My friend and I got a virtually free trip to Vegas and are going in July. We want to take a day trip to the Grand Canyon. We are driving and I noticed that the West Rim is only 120 miles from Vegas so I thought we would just go there so we would have more time to spend outside ofhte car! I can't really find any info on what there is to do on the West Rim if you don't take a tour. Has anyone been there and is it worth it? Or should we just suck it up and go to the South Rim?

I've never been to the West Rim, but from the pictures I've seen it's nothing like the South Rim.

Here's some links with information on the area:

http://www.americansouthwest.net/ari...su_canyon.html

http://www.americansouthwest.net/ari...gs_canyon.html

http://www.americansouthwest.net/ari...servation.html


A day trip to the S. Rim will be 560 miles. If you go, you really should plan on spending one night there to really enjoy the area.

If you really want to go somewhere special for the day from Las Vegas you should try Zion National Park. It's 320 miles round trip and would make for an excellent day trip to a scenic location.

Utahtea

I never heard of a "West Rim" until recently. I believe the name to be an invention of tour companies who want to mislead people about what they'll be seeing, and who are selling short, cheap tours to a point which is the closest on the very long Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, and which may be scenic, but is hundreds of miles from the views of the most spectacular part of the canyon people have seen pictured and written about. To that part of the Canyon, you need to go to the long-established South Rim and North Rim viewing areas.

Once again "utah tea" has hit the nail on the head.
My cousin went to view the "west rim" and said it was a deep crack in the mountain with some water at the bottom. Don't know how valid this statement--as he also said " you've seen one Redwood tree you've seen them all"
To me the GC is SO spectacular you need to see it from the South rim at sunrise to get the full impact. It is breathtaking.!!!!
Good luck...

I have been to the North, South and West Rim and can't wait to do the East Rim someday.
The west rim is only viewed I believe from the Havasupai Indian Reservation at least that is how I went. We took a bus to the canyon rim and a helicopter into the canyon with lunch along the river. The scenery does not compare to the South Rim.

The South Rim is certainly a much better trip.