The remote and less-visited North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park will open to visitors at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, May 15.

The north side of the park receives only a fraction of the park's 5 million annual visitors. That's mostly because it's so hard to get to: From Flagstaff, it takes 90 minutes to get to the South Rim, but about four hours to reach the North Rim. The North Rim also is open only from mid-May to October due to snow.

All park services will be available starting at 8 a.m. on May 15. That includes Grand Canyon Lodge, the visitors center, the Backcountry Information Center and the North Rim Campground, the park said in a news release.

At 3 p.m. on opening day, park rangers will present a program about the Canyon's geology on the veranda of Grand Canyon Lodge. The North Rim also will host several events honoring the National Park Service's centennial.

State Route 67, the road that leads south to the North Rim from Jacob Lake, will open at 1 p.m. Friday, May 13. The road, also known as the North Rim Parkway, is scenic all by itself.

Since you've got more than two weeks before the North Rim opens for business, you have plenty of time to brush up on some of the many things that make it a great place to visit. Those include the Rainbow Rim Trail, a spectacular hike in the Timp Point area; the scenic drive to Point Sublime, which lives up to its name; and Grand Canyon Lodge, which dates to the 1930s.