Our stay at the Grand Canyon starts at the rv park about one mile south of the canyon rim. Parking is at a premium throughout the national park but fortunately once settled in there is no need to drive. An excellent shuttle system runs every 15 minutes to and from anywhere in the park that I want to go. I spent two days at the Grand Canyon, the weather the first day was cold and wet, the second day cold with brilliant sunshine. Restrictions due to the Covid-9 pandemic are in place so masks are required indoors, some buildings were closed, etc. I have blended new pictures with some pictures from previous visits to show the full experience.
Standing in the door of the Lunch Box I see someone’s looking for breakfast this morning! A herd of elk, at least a half dozen or so, are clearly very comfortable sharing the rv park with human visitors.
The shuttle bus stops right at the rv park so I’m off!
The modern day history of the Grand Canyon begins in 1540 when Spanish explorers searching for the fabled (and non-existent) Seven Cities of Cibola wandered into northern Arizona and were the first Europeans to see the canyon. American exploration of the area picked up after the end of the Mexican-American War and in 1857 a US Army survey party came to the area and left “un-impressed” with the economic potential of the canyon area. John Wesley Powell led the first party to actually float the gorge in 1869 and he is the one to whom the name “Grand Canyon” is attributed. Prospectors staked claims in the canyon in the late 1800’s, having discovered deposits of asbestos, copper and lead, but the difficulty in getting ore out of the canyon made economic viability of the mines impossible. Some stayed and began exploiting the possibilities of tourism along the canyon rim. The railroad reached Flagstaff to the south in 1882 and tourists began to visit the Grand Canyon via stagecoach. A small settlement grew on the south rim and one of the early tourism pioneers, Buckey O’Neill, built cabins and operated a small hotel in 1895. When the area was declared a national park in 1919 existing areas of private ownership were grandfathered into the agreement so multiple areas within the park borders remained in private ownership until as late as 2008. Today, in 2021, there is only one parcel of private land within the boundaries of the national park, held by the William R. Hearst estate. A spur of the Santa Fe Railroad was built north from Williams to the village in 1901 (tickets cost $3.95) and a paved road was completed along the South Rim in 1926. On this trip I’m going to explore the South Rim of the Grand Canyon from east to west. The visitor center is a newer, non-descript collection of buildings so I skip that stop on the bus and head west to the Village, historic center of the park.
Grand Canyon Village
A number of hotels cluster along the rim next to the train station which sits in a slight depression below the rim. The train depot, built in 1910, is still used by the tourist train that commutes back and forth to Williams, 65 miles to the south.
Between the train depot and the canyon, nestled in the trees, lies the “people” center of the park. Above all looms the turret of the grand hotel of the park, El Tovar.
El Tovar was built in 1905 by the Santa Fe Railroad Company (interestingly enough, with timbers from Oregon as they were larger than the local ponderosa pine from the Flagstaff area.) Charles Whittlesey designed the hotel in the arts and crafts style popular at the time.
The back side of the hotel faces one of many side canyons, offering great views from the guest rooms.
The view from the covered porch of El Tovar looks down across the canyon to the north rim.
Across a central plaza is the Hopi House, opened in 1905 as a venue to showcase local native artisans and their crafts to the tourists, a function that it continues to fulfill today.
Capitalizing on the increase in the tourist trade, John Verkamp built a small store in 1905 just east of the Hopi House. His family lived in the second floor apartment for years, enjoying the view from the front steps. Verkamp managed the store until 1944. His family operated the store until 2008 when they sold it to the National Park Service.
The Rim Trail runs along of the canyon and turning west, I look along the developed part of the rim towards Lookout Point, the small tower in the far right.
Walking west I pass a small but historic spot. Here, in 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps built the first telephone line across the Grand Canyon to the North Rim. Clinging to the steep canyon walls, the workers hammered 592 steel poles into the rock down the canyon walls to the river and up the other side and hung 18 miles of wire, completing the task in 1935. Here, just past the El Tovar, is one of the first telephone poles hidden in the brush.
All the while the views open up on my right.
To my left are Bright Angel Lodge (1935) and the Thunderbird Lodge (1960’s).
The next building clinging to the edge of the canyon is the Kolb Studio. The Kolb brothers were pioneering photographers and in 1904 they built a studio on the edge of the canyon. Several additions were added over the years and it is now a bookstore and art gallery. It’s difficult to get a picture of the building because most of it is over the cliff!
When the Kolb Studio was built it was the furthest point west on the canyon wall catering tourists. The Fred Harvey Company, tourism arm of the Santa Fe Railroad, decided to beat the competition and in 1914 built Lookout Point further west. The building, designed by the same architect as El Tovar, seems to grow out of the cliff.
Lookout Point is the last building on the Rim Trail in the village and just beyond it Bright Angel Trail begins its’ descent to the canyon floor. Bright Angel Trail has been the main path from the canyon rim to the Colorado River four thousand feet below since pre-historic times. The trail is eight miles long and the beginning can be seen from Lookout Point.
Standing on the terrace of Lookout Point I turn left and get a view of the El Tovar area to the east.
I return back to a shuttle bus stop by Bright Angel Lodge and catch the shuttle to Hermit’s Rest, eight miles west where the road ends. The bus stops at a number of viewpoints along the way, allowing me to get off and walk a bit between some that are close together and then jump on the bus to those that are farther apart. It is a great little system.
Maricopa Point
Spectacular views unfold to the east and west.
The actual Colorado River is hard to see from the canyon rim as it flows through a “canyon in a canyon” at the bottom of the gorge. A rare glimpse of the river can be seen from Maricopa Point.
Looking west from Maricopa Point towards Powell Point, I am amazed to see the remains of a mine. It turns out that from 1956 to 1969 tons of high grade uranium were mined from a claim first held by Dan Hogan in 1891 when he found copper. It was too difficult to mine so he quickly turned to tourism for his livelihood, but uranium was found on the claim in 1951 and the mine soon followed. Here is a picture from 1978 that shows the mine structures virtually intact.
The mine was finally acquired by the National Park Service in 1987 and today the view from Maricopa Point shows the reclamation effort in progress. Surface structures are gone but the base is still visible against the canyon rim.
I walk the eight-tenths of a mile from Maricopa Point to the next viewpoint, Powell Point.
Powell Point
Powell Point memorializes John Wesley Powell, who led the first and second expeditions to float the Colorado through the canyon (1869, 1871). Again, views unfold to the west and the east.
The next viewpoint west is Hopi Point. Here a brief glimpse of the river can be seen in the canyon far below.
The trail is not as developed here so there is no paved walkway and no guard rail. I carefully take a picture looking down to the canyon floor four thousand feet below…
Because the force of the river current is so strong the Colorado River cuts its’ canyon quicker and deeper than the side canyons, which depend upon erosion from the rare rain and snow of the plateau to deepen. This accounts for the “canyon within the canyon effect. The canyon majestically unfolds to the east.
I hop on the shuttle bus and ride for a couple of miles to Pima Point, where good views of the river can be seen.
Pima Point
The last shuttle stop before the return trip is Hermit’s Rest. Hermit’s Rest was built by the Santa Fe in 1912 to compete for tourists with Bright Angel Trail, which was controlled by a competitor at the time. Visitors got off at the hut at Hermit’s Rest and then rode mules down the 7.5 mile trail to a camp on the canyon floor. Today Hermit’s Rest is a departure point for hikers exploring the park.
Hermit’s Rest is a small rock structure built into the side of the canyon.
Here’s a picture from 1922 showing tourists standing in the same spot.
An enormous fireplace takes up half of the building. Remember, this was not a place to stay but just a resting spot for those preparing to descend to the canyon floor.
A view down towards the river shows where the tourist camp was located.
I walk back towards the shuttle stop with one last look at the canyon to the west.
The next day as I leave the park heading east on Hwy 64 the weather is much better and the canyon shimmers under the bright sun. I pick up my visit to the Grand Canyon at the visitor center, located on Mather Point.
Mather Point
Mather Point juts out into the canyon on a narrow finger of ivory colored stone.
Walking out to the end of Mather Point, the views to the left (west) and right (east) are stunning (the first of many times I could use this word.)
The highway east winds through a dense juniper forest with the canyon slipping in and out of sight to the left.
Grandview Point was the site of an early tourist hotel, the Grand View Hotel, built by miner Pete Berry in 1897 after his copper mine down in the canyon played out. Visitors who survived the 12-hour stagecoach ride from Flagstaff could stay here on the canyon rim.
The hotel flourished for only four years as the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad at Grand Canyon Village, eleven miles west, spelled the end of the stagecoach runs. Hotels may come and go but the canyon continues on, providing spectacular views from Grandview Point.
The last stop on the canyon rim heading east is Desert View Watchtower, built in 1932 by famed architect Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter as a rest stop for travelers heading west to the Grand Canyon Village. The design of the tower pays homage to the Ancestral Puebloan towers of Mesa Verde and Canyon of the Ancients.
The tower is closed due to the pandemic but the view to the west shows the canyon in all of its’ multi-colored glory.
The view east shows that the canyon narrows and becomes a dark slash against the land (across the middle of the picture in the distance.)
Our path now veers southeast of the canyon as we leave the national park and enter the Navajo Reservation. A rapid descent takes one from the high plateau of the national park to the lower desert of the reservation as the highway parallels the canyon of the Little Colorado River.
The Navajo capitalize on the summer tourist trade by selling jewelry, native foods and souvenirs at roadside stands. Virtually every wide spot along the highway has these stands.
We have been flirting with the Little Colorado River ever since Gallup, NM, and here, near its confluence with the main Colorado River, it has carved a deep canyon in the surrounding plateau.
At the intersection of Hwy 64 and Hwy 89 we turn north, heading towards Utah. Just a few miles up the road is the small town of Cameron, on the southern bank of the Little Colorado River, which has been the site of a trading post along the Little Colorado River for over a hundred years. A suspension bridge was built in 1911 over the Little Colorado River, providing easier access to the lands of the Hopi and Navajo in northeast Arizona. It’s a bit difficult to see but in this picture the suspension bridge is black and the modern highway bridge is behind it with only the pillars rising from the riverbed visible.
The trading post is an oasis in the arid and sparsely settled northeastern corner of Arizona and the primary site of tourist services before setting off into the plateau with a hotel, large Native American gift shop, restaurant and gas station clustered at the southern end of the bridge.
North of Cameron the highway threads through high desert. Navajo souvenir stalls continue to dot the side of the road.
We are beginning to approach the Colorado River again and the very narrow canyon that it flows through cuts across the desert.
The highway hugs the eastern edge of the plateau, climbing up and around a spur before descending towards the river. The border town of Page, AZ, huddles in a cluster of green in the distance.
Next up: The Grand Staircase
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