Cape Royal

The Grand Canyon has two developed rims, and they offer very different experiences. The South Rim, lower and easier to reach, draws the great majority of visitors. The North Rim sits higher, more than a thousand feet above its southern counterpart, and is far more remote, reached only by a long drive across high plateau country. Because of its elevation, it is buried in snow much of the year and open only in the warmer months.

That remoteness is its gift. The North Rim is quiet, cool, and cloaked in forests of pine, fir, spruce, and aspen, more mountain than desert. Meadows open among the trees, and deer and other wildlife move through the woods. For those willing to make the journey, it offers a Grand Canyon experience of solitude and green that the busier South Rim cannot match, and Cape Royal is its crowning viewpoint.

Cape Royal reaches out into one of the widest stretches of the entire Grand Canyon, and the view from its tip is correspondingly vast. The canyon opens in a great bowl, layered buttes and mesas rising from the depths, side canyons branching off in every direction, and the far South Rim shimmering on the horizon. Unlike many overlooks that face a single wall, Cape Royal takes in a huge sweep of the canyon at once.

Far below, a bend of the Colorado River comes into view, the ribbon of green-brown water that carved all of this over immense time. Named formations rise from the canyon floor, including a temple-like butte visible from the point. The combination of great width, visible river, and the varied rock forms makes Cape Royal one of the most complete canyon panoramas anywhere on the rim.

The walk to Cape Royal passes one of the North Rim's signature features, Angels Window. This is a natural arch, a hole worn clean through a narrow fin of rock jutting from the rim, and through it you glimpse the canyon depths and a section of the Colorado River framed as if in a window. It is a striking and much-photographed spot.

A short spur allows the sure-footed to walk out onto the top of the arch itself, a rock platform with the canyon dropping away on both sides, for those comfortable with heights and exposure. Whether viewed from the trail or crossed on top, Angels Window is a highlight of the easy walk to the cape and a reminder of how erosion sculpts the canyon rim into ever more dramatic forms.

Cape Royal lies at the end of a scenic drive that branches off the main North Rim road and winds through forest and along the rim to a series of overlooks, of which Cape Royal is the grand finale. Along the way, other viewpoints open their own canyon vistas, so the drive itself is a highlight, a slow ramble through cool woods with the canyon appearing and disappearing beside the road.

Reaching the North Rim at all requires commitment. It lies far from the interstate, across the high, forested Kaibab Plateau, and the road is only open when snow permits, generally from late spring into fall. That effort keeps the crowds thin and the experience special. For travelers who make the journey, Cape Royal rewards them with one of the finest and most peaceful views the Grand Canyon has to offer.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.