The Schrug

We’re planning a trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon next year. We’ll be renting a car in Las Vegas and seeing Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks on our way. I wanted to get a sense of drive times between Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon Lodge at the North Rim. I started with my go-to mapper, Google. Here’s the suggested route:

Start address: Bryce Canyon Lodge 63 Bryce Canyon National Pk Bryce Canyon, 84764
End address: Grand Canyon Lodge Grand Canyon North Rim, AZ 84720

Start at: Bryce Canyon Lodge 63 Bryce Canyon National Pk Bryce Canyon, 84764

1. Head northeast on UT-63 N toward N Camp Ground Rd – 3.8 mi
2. Turn left at UT-12 W – 13.6 mi
3. Turn left at US-89 S – 60.3 mi
4. Continue straight onto S 100 E – 0.7 mi
5. Continue onto US-89 Alt S  Entering Arizona – 36.2 mi
6. Turn right at Grand Canyon Hwy – 95 ft
7. Take the 1st left to stay on Grand Canyon Hwy – 0.1 mi
8. Turn right at AZ-67 S/Grand Canyon Hwy – 4.6 mi
9. Turn right toward Forest Service Rd 317 – 0.2 mi
10. Continue straight onto Forest Service Rd 317 – 1.9 mi
11. Continue onto Forest Service Rd 217 – 2.2 mi
12. Turn left – 0.4 mi
13. Turn right – 118 ft
14. Turn left – 0.3 mi
15. Turn right – 2.9 mi
16. Turn right toward Forest Service Rd 282 – 0.8 mi
17. Turn right at Forest Service Rd 282 – 1.0 mi
18. Turn left at Forest Service Rd 758 – 3.2 mi
19. Continue onto Forest Service Rd 462 – 5.5 mi
20. Continue onto Forest Service Rd 641 – 1.1 mi
21. Continue onto Forest Service Rd 462 – 3.6 mi
22. Turn left – 36 ft
23. Turn right – 3.2 mi
24. Turn left toward AZ-67 S – 2.9 mi
25. Turn right at AZ-67 S – 0.5 mi
26. Turn right toward Point Sublime Trail – 10.2 mi
27. Turn left at Point Sublime Trail – 5.8 mi
28. Continue onto Point Sublime – 2.5 mi
29. Continue onto Point Sublime Trail – 2.5 mi
30. Turn right toward AZ-67 S – 0.9 mi
31. Turn right at AZ-67 S  This road may be seasonally closed – 2.6 mi

Arrive at: Grand Canyon Lodge Grand Canyon North Rim, AZ 84720

Estimated time: 6 hours, 32 minutes.

I knew from the Park Service web site that all that Forest Service Road stuff was crap. I tried to adjust the route to stay on AZ-67, but I couldn’t get Google to go along. So I tried Bing instead. Their directions were slightly simpler.

1. Depart SR-63 4.5 mi

2. Turn left onto SR-12 13.6 mi 18 min

3. Turn left onto US-89 60.8 mi 1 hr 4 min

4. Keep straight onto US-89 Alt / SR-11 / 100 St E / S 100 E 36.7 mi 41 min

5. Turn right onto SR-67 / Grand Canyon Hwy 43.6 mi 55 min

Seasonal closure of road

6. Turn left onto road 0.1 mi

Seasonal closure of road

7. Arrive at Grand Canyon Lodge

Estimated time: 3 hours, 7 minutes.

The difference between the two mapping tools was that Bing correctly deduced that I was a grownup and could figure out that I shouldn’t drive on a road that’s closed for the winter. Google was so concerned about the possible road closure that it advised me to travel instead on Forest Service roads – which I’m betting are closed to private vehicles anyway. Google got so spooked about Route 67, in fact, that when I asked it to take me to North Rim, AZ, rather than to the lodge, it told me to take US 89 Alt South all the way from Jacob Lake to AZ Route 64 in Cameron.

The only thing I’ll say in Google’s defense is that they make their turn-by-turn directions a whole lot easier to paste into a blog.

Recommendation: next time you plan a drive, try Bing as well as Google. You may find your allegiances shifting.