This will be the last of my Grand Canyon posts (check out part 1 and part 2 if interested) but there is more coming up about the rest of our Arizona trip.

Bailey told me when we were planning the trip that she did not want to venture into the canyon to do any hiking. Neither one of us has much serious hiking experience and we knew the trails might be snow covered and a bit icy (turns out they were!). She also knows that my sense of adventure can sometimes get the best of me, and she didn’t want me getting overly excited, speeding off into the canyon and getting myself into a situation.  So I agreed to all of her terms.

The big exception to Bailey’s “no hiking” rule was The Rim Trail. Her plan was to walk from that trail from Mather Point/ Visitor’s Center, east to the South Kaibab trailhead, back past Mather Point to The Village/Bright Angel Trailhead, then back to our starting place at Mather Point.  It was about 14 miles total.

So that’s what we did- and it was excellent! Once again the weather was sunny, sporadically windy, and about 35 degrees. The trail was the perfect combination of feeling semi-isolated and alone in a vast wilderness, yet at the same time having enough people around (and cell connection) that food, water and medical attention were minutes away if any unfortunate surprises happened.

As neither one of us are morning people, the initial few miles of walking were a bit of a slog, especially the uphill potions, which aren’t even very steep.  We also realized that we didn’t fuel up enough, even though we did make a point to have a real breakfast.  I don’t know if it was the altitude or just overall fatigue, but I think we were both surprised at being somewhat tired and sluggish during the first half of the walk.

When we arrived at South Kaibab Trail Head, much of it was still covered in ice and snow.  Even though the recommendations were everywhere regarding proper footwear in these conditions, we were surprised how many people just hit the trail in their plain old sneakers.  It seemed like a bad idea.  But, it was fun to at least watch the trail as it weaved around corners, along ledges, and quickly out of sight.  Someday I’d like to head down the trail too.

After hanging around at South Kaibab for a few minutes, we retraced our roughly 2.5 mile path back to the Visitor Center, ditching some un-needed extra coats in the car as we headed east, still on the Rim Trail. The views were excellent all the way under such a clear sky. Portions of the path were snow-blown and sometimes icy, but not a big deal.

About four miles later, we made it to The Village area. The first thing we came across was Verkamp’s Park Store, now a visitor center and gift shop.  It was cool though because inside the store they had a walkable timeline that gave the history of the Verkamp family and the store.  Basically, it was one of the first structures built on the canyon rim (1906), and was the last family-run business in Grand Canyon National Park, before being taken over by the park in 2008.

Right beside Verkamps was another great spot, Hopi House. Completed in 1905 by a combination of Hopi and non-Hopi builders, the house is a Native American art and gift shop built to reflect Hopi dwellings in the Oraibi, Arizona area.  Like Hermit’s Rest, it was designed by Mary Colter. One of the coolest parts of the building is its ceiling, which includes saplings, grass and a mud coating, typical of Hopi style. In my opinion, Hopi House is easily the most interesting place in the park to go shopping.  I bought a bunch of stuff, despite having to carry it along the final several miles of our hike.

Clustered alongside Verkamp’s and Hopi House is the famous El Tovar Lodge. Opened around the same time as those other buildings, El Tovar was, and is, the most luxurious lodging in the park.  It was designed by Charles Whittlesey, the architect for the famous Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. We just took a quick walk around the lobby to check out the frontier vibe and get a sense of the place.  It was pretty sweet, but very different from the “camping-dorm” feel of our Yavapai Lodge room. There’s a lot of history on El Tovar, which you can read here.

The lobby of El Tovar

At this point, Bailey and I were super hungry so we hit the Maswick Lodge food court for some burritos. It looked close to El Tovar on the map but in reality it was nearly a mile away, with our backs toward the canyon. It was a little annoying at the time, but it did give us a chance to see a bit more of the village area, which had a ski lodge type vibe to me.

Burrito time!

After lunch, it was back to the canyon rim to set foot on the Bright Angel Trail.  I just wanted to say that I walked on both trails (Bright Angel and South Kaibab) on the same day, so I had to at least walk a few yards on it.  When at some point I get back to the canyon again, I think I’ll head down this trail instead of South Kaibab.  Standing at the entrance, you can see more of the trail as it winds around and down and through an archway.  Bright Angel also has some stop-off/rest points within the first few miles that would seem to make nice turning points.

Right beside the trailhead, is the Kolb Studio Store, another historic and very cool-looking building.  We had actually checked it out the day before when exploring around by car, but since I didn’t mention it then, I’ll include it now.

The Kolb studio was built into the rim of the canyon and opened in 1904 as a photography studio by the Kolb Brothers. The building has several levels and you can take some pretty sweet photos just shooting out the windows.  Nowadays, the building is a gift shop of course, but it also has some very cool historical photos of what canyon travel was like long ago.

Kolb Studio
The Rim Trail goes right past Kolb Studio.

The walk back from The Village was even better than the way out.  It’s amazing what a good burrito can do for the body!  

Part of the trail includes a section called Trail of Time, where the geology of the canyon is explained section by section and includes examples of the various rocks that make up the giant gorge.  Every few steps represents thousands of years of nature’s work.  I admit, the information in that section was hard to understand; not because it wasn’t well-presented, but because the numbers involved are so huge!  I can’t really understand those vast stretches of time in any meaningful way.  That, along with the whole Grand Canyon experience, is a good reminder that the stuff we’re worried about in life is very minuscule in the scheme of things.

We were lucky enough to hit one more building on the way back to Mather Point- the Yavapai Point Geology Museum.  We skipped it on the way out, planning to see it on the return trip, but then almost didn’t get back to it before they closed. The museum is basically 2 rooms but the canyon views might have been the best of the day!  The other highlight for us was a 3D map of the canyon that really helps put things into perspective. 

Outside Yavapai Geology Museum at the canyon edge.

It was weird how the day went.  We started out feeling a little sluggish, but by the time we got to Mather Point, I was totally energized!  It was a beautiful walk and it was also great spending so much one on one time with Bailey, uninterrupted by everyday life situations.

We hung around the visitor center a little while, stalling until it was time to watch the sunset and take our last look at the canyon.  Deer were everywhere as usual! Here’s a few that got accidentally trapped between us and another group of visitors.

It was a bit of a bummer, making myself take a last look at the canyon before turning away for good.  It’s easy to get used to seeing the indescribable everywhere you look.  I plan on seeing the canyon again, but I have no idea when that will be.

The last night of the Olympics coincided with our last night in the park, and since any sort of modern day night life would feel way out of place in canyon area, we kept our usual routine of getting food at the Yavapai restaurant and chilling in the room watching the Olympics.

We were heading out the next day to see the other main attraction on our trip- Lower Antelope Slot Canyon in Page, Arizona. Story coming soon….

Thanks for reading! For more of my writing, music, photos, etc… please see the self promotion center below

Follow/subscribe to Five O’Clock Shadow for my writing and photo journals.  I’m also available for freelance writing jobs- contact me and let’s talk about it!

Listen to my music on any streaming platform (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, etc.) under the following artist names:
Todd Fulginiti- cd available
The Cat’s Pajamas Old School Jazz Band- cd available
Fulginiti Family Band
Holiday Horns

For info on my live performance music events, bands and ensembles, booking, etc– visit toddfulginiti.com (there’s a blog there too for related writing).