Grand Canyon Visitor Center

The Grand Canyon Visitor Center is the South Rim’s main orientation stop, on a plaza with four large parking lots, a store, a café and bike-rental counter, and the park shuttle terminal. It’s a useful first stop for maps, ranger help, exhibits and figuring out where to go next. The rim is about a five-minute walk from the plaza at Mather Point, so use the center to get set up rather than expecting a canyon-edge overlook at the doors.

On busy spring-break, summer and holiday weekends, the four lots can fill by 10 a.m. Arrive earlier if you need to park here.

From the South Entrance Station, follow the road about five miles to the center. Free shuttles connect the plaza with Grand Canyon Village, the South Kaibab Trailhead and Yavapai Geology Museum; the route to Tusayan runs in summer. Mather Point is the quick first rim stop. If you want a longer walk, continue east along the rim about 0.7 mile to Yavapai Observation Station.

There’s a ranger information desk and indoor exhibits, plus a 24-minute orientation film, Grand Canyon: A Journey of Wonder, that follows the canyon from rim to river and covers its natural and human history. The theater also offers accessible films. When the building is closed, permanent trip-planning signs and outdoor exhibits remain available on the plaza.

If you collect National Park Passport stamps, ask for the center’s “Grand Canyon, AZ” cancellation; the store across the plaza has a different “Visitor Center Plaza” stamp.

In May 2009, the park installed 84 photovoltaic cells as an 18-kilowatt system reported to offset about 30 percent of the building’s power. More panels were added to the theater built in 2013.