Wenk really provides is a wonderful primer on the geology, wildlife, natural history, and dangers of hiking in Grand Canyon National Park. And she also leads readers down from the South Rim to the Colorado River and back via the Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails.

Common Southwestern Plants, An Identification Guide

Anyone who spends time hiking in the national parks of the Southwest needs a good plant identification book. And "Common Southwestern Native Plants, An Identification Guide," is one of those books.

Ranger Confidential, Living, Working, And Dying In the National Parks

Television shows love to portray park rangers as fit and polite, beaming dazzling smiles, displaying knowledge that knows no bounds, nerves of steel, and with dashing personalities. And then there are the realities, as Andrea Lankford describes in her latest book, Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks.

National Geographic Re-Releases Books On Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Alaska

Though no doubt driven by marketing aspirations, the National Geographic Society has rereleased three books that will take you into the heart of some iconic national parks.

Repairing Paradise: The Restoration Of Nature In America's National Parks

"Repairing Paradise." That's a somewhat inauspicious title for a book that examines how to restore natural settings in the national parks. But in light of many scenarios that are playing out across the National Park System -- from parks being overrun by elk, deer, and even people to ecosystem subterfuge -- repairs are exactly what need to be made.

Adios Amigos: Tales of Sustenance and Purification in the American West 

"River time."

It's that blissful oasis reached only by pushing off from terra firma, leaping board a raft, kayak, or canoe, and leaving the real world behind. Preferably for more than an afternoon. In the West, this generally is accomplished by heading for the Middle Fork of the Salmon, the Green, the Selway, or the Lochsa rivers. For those truly lucky souls, it means putting in from Lee's Ferry onto the Colorado River for two or more weeks of riverine solitude in Grand Canyon National Park.

 

 

Grand Canyon National Park

The Essential RVing Guide

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.

This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.

You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.

So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.