Almost five million people see the one mile deep Grand Canyon each year. And most of them see it from their cars at overlooks along the South Rim, which is the most accessible part of the park and is open all year.

A much smaller number of people see the Grand Canyon from the North Rim, which lies just 10 miles across from the South Rim. The North Rim rises a thousand feet higher than the South Rim, and is much less accessible. The North Rim is open from mid-May to mid-October, with only a few weeks left during the season.

While the South Rim is spectacular, especially when snow begins to fall on the North Rim, James Hoke, president of TourGuy.com LLC, encourages anyone who wants to put a different twist on the Grand Canyon to make plans before the North Rim closes. He said that his company will still provide tours from Las Vegas to the South Rim and West Rim. But the North Rim must be booked now.

"People really want an opportunity to experience the Grand Canyon as many ways as possible, especially if they have already visited the famous South Rim," says Hoke. "We're the only tour company from Las Vegas that includes the North Rim as part of our ground tours until the National Park Service closes it for the season."

According to Hoke, the only experience more breathtaking than visiting the the less traveled North or West Rims of the Grand Canyon is an air tour his company arranges for Las Vegas visitors.

To illustrate how dramatic the experience can be, he cites the most stunning footage of the Grand Canyon he has ever seen. Shot by Aerial Filmworks in cooperation with Grand Canyon National Park, the company is using an amazing gyro-stabilized aerial system.





Hoke said he is equally impressed with the film team's values to maintain a carbon neutral planet. They have partnered with TerraPass, investing in carbon offsets for every hour of flight time that their Cineflex equipment is on a helicopter.

"I've seen hundreds of hours of footage of the Grand Canyon, but I have never seen anything as beautiful as the work being done by Aerial Filmworks," said Hoke. "With film, they best capture what it feels like to soar above the Grand Canyon. This is what you see from the air."

While Hoke says his company provides a number of aerial tours to the Grand Canyon, the most popular adventures include a Grand Canyon basin landing that descends more than 3,200 feet below the West Rim, and a combination that includes a helicopter tour over the Grand Canyon, riverboat ride along the Colorado River, and stop at the famous Grand Canyon Skywalk.

"There is nothing more memorable than one of these adventures," said Hoke. "It was because of my travels around the Grand Canyon that originally convinced me to open and operate an adventure and eco-tour company in Nevada with tours in four of our neighboring states."

For more information on the helicopter basin landing or helicopter riverboat tour, visit TourGuy.com. Both tours are discounted between $90 to $120 per reservation off direct booking rates. For the more adventuresome, TourGuy.com can custom create vacations for travelers that include white water river rafting, overnight ranch stays, and almost anything else they can dream up.