Day 141 - From Dawn Til Dusk

We were all awake in time to throw on some clothes, stagger to the van and get driven the short way to Mather Point where we stood and watched the sun rising at about 05:15.

After the sunrise we all got dropped back at camp. The rest of the group had opted to hike down into the Grand Canyon today; with some doing a 3 mile return trip and the remaining two doing a 6 mile return. The two of us however had more sense and we went back to bed! The rest of the group left at 07:15 for their walks whilst we slept in until about 09:15. We had decided to stay up top for any walking we’d be doing; A hike in the very hot temperatures here was not Danny’s idea of fun and Corrie was not allowed to do this walk in her trusty flip flops and so instead we decided to visit many of the viewpoints along the canyon.

We walked a short way and caught one of the free shuttle buses (almost all NPs in USA have free shuttles) westbound until we had to get off and transfer onto the Hermits Rest Route. This route would travel further west stopping at 9 different lookout points along the way. Once on the shuttle we discovered that the eastbound service could only be caught from a few of these points and so we quickly planned our route for the day.

Stop one for us was at Hopi Point which offered a nice view and was classed as the highest point on the shuttle bus route.

Stop two was at The Abyss where there was a 3000ft drop down into the canyon. Again the view was ok here.

Stop 3 was at a tiny viewing platform called Monument Creek Vista.

The next stop was the end of the Hermits Rest Route and was Hermits Rest itself. We had a wander to the historic building and a brief look around but we weren’t overly impressed and so made our way back to the shuttle. The trail heading further west from this stop was meant to be quite good but we were too hot to be interested in doing that!

Stop 5 was at Pima Point and this place really did offer a great view of the canyon. We stayed here for a while as the views were just that good.

Squirrel sat on the cliff taking in the view

The next stop we could get off at and be able to board again was Mohave Point which again offered really great lookouts over this enormous wonder.

The final shuttle stop we made on this route was at Powell Point. We got great views from here and then decided to walk back along the rim, the 2 miles back to the bus that would drop us near camp. This walk was quite nice and between Maricopa Point and the Trailview Overlook we saw many condors circling overhead along with a huge raven tucking into a newly deceased snake at the side of the road.

At the Trailview Overlook we could see all four sections of the route; two of which would have already been done by some of our group today. The first section of the trail didn’t look fun, let alone the second which took you on a 3 mile track into the canyon. There were two additional section though which took people even further in; one of these took people right to the edge of “The Plateau” which did look as though you’d get some spectacular scenery and great camping but also looked like a killer to walk… especially back up.

Start of trails

Continuation of trails

End of trails

We made it back to the Market Plaza and relaxed in a café for a bit before walking back to camp where everyone else was already waiting, sleeping and showering.

We managed to glimpse a bit of the Gumball 3000 also.

At about 19:00 we got a lift from Damian to Yavapai Point where we all left the van to go and watch the sunset over the Grand Canyon. We found some nice front row seats on a good bit of cliff and then waited. The setting sun was gorgeous and was sad too in a way as this was almost the end of a great trip and it would soon be time to leave behind the colossal splendour of the Grand Canyon.

Back at camp we all tucked into the pizzas that Damian had supplied for tonight’s tea as nobody was up for cooking and washing up!