The Grand Canyon is a 2 hour drive through the 'high desert' from Sedona taking 89 North through Flagstaff to 180 West, then 64 North. The drive is often very desolate for long stretches (by east coast definition, anyway). The Grand Canyon is huge and not an all-at-once see even though much of it looks similar. We opted to touch down at the South Rim which was packed with (well mannered, friendly and enthusiastic) tourists and quite a few roaming crows and mule deer. Melissa highly recommends saying hello to one of the beautiful friendly crows that seem just as happy to grace the parking lot as the majestic rim of the canyon. These are very large, seemingly precocious and beautiful shiny birds. (Just do NOT feed them though or drop garbage. It can be very detrimental to them.)
At the South Rim of the Grand Canyon many tourists enjoy socializing with other tourists and sharing their feelings of awe. If you like to meet others, help them take better self portraits and get to know their story you'll really enjoy the overall energy of this spot of the canyon. The South Rim is also a popular fashion blogger photo spot. For sunset we opted to check out a lesser traveled fun-to-photograph spot called Lipan Point as seen in the photo above. You'll generally see a small crowd of about 30 here and a few visitors from the Pink Jeep Tours for sunset. Lipan Point is about a 30 minute drive from Grand Canyon Village at the South Rim. While on your way watch out for road-crossing mule deer and other wildlife.
Where to Stay
For our Grand Canyon / Sedona excursion we stayed at the Best Western Plus Inn of Sedona which we highly recommend. If you're friendly and they have availability, they just may upgrade you to a room with a red-rocks view and your own veranda with a fire pit. This hotel has some of the most reasonable rates in Sedona and the most amazing views. Note that there are two Best Westerns in Sedona and this is the one on the west side of town.