Grand Canyon?

The $25 fee includes everyone in your car and is good for 7 days. As a previous poster mentioned, if someone in your party is over 62 and has an American the Beautiful pass, you can use that to get in free. Entrance fees include both north and south rim. Plan to spend some time in the area and see all you can see. It is very beautiful and particularly breathtaking are the sunrises and sunsets.

Dale

Save your $25 as it's nothing but a BIG hole in the ground that only gets five million visitors/year. :W Plenty of info here and we like the North Rim better (once you've seen the South) even though it takes half a day longer to get to it.

We spent 6 days there in September; our third trip back (twice south rim, once north rim). Last trip was the south rim. We camped at Trailer Village; excellent. We hiked Bright Angel Trail (to the 3 mile point - 2,000 ft vertical), the entire south rim trail, went to Desert View Tower, enjoyed a great dinner at the Arizona Room at a table with a view of the canyon, explored the Grand Canyon Village, the El Tovar, Bright Angel Inn and more.

The $25 is the entrance fee to the park and you can do a LOT more than just "have a look" without spending any more $. The $25 is for the vehicle, not per person. In my opinion, even a look is worth the $25. Defines the term "breath taking".

Some pictures:

Sunset

Bright Angel Trail

Other Grand Canyon Pictures

yep, spent one night there in a cabin. saw sunset, sunrise, and a big hole. too heavy at the time to take a burro ride.
bumpy

You could climb down into the canyon, camp on the way, and try to climb back out the next day. You can take a donkey ride partway down and back up the same day. You can take a float trip and ride a raft through the canyon, one of the ultimate adventure trips, from one night to as long as two weeks on the river. About $1500 to $4000 per person, depending on type of trip.

If you just want to take a look over the edge, that can be 2-3 hours in the busy part of the season, if you want to see how it looks from several different points on the south rim. That's enough for most visitors to most of the locations in the National Park system, checking off a "must see" list with their been there, done that. That's the typical bus tour visit, drive through, stop in two or three places to let everyone out to take pictures of themselves at the Grand Canyon.

That's as far as I've gotten with the Grand Canyon so far, a day trip out of Phoenix with wife, two kids, wife's aunt and uncle. I do intend to go back, stay longer, explore more of the park. But for stuff to do, different things to see, the Grand Canyon is not really the natural wonderland you will find at Yellowstone or Yosemite.

For that matter, I prefer Canyonlands NP to Grand Canyon NP, because there is a lot more geology to see. The canyons are just not as deep. If looking for water recreation activities (besides float trips) I suggest downstream to the National Recreation Area at Lake Mead, or upstream to the Glen Canyon NRA.

It doesn't necessarily cost $25 to have a look. Interagency pass to all Federal parks and monuments is $80 a year, visit 8 places on one trip and they only cost $10 each. Visit 20 they only cost $4 each. I bought the annual pass the year I retired, used it for at least thirty different places traveling that first year.

If someone in your party is age 62 or older they can buy a lifetime America the Beautiful Senior Pass for one-time fee ($10 the year I bought mine). It covers everyone in the vehicle with them.