Friday March 29
What a fantastic day at the Grand Canyon! It was 30 degrees this morning, but warmed up quickly. The weather was perfect for a hike, a cloudless blue sky, light breeze and temps in the mid 60’s. We headed out a little after nine, made first use of Nancy’s National Parks pass to cover the $25 per vehicle entry fee. Since we drove in in the truck we parked in the RV section near the Backcountry Info Center.
From there it was a short walk to the first bus stop on the Rim Trail. We took the bus all the way to Hermit’s Rest at the East end of the trail. From there we hiked back a little over five miles. Beautiful views into the canyon all the way along.
The first three miles were on a paved path and that is actually hard on the feet. legs and hips. Nancy was smart and packed a good assortment of snacks and we made several stops to snack along the way. In spite of that I was dragging by the time we made it to the Monument Creek stop. Being at 6,900 feet above sea level did not help either!
From there though the trail was a dirt path that ran right along the rim of the canyon. The dirt trail was actually much easier walking for us and I got a second wind. We hiked all the way to Mohave Point, a bit over five miles in all. At one point we had stopped for a snack and we saw two Elk crossing an access road across the road from where we were sitting.
If you are planning on hiking the Rim Trail we recommend starting from Monument Creek and going west, good hiking and really beautiful views.
From Mohave Point we took the bus back to the village, walked back and dropped our hiking gear at the truck. Then we took a village bus to the East end of Grand Canyon Village and walked back to El Tovar Hotel, the original Fred Harvey hotel at the canyon. Then we stopped at the Kolb Studio. By this point we were exhausted and it was about 3:30. We were going to grab a bus back to the parking area, but the buses were full and there was a huge crowd waiting at the stop. Fortunately it was not a long walk back to where we parked. Along the way we stopped at Meswik Lodge and had a pizza and beer for dinner.
All in all a really nice day.
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