Historical Tours & Trips in Grand Canyon

At Canyon de Chelly National Monument, you'll check out ancient petroglyphs and cliff dwellings of ancestral Puebloans with a Navajo Tribal Park ranger. Walnut Canyon has Sinagua cliffside homes built nearly 900 years ago, and Navajo National Monument features sandstone canyon settlements. The Monument Valley jeep tour shares cultural stories from Native guides.

Montezuma Castle National Monument shows off pre-Columbian cliff dwellings where Sinagua people lived from around A.D. 600-1450. The Cameron Trading Post is a century-old spot where Navajo and Hopi locals historically traded goods, and you'll take a Navajo-guided 4-wheel drive tour through Monument Valley.

Walking the Grand Canyon's South Rim with a Grand Canyon Conservancy Field Institute instructor, you'll learn about the geology, fossils and tribal communities who've lived here for centuries. At Mesa Verde, there's a ranger-led tour through Cliff Palace where you can see the 150-room dwelling with 23 ceremonial kivas built into the sandstone.

Stand at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon after traveling through Kaibab National Forest, taking in views carved over millions of years by the Colorado River. A guided rafting trip to Horseshoe Bend lets you float along the Colorado River while learning about the geology. Walk the Sunset Point to Sunrise Point Rim Trail in Bryce Canyon to see the hoodoos.

Follow historic Route 66 through Oak Creek Canyon as it drops 2000 feet down to Sedona. Take a Navajo-led jeep tour through Monument Valley's ancient sandstone towers on tribal lands. See Horseshoe Bend in Grand Canyon National Park where the Colorado River carved a 270-degree bend into the rock. Visit Valley of Fire to see 150-million-year-old red sandstone formations that glow in the desert sun.

The Grand Canyon's South Rim comes with admission included, and you'll hike the Bright Angel Trail for views deep into the canyon. Golden hour at Hopi Point shows off the red rock formations as the sun lights them up. Zion National Park offers the challenging Angels Landing trail, which takes you over four kilometers above the canyon floor.

Head to the Grand Canyon's South Rim and stop at Hopi Point for sunset views over the red rock formations, then hike parts of the Bright Angel Trail down into the canyon. Take the scenic Red Rock Loop Road to Cathedral Rock and walk across Devil's Bridge for wide desert views. Drive through Zion National Park on the Carmel Highway to reach Angels Landing, a 4-kilometer climb that gives you sweeping views of sandstone cliffs and canyon landscapes.

The Virgin River trail in Zion National Park takes you past 150-million-year-old sandstone formations that tower above the canyon floor - Mormon settlers who first came here described it as transcendent. At Horseshoe Bend, the Colorado River has carved a big curve through layered rock formations, then you'll see Valley of Fire State Park's ancient red sandstone created during the age of dinosaurs. The Chapel of the Holy Cross sits perched among Sedona's red rocks with views of Cathedral Rock and Courthouse Butte.

See Mount Rushmore's famous granite faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln, then stop at the Buffalo Bill Historic Center in Cody. You can hike along the rim of Grand Canyon National Park and take an optional helicopter flight over it, plus check out Capitol Reef National Park's colorful cliffs and Monument Valley's red sandstone formations.