Scottsdale to GC in a day?
 

We are staying in Scottsdale & driving to Sedona & then on to the GC---too much for one day? I was thinking of staying at the GC overnight-any discounts available? or would you reccommend staying in Williams ,etc. & then driving to GC the next day?

Sedona and the GC in one day doesn't leave much time to see Sedona. If you plan to hike or mountain bike in the Sedona area I'd stay all night somewhere between Sedona and the GC. The ticky tacky touristy main drag of Sedona isn't worth (IMO, obviously)a stop. Natural beauty is the star in the area not the town.

If you plan to just enjoy the Sedona area from the window of your car with a few photo stops, a better route would be to drive Scottsdale toward Flagstaff and the GC and spend the night in the area. The next day drive toward Sedona through the Oak Creek Canyon for a beautiful drive. I hear that the drive through Oak Creek Canyon is better going north to south rather than south to north.

We travelled from Scottsdale to Flagstaff and stayed at the Motel 6 there and travelled on the next day and stayed a couple of days in Tusayan(Red Feather)near the Park entrance.Paul

Phx/Scottsdale to GC is about 225mile/4.5 hours driving time w/out a stop in Sedona. In park lodging doesn't have discounts until after Thanksgiving. www.grandcanyonlodges.com
Williams would be cheaper than in or outside of the park, but is about a 1 hour drive, so unless you like driving in the dark, you'd miss sunrise/sunset.

Suggested route for just one day: take I-17 north to I-40 west (at Flagstaff), to AZ64 north (at Williams) into the park. Tour the west rim and pick a spot there for sunset. Stay in or outside of the park. Next day, tour the east rim drive to Desert View. Continue out east to US89. Detour just north to Cameron Trading post, then head back south on US89 through Flagstaff, then get on US89A and drive south to Sedona through Oak Creek as amwosu suggests, spend some time in Sedona, than get back on I-17 south to return to Scottsdale.
Hope this helps!

Do spend some time around Sedona -- the area is just beautiful (not the town).

A suggestion -- drive (early) up to Sedona, do a little hiking (if you are into that -- there are dozens of trails), do a lot of sightseeing, take a jeep tour, and stay overnight (the sunset on the red rocks is something to behold). Early next day, drive through Oak Creek Canyon and up to Williams. There is a train that goes from Williams to the GC, so you could take that. Stay overninght at the GC, take the train back to williams, then drive back to Phoenix. That is, if you have time for that.

as other posters have advised, it is too much in one day to see anything. the drive from scottsdale is 3 to 4 hours just to the canyon. so unless all you want is a meal in sedona, you really need to go over night. Have done the canyon from phoenix in one day a few times, just a lot of driving. but gave sedona a day of its own.

Thanks for the help--amwosu & gcmaven-your ideas are especially helpful--I appreciate the exact directions & which roads to take also. We do want to do some hiking-as this is our first trip here- what is the hiking like-range from esy to difficult?
We only want to spend 1 night out of Scottsdale , as we have a condo there for the week, but may go back to Sedona for a another day trip.
Thanks agian!

I understand your desire to only be gone from the condo for one night. However, you might want to consider stopping at Sedona on the way back from the GC and staying at the very inexpensive www.desertquailinn.com just a couple miles outside of Sedona and almost across the street from Bell Rock. They have very good internet room rates. I paid $59 per night for a large room in July. That might not cost much more than the gas (not to mention time savings) it will take to drive back up to Sedona for a day trip.