Tuesday, July 19th, 2023

Starting mileage: 9291, Distance travelled:

Miles hiked/walked: 5.5

Our day started with a 2-hour bus tour out to Hermit’s Rest, a stopping point for the old Santa Fe Railroad-supported tourism infrastructure back in the early part of the 20th century. The only way out to this western end of the south rim tourism area is by shuttle, bus tour, bike or on foot. Our hilarious tour guide/bus driver, Gail, cracked us up and filled our heads with history, geology, and nonsense for the entire trip. We also popped out of the bus for views and lessons along the way, at Mohave Point and Pima Point before making it to one of Mary Jane Colter’s buildings, Hermit’s Rest.

Along the route, we got several wildlife sightings.

We got back to our room and ate lunch before heading back out to the Village to visit the remaining sites. We walked along the Rim Trail to Kolb Studio, Hopi House and the Verkamp visitors center, scoring two more stamps in our passport and picking up some more souvenirs. While having cocktails on the patio of the El Tovar Hotel, we observed two park rangers comically trying to wrangle a big horn sheep off of the busy south rim trail but he would have none of it.

We drove to Tusayan, just minutes outside the park to the IMAX theater to see Grand Canyon: Rivers of Time. It was a combination historical re-enactment/white water adventure film which everyone enjoyed. Upon returning to our hotel, we walked over to Bright Angel Lodge to get dinner at the Arizona Steakhouse. Although overpriced, the food was decent.

We finished dinner with only 45 minutes until sunset. After a false start walking in the wrong direction, we got to the shuttle queue out to a good view spot back west toward Hermit’s Rest. While waiting, David spotted a rainbow across the way and Brady snapped a photo of the illuminated canyon in case we missed the sunset on the bus. We caught the last shuttle to get to Hopi Point in time. The sunset was gorgeous and we shared it with lots of people.