Christmas at the South Rim

Hey! Welcome back... hope you enjoyed the time away. I know we did.

Jo and I spent the Christmas weekend in a small cabin on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. On Thursday we got up and had breakfast before heading out of town. We dropped off Bianca to stay with some friends and began our 5 hour journey to the Grand Canyon. The drive was pretty dreary; there was a lot of rain and fog, and snow once we hit about 6,000 feet in elevation. We arrived at the park around 5:30 and drove to Bright Angel Lodge to check in to our cabin. It was a snowy, windy mess of a night and we slogged our way from the car to the cabin, fighting the stinging sleet that was hitting us in the face. Once we settled in we went to the El Tovar Lodge (the most famous lodge on the rim) for dinner. We were a bit disappointed because the restaurant was only serving their Christmas Menu and it was none to appetizing. Although we wanted the "fancy" dinner we decided to opt out and head back to the Bright Angel Lodge restaurant and have a more Perkins-style dinner. After dinner we settled in for the night, hoping the weather would be better on Friday.

We woke up on Friday to find that the weather was indeed better. I was able to get a clear picture of our view from the cabin door. We ate a quick breakfast and got all bundled up and ready to go hike the South Rim. Hiking on the South Rim is extremely different from hiking on the North Rim. The South Rim has one major trail, the Rim Trail, that runs for roughly 18 miles from Pipe Creek Vista in the east to Hermet's Rest in the west. We decided to catch the shuttle from the lodge and head to Mather's Point (Jo's picture here) and the visitors' center to get some advice on where to hike and what the weather was supposed to do.

One of the rangers was fairly pessemistic about our chances of hiking any of the Rim Trail. They were expecting a storm to roll in around noon and dump another inch or so of snow and he figured we couldn't make the four miles or so back to the lodge before the storm hit. The other ranger at the center was more upbeat and told us he had hiked in from the market center and, though a bit slushy, the trail was in good shape. We decided to take the risk and hike the trail back to our cabin. It ended up being a beautiful hike. The weather stayed nice and we were able to enjoy the canyon. The Rim trail is set up for tourism, so every major vista had a parking lot or gift shop attached to it. Jo and I stopped and enjoyed those scenic overlooks, but we found other areas on the trail, off the beaten path, that were far more beautiful and far less crowded.

About half way to our cabin we took the off-shoot trail to the Village Market Center and stopped at the Yavapai Lodge cafeteria to have a warm drink, read the paper and eat a bit of trail mix. we then headed back to the Rim Trail and stopped off at all of the visiting areas on the way back to the cabin. We made a side trip to the Kolb studio to get on the list for the next day's tour of one of the canyon's more unique and historic sites. We took advantage of our westward view of the canyon and watched the sunset as it hit the north rim before heading out of the cold and in for dinner and relaxation.

On Saturday we decided to hike from our cabin westward to Hopi point and back before our 2 pm tour of the Kolb studio. It was much warmer out and we could tell by all the people on the trail as well as the wildlife. The Hermet's Rest portion of the Rim Trail provided some beautiful views of the interior of the canyon as well as an amazing view of the Bright Angel Trail; the most famous of the two trails leading into the canyon. Once we made it past the first major overlook we were pretty much alone. We chatted and stopped and looked into the canyon, but most of this hike was spent enjoying the sunshine and the peace that comes with being away from the crowd. We made it out to Hopi point in plenty of time and headed back via the Hermit's Rest road. We noticed that the plow trucks were running up and down the road and were suprised to return to the village to see the road open to traffic. What we thought was a crowd on Friday had truely turned in to a crowd. The one way road around the village was backed up with traffic and tourists were crawling all along the rim.

We went to the tour of the Kolb studio at 2 pm and really enjoy the story of Ellsworth and Emory Kolb. I suggest you google them and read up on these two unique and eccentric brothers. After Kolb studio we decided to catch the shuttle to Pipe Creek Vista and hike back to the visitors' center along the Rim Trail. By this time the park had become extremely crowded and the busses were running behind. What should have been a thirty minute trip took us about an hour. We were crammed on to the busses and had to deal with a ton of people who avoided the canyon on Friday because of the ominous weather report.

Once at Pipe Creek Vista we quickly set off along the trail to get away from the crowd. We were rewarded with our own personal view of the sunset. We arrived at Mather Point just before the sun went down and were greeted by a far different scene than we saw on Friday. The point is the first major stop for tourists in the canyon and they were now out in full force. We loaded the bus, stopped off at the market to get dessert, almost froze to death waiting for the bus again, and went back to the cabin for dinner.

On Sunday we set the alarm to get up and watch the sunrise. We hit the road around 9 am after breakfast at the Yavapai Lodge cafeteria and were home by 2:30 a bit tired but feeling rested and ready for the week ahead.

To see all 150+ pictures from this trip go here.

Peas!

Cory