With river views and an excellent panorama of the canyon's geologic history, this is one of the park's most striking and dramatic overlooks. A placard on the canyon edge identifies the layered paleozoic rocks, the Grand Canyon Supergroup and Vishnu Basement Rocks clearly visible on the horizon.
Moran Point is named after Thomas Moran, the landscape painter who spent just about every winter at the canyon from 1899 to 1920 and whose romantically dramatic work was instrumental in securing the canyon's national-park status.