Grand canyon Chon Buri

Is it worth visiting Grand Canyon Chon Buri

The Grand Canyon is one of the places you can visit during your trip to Bang Saen.

See also: Bang Saen (Saen Suk): beaches, mountains and monkeys between Bangkok and Pattaya

Grand Canyon Chon Buri is located between Bangkok and Pattaya, as you might guess from its name, in the province of Chon Buri.

Name in Thai: แกรนด์แคนยอน ชลบุรี

As stated in the description, this is:

A deep abandoned mine with an emerald green lake, an observation deck and a casual cafe.

A visit to the Grand Canyon does not take much time, but during my trip to Bang Saen I did not have time to stop by and see this abandoned mine. That’s why I specially came here from Pattaya – it didn’t take much time, the distance from Pattaya to this attraction is about 40 km.

Map of how to get from Pattaya to the Grand Canyon

Cost of visiting Grand Canyon Chon Buri

As for the cost of visiting, you don’t have to pay at all. If we talk about the “maximum program”, then it is 10 baht for parking a motorcycle and 20 baht per person – a total of less than $1. If you don’t want to pay, then instead of paid “parking” you can leave the motorcycle in any other place. As for the entrance fee, on the one hand there is an entrance fee, but on the other hand you can go for free. The paid side has a slightly better view. In any case, 20 baht is not very much money.

What is Grand Canyon Chon Buri

Looking at the size of this hole in the ground, the first thing that comes to mind is its natural origin – but there is no need to rush to conclusions.

Before getting to this attraction, I wandered around a little because there is a network of small roads with a minimum number of signs. And during these trips I saw a factory and mountains of stone that were crushed and loaded into cars. This stone is used to produce, for example, concrete. Already during my wanderings in search of the Canyon, I had the idea that this canyon in a clearly industrial area was not of natural origin, but artificial, and was something like an old abandoned mine from which something was extracted using open-pit mining. And so it turned out.

Well, that is, it is not so much a “canyon” as a “quarry”.

A characteristic feature of the quarries is a spiral road around the perimeter – otherwise vehicles will not be able to get out of this hole. This road increases and deepens as the size of the quarry changes. The spiral road in this canyon has not been preserved, but in some places you can see very characteristic fragments of it.

But overall this place is majestic and very large, and also looks very natural – that's why it seems that this place is of natural origin.

A short video of Grand Canyon Chon Buri.

Free Grand Canyon side

When leaving the parking lot, if you turn right, you will need to pay 20 baht per person. In this place there are observation platforms and the approach to the canyon is fenced with railings.

If you turn left when leaving the parking lot, you can admire the canyon for free.

I wouldn't say that the view here is much worse – it's just different, from a different angle.

There is a fence here, but this fence is easy to cross. I've seen parents take pictures of a girl standing behind the fence, right on the very edge – don't do that please!

On one of the sides there are these things drilled into the wall of the canyon – I don’t know what they are and for what purpose.

If you look closely, you will see that there are really a lot of these things. Perhaps, if you fall, you can cling to them and wait for the rescuers to arrive.

History of Grand Canyon Chon Buri

Here you can read information about this place, however, only in Thai – I translated it for you:

The history of the Grand Canyon stretches back to our grandparents' generation. It arose as a result of human activity such as the production of building stone. The stones were crushed by hand because there were no mechanized tools at that time, and they were sold to contractors for road construction. The quarry was much smaller; on its territory, local residents grew pineapples and trees for oil. Subsequently, the company bought this territory from local residents. Specialized machines and tools for extracting stone appeared here – this place became an industrial quarry. As a result of the company's work, this place turned into a stone pond, which became very wide and deep.

The reason why pond water is a beautiful green color is because of minerals. Since the bottom of the pond is a rock pond, the color of the water changes depending on the weather. Sometimes the water is transparent green, similar to emerald green. Sometimes it's a dull color. In addition, there are springs in the ground below that replenish the pond during the rainy season. Therefore, there is always water in the pond.

The total period from past to present was more than 100 years. Subsequently, mining ceased, and the quarry was named a canyon and became a tourist attraction. People take pictures admiring the beauty, but not everyone knows that this is just an abandoned mine.

LOF LAND

While I was wandering around trying to find the way to the Grand Canyon, I came across the LOF LAND sign. I had a different goal, so I didn’t attach much importance to this place.

But already from the observation deck of the Grand Canyon I saw an interesting place on its shore – with a waterfall and sun loungers right next to the abyss. This is LOF LAND. We arrived in the evening, so we decided to set aside a separate day for visiting LOF LAND and return here. In addition, we would like to arrive at the Grand Canyon itself at other times, because in the evening hours the sun shone straight into our eyes and it was difficult to take a good selfie against the backdrop of the canyon.

In this video you can see a fragment of LOF LAND. As far as I understand, this is a cafe with decorations on the theme of space travel.

In general, I’ll make a special trip to LOF LAND and then tell you more.

Conclusion

So, the Grand Canyon is an interesting place for a “day trip” if you are in Pattaya or somewhere nearby.

If you're heading to Bang Saen, add the Grand Canyon to your list of places to visit – it's worth the trip.