Trail of Time: The Million Year Walk Portal
in Arizona · centroid 65 mi from Flagstaff
Located on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, the Trail of Time (ToT) extends along the paved Rim Trail between the Yavapai Geology Museum on the east and Maricopa Point on the west. This is the young end of the ToT so the theme for the portal entry is the youngest rocks of Grand Canyon. Seating stones around the entry portal include spring deposits of travertine, and columns of basalt collected from lavas like those that flowed into western Grand Canyon about 500,000 years ago.
Walking the trail west from here to the next Trail of Time stone column (~150 yards / 136 meters ) will cover Grand Canyon's recent past and serve as an "on-ramp" to 2 billion years of geologic time. Watch for the shifts in time covered by each step along the ToT. To talk about geology we have to think in terms of time and some pretty big numbers!
Trail of Time Overview The Trail of Time is the world's largest geoscience exhibition at one of the world's grandest geologic landscapes, Grand Canyon National Park. The trail utilizes the unique vistas and rocks of Grand Canyon to help visitors ponder, explore, and understand the magnitude of geologic time and the stories encoded by Grand Canyon rocks and landscapes. Geologic time is immensely long.
- States
- Arizona
- Trail type
- National Park trail
- Centroid nearest city
- Flagstaff, AZ · 65 mi · ~1.9 hr drive
- Centroid coords
- 36.0652°, -112.1196°
About Grand Canyon National Park
This trail is inside Grand Canyon National Park, a national park managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Conditions, road status, trail closures, and reservation requirements are published on the park's NPS page — check it before driving in, especially in winter or during major weather events.
Entrance fee: $35 per vehicle (verify current rate on the park page). An America the Beautiful annual pass ($80) covers entrance to all NPS units.
Official NPS trail page: https://www.nps.gov/places/000/trail-of-time-the-million-year-walk-portal.htm
Park homepage: https://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm
Plan your hike
Maps + permits: long-distance trails like this often require permits for through-hiking, backcountry camping, or specific sections (especially in National Parks). Check with the maintaining organisation listed above and the relevant land manager before booking travel.
Water + supplies: water sources vary seasonally on most U.S. trails. Carry a filter and consult current trail-condition reports — through-hiker journals (PCT-L, AT Reddit, etc.) and the maintaining organisation publish regular updates.
When to go: hiking seasons vary widely with elevation, latitude, and snowpack. Through-hikers traditionally start the AT in March-April (Springer northbound) and the PCT in late April (Campo northbound). High-elevation western trails (CDT, JMT, Wonderland) generally aren't passable until July.
If you've hiked Trail of Time: The Million Year Walk Portal and have current notes (water sources, trail closures, permit changes), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn.
Stay nearby
Other trails within 50 miles
Trail of Time: The Main Trail of Time Portal
0 miles from this trail's centroid
Rim Trail - Mather Point
1 miles from this trail's centroid
Bright Angel Trail
1 miles from this trail's centroid
Plateau Point Trail
1 miles from this trail's centroid
Pictograph Panel — Bright Angel Trail
1 miles from this trail's centroid
Rim Trail
2 miles from this trail's centroid
Sources
Trail data on this page is compiled from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), the maintaining organisation's public-facing materials, and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA where excerpts are quoted). Distance, terminus, and descriptive text for nationally-designated trails are hand-curated from federal land-manager websites and trail-association sources. We do not modify the underlying data; this page presents what is already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page.