Sites in Arizona
NPS - Landscapes
Canyon de Chelly
Chiricahua
Grand Canyon
Lake Mead
Organ Pipe
Petrified Forest
Saguaro
Sunset Crater
NPS - Historic Sites
Casa Grande Ruins
Coronado
Montezuma Castle
Pipe Spring
Tonto
Tumacacori
Tuzigoot
Walnut Canyon
Wupatki
Other Places
Apache Trail
Ironwood Forest NM
Meteor Crater
Route 66
Sedona
Sonoran Desert NM
Tonto NF
Vermilion Cliffs NM
Arizona Site Map
Site Search
|
|
Grand Canyon National Park > The South Rim > Viewpoints > Shoshone Point
Two miles southeast of Yaki Point, Shoshone Point also has a road leading to it, and basic facilities including picnic tables and fire grills, but use of these requires advance permission from the NPS; in summer the place is quite often used for private functions like weddings and parties. The one mile road is unpaved and normally closed to vehicular access by a locked gate, though visitation on foot is allowed without a permit. The point is not signposted from the East Rim Drive but next to the gate is a parking area, on the north side between mileposts 244 and 245; from here, the rim is reached by a pleasant, level, 20 minute walk through open Ponderosa pine woodland.
At road's end, the cliffs form a narrow promontory, jutting out from the plateau, and affording views of more than 180° of the Grand Canyon - a vista usually appreciated without any other visitors. To the west, the edge of the rim is formed by Yaki Point, with Cremation Creek below and Phantom Creek (on the North Rim) in the distance. In the foreground are Newton and Lyell buttes, two narrowish peaks in the Supai sandstone, then beyond, also on the North Rim, the long drainage of Clear Creek runs between more high buttes including Zoroaster Temple and Thor Temple. The eastern aspect is dominated by several forks of Grapevine Creek, with other red, flat-topped buttes beyond. The Colorado River is in view only in the far northeast near Tanner Canyon, where it curves round northwards towards Marble Canyon.
|
