Whenever I think about visiting the Grand Canyon, the first image that comes to my mind isn’t the awe-inspiring landscape of the iconic landmark, but rather hosts of tourists crowding the cliff side with cameras and talking loudly, and that image alone ruins all of the natural majesty of the canyon for me. But that’s because I’m thinking about the South Rim, and if you were to follow in Robert Frost’s advice and “take the road less traveled by”, you’d find a rather different experience.
The North Rim of the canyon sees a substantially smaller number of tourists annually and is a lot cooler due to the higher altitude. However, you should be aware that it is only open to visitors between May and October due to snow. Otherwise, it’s the same majestic canyon, experienced in a far more intimate setting.
Not only that, but the trip itself can be quite a treat, as you can plan a road trip through the Four Corners region and see some of America’s most gorgeous desert landscapes.
The four corners are the meeting place of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Most of the region is governed by Native American Nations, the largest of which being the Navajo, with the tribe preserving many of the parks, monuments, and museums in the area.
We’ll begin our route in Colorado, in the Mesa Verde National Park where we can find some of the best-preserved Ancestral Pueblo ruins and then travel west and south to the North Rim.It was also the homeland to the Ancestral Pueblo culture, the descendants of which still live in reservations in New Mexico. The Ancestral Pueblos are famous for their intricate architecture and settlements for which they are named (pueblo meaning “town” in Spanish). They are called Anasazi by the Navajo, but that name is discouraged by modern-day Pueblos, as it is deemed derogatory (it means “ancient enemies”).
