We Drove to the Bottom of the Grand Canyon

Peach Springs, AZ – High 100  Low 58

Warning – lots of scenery pictures

Did you know you could actually drive to the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the Colorado River? We didn’t until Marv and Donna (from our park in Apache Junction) made the drive and told us about it. This definitely went on our bucket list.

But before you start thinking about the scene from Thelma & Louise in their 1966 Ford Thunderbird barreling over the edge of the canyon, we found a better way down.

This is the main street in Peach Springs. Not even one stoplight.

The Canyon here is not as deep and spectacular as upriver and is about 3,000 feet shallower than what you see at the South and North Rims. But it is the only place you can say you drove to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

The road is located on the Havaupai Indian Reservation so you need to get a permit from the Fish and Game Department in Peach Springs.

The permit costs $15 per person and is a permit to trespass. That’s right – trespass.

You turn onto Diamond Creek Road in Peach Springs and drive for about 20 miles.

The road starts by winding through some small canyons and hills before opening up to a wide canyon with lush vegetation. The closer you get to the bottom, the narrower the canyon becomes.

Jim removed the antenna for me so it wouldn’t show up in all my pictures.

Not many flowers in bloom this time of year. But we did see this one.

This bus passed us but we caught up to them when they stopped at a view point. I was glad they did because we would not have thought to stop and the above picture shows the fantastic view. These people are all headed to the river to do some rafting.

You cross the creek in several places near the bottom.

At the Colorado River. The current was really swift. No, Jim did not bring his fishing poles.

The rafts used for the river trip. These rafts are very different from the rafts that I had when I rafted the New River in West Virginia. We had to paddle those rafts all the way through the Class IV and V rapids. These rafts all have big motors to move them up and down the river.

It was now time to climb back up out of the canyon. The trip down took a little over an hour – had to take a lot of pictures. We did a video of our trip but we can’t figure out how to make it work. There is a really good video on YouTube – just search for drive to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

We are really glad we made this trek but I need to warn you that the road is incredibly rough and rocky. I think it shook every bolt and nut loose on the truck and it definitely moved everything around in the back of the truck. We would not do this again because of the road.