The Grand Canyon

From Williams Arizona the Grand Canyon National Park is about 50 miles due North.  We spent two days visiting the park with an idle day between visits.  Luckily the weather was good for the better part of both days.  The park was fairly crowded with families due to the Easter break.

We were surprised at the number of rental motorhomes in the parking lot.  Many of these class-c RVs were rented by foreign tourists who for lack of a toad vehicle use the motorhome for touring.

On the first day Thursday (4/17)  we drove to the visitor center at Mather Point.  We took the free shuttle bus to the Bright Angel trail head.

From the trail head, the road which parallels the rim to the west is open only to the shuttle and tour buses.  The free buses are convenient as they run every 10 minutes. The Bright Angel trail runs from the south rim all the way to the bottom of the canyon (approx 6 miles one way and over 2000 ft elevation change).  Needless to say, such a challenging hike was not our cup of tea.

We took the shuttle bus about half way to the western terminus (Hermit's Rest) and then walked a couple of short legs of the rim trail back to catch the return bus to Bright Angel trail head.

After hamburgers in the restaurant at the Bright Angel lodge we boarded the bus again and rode allthe way to Hermit's Rest.  By this time of day (mid-afternoon) we hoped to get  better pictures due to the shadows cast by the sun's lower position in the sky.  The Hermit's Rest gift shop itself is interesting one of the oldest park  buildings.

We hiked about a mile eastward on the rim trail from Hermit's Rest.

Riding the shuttle we got back to the visitor center at about 4:30PM where we encountered some four legged visitors.

After a day's break back at the campground, we headed back to the park planning to drive the road to the east of the visitor center.  Follow the link to the next post.