Grand Canyon News

Two self-anointed "grammar vigilantes" who toured the nation removing typos from public signs have been banned from national parks after vandalizing a historic marker at the Grand Canyon. Jeff Michael Deck, 28, of Somerville, Mass., and Benjamin Douglas Herson, 28, of Virginia Beach, Va., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff after damaging a rare, hand-painted sign in Grand Canyon National Park. They were sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park, and were ordered to pay restitution.

With Labor Day a week away, you may think you have a better chance of making a hole in one blindfolded than getting space at a campground or a park lodge for the holiday. But it's not quite that grim.

Grand Canyon National Park remains open and trouble-free amid the rains that have prompted flooding and rescues in Supai Canyon, an Indian reservation about 75 miles west of the canyon’s South Rim. “The primary area for all of this going on is … west of the primary village and just south of the Grand Canyon corridor,” said spokeswoman Shannon Marcak. “Within the Grand Canyon, we have not received any known damage."

A group of Boy Scouts from Maplewood on a backpacking and rafting trip near the Grand Canyon were evacuated by helicopter Sunday after an earthen dam failed and flood waters threatened their campsite. The six boys and three adult leaders were among scores of people rescued from campgrounds and tribal lands after days of heavy rains caused flooding along two creeks that flow into the Colorado River.

Part of the pride in putting o n the iconic flat hat and the green and grey National Park Service uniform is knowing you work for an organization that tries to protect some of the most beautiful and historic places in the world. After serving the National Park Service for 32 years -- the last nine as superintendent of Shenandoah National Park -- a passage in the National Park Service’s mission statement in the 1916 Organic Act resonates with me deeply:

Working through the challenge of darkness, rescue helicopters continued through Sunday night to evacuate hundreds of residents and campers stranded by the flooding caused by a breached dam near the Grand Canyon. As of late Sunday night, officials had not reported any deaths or injuries, but they will press on today with their rescue mission as more rain is expected.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 29th, park dispatch received a report via satellite phone from rafters on a private river trip advising that one of their boats, an 18-foot cataraft, was stranded on the rock garden at Crystal Rapid, located just past river mile 98 and about 11 miles downriver from Phantom Ranch. This is the same location where a 36-foot commercial raft became stuck a week ago. Due to the late hour, rescue operations could not be begin immediately, but were instead arranged for the following morning.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - At a time when tourists visited the Grand Canyon in stagecoaches, they did their souvenir shopping at a tent set up by a man named John George Verkamp. It was 1898, before the Grand Canyon was a national park, before there was a National Park Service and before Arizona was even a state. Not many had the means to visit the mile-deep gorge, so it was mostly just a handful of adventurers, prospectors, the American Indians whose people had lived there for centuries and the Verkamps.

GRAND CANYON - Starting out on a six-day series of wilderness hikes in the Grand Canyon on unmaintained trails where even a minor misstep can cost you your life is probably not the best time to discover you're terrified of heights.

More than a dozen tourists and two guides had to be rescued from the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon after their raft became stranded. They were taken from their raft to the shore by the National Park Service's inflatable rescue boat.

The Grand Canyon has long been near the top of our "to see" list, and my wife and I agreed that this would be the year we would move it to the "been there, done that" side of the ledger.

The Grand Canyon can be overwhelming, especially for photographers. How can you capture a spectacle so enormous, so magnificent, so . . . well, grand, with a mere camera? Learn how (or at least get some ideas) during the next two weeks at one of the free photography workshops sponsored by Canon and the American Park Network, which publishes national-park guides and holds educational programs to support and promote national parks.

Grand Canyon National Park may be one of the planet's Seven Natural Wonders, but few realize how many people it takes to keep the 4.4 million annual park visitors safe, fed and happy. For Casey Murph, who manages mule operations on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, the day starts well before sunrise. Beginning at about 4:30 each morning, he goes over the day's schedule, sets out buckets of oats for the mules and opens up the tack rooms in a huge, surprisingly clean 101-year-old barn.

After you've been hiking amid the red walls of the Grand Canyon, you might want to sit back and take a train ride through more canyon landscapes in a 1923 Pullman car. The Coconino Canyon Train, a new 90-minute ride that originates in Grand Canyon National Park and travels on tracks built in the 1800s, starts at the old Grand Canyon Depot and travels 24 miles through ponderosa pines and red-rock scenery in an out-and-back route.

There’s no question that America’s great outdoors is a paradise for pets. From flower-carpeted mountain sides to spectacular waterfalls and panoramic vistas — there are so many wonderful pet-friendly hiking trails to discover.While each individual state’s tourist board boasts a mind-boggling selection of state and national parks, sometimes there’s no need to escape further than one’s own backyard to enjoy an invigorating fresh air experience with your pooch.