Cape Royal
— — the canyon, watched from its quietest side.
Not only on a wall.
“The southernmost overlook on the North Rim, twenty-three miles down a slow road from the lodge. From the point, the canyon opens in every direction: Wotans Throne and Vishnu Temple on the near side, the South Rim small and distant across the gap. A short paved path leads through pinyon and juniper to Angels Window, a sandstone arch with the Colorado River framed inside it.
Cape Royal, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Cape Royal is the southernmost viewpoint reached by road on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, at the end of a 23-mile scenic drive from Grand Canyon Lodge. The point sits at 7,865 feet within Grand Canyon National Park, which the National Park Service has managed since 1919. From the railing, the canyon stretches more than ten miles across to the South Rim. Below, the Colorado River traces a thin line through the inner gorge. Wotans Throne, an isolated mesa, rises in the foreground beneath the overlook.
The North Rim catches the canyon from a different angle than the more visited South. At Cape Royal the sun sets behind the viewer rather than in front, so the inner walls turn orange and rose as the day fades. Photographers come for sunrise and sunset both, and the point is one of the few places in the park where you can see both events from the same spot. The road from Bright Angel Point opens around mid-May and closes with the first heavy snow, usually in November.
Cape Royal Road runs 23 miles south from Grand Canyon Lodge through ponderosa pine and aspen, with overlooks at Vista Encantada, Walhalla Plateau, and Roosevelt Point along the way. The North Rim entrance station is 44 miles south of Jacob Lake on Highway 67. Standard National Park Service entrance fees apply. A 0.6-mile paved path from the parking area leads to the point and to Angels Window, a natural arch in the Kaibab Limestone with the Colorado River visible through it.