6 Best Sights in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Built in 1914 to compete with the Kolbs' photographic studio, the building was designed by architect Mary Jane Colter. The combination lookout point, museum, and gift shop has a collection of fossils and geologic samples from around the world. An upstairs loft provides another excellent overlook into the gorge below.

This site merits a stop not only for the arresting scenery, which includes the Colorado River below, but also for its view of a defunct mine operation. On your left, as you face the canyon, are the Orphan Mine, a mine shaft, and cable lines leading up to the rim. The mine, which started operations in 1893, was worked first for copper and then for uranium until the venture came to a halt in 1969. Little remains of the mine infrastructure today, but some displays along the Rim Trail discuss its history. The Battleship, the red butte directly ahead of you in the canyon, was named during the Spanish-American War, when warships were in the news.

Some of the canyon's most magnificent stone spires and buttes visible from this lesser-known overlook include the Tower of Set; the Tower of Ra; and Isis, Osiris, and Horus temples. From here you can view the 5,401-foot Cheops Pyramid, a grayish rock formation behind Dana Butte, plus some of the strongest rapids on the Colorado River.

A possible site of the first Spanish view into the canyon in 1540, this overlook is also at the highest natural elevation (7,461 feet) on the South Rim.

Enjoy a bird's-eye view of Tonto Platform and Tonto Trail, which winds its way through the canyon for more than 70 miles. Also to the west, two dark, cone-shaped mountains—Mount Trumbull and Mount Logan—are visible on the North Rim on clear days. They rise in stark contrast to the surrounding flat-top mesas and buttes.

A granite platform honors the memory of John Wesley Powell, who measured, charted, and named many of the canyons and creeks of the Colorado River. It was here that the dedication ceremony for Grand Canyon National Park took place on April 3, 1920.