Grand Canyon, South Rim

May 28-30, 2002

We arrived about noon at the south rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. The weather was warm, in the high 70s, and clear. We settled into our campsite and started exploring the park using their free shuttle bus system. After checking out the visitor center and viewing the canyon from Yavapai point, we headed for the historic part of Grand Canyon Village - the train depot, Bright Angel Lodge, and the El Tovar Hotel. Strolling along the rim behind El Tovar we ran into Marcy Henderson (a name well known to our First Baptist Madison friends) and her mother. They had met up in Sedonia and driven to Grand Canyon for the day. It is indeed a small world. We spent the next couple of days hiking the trail on the rim and enjoying other pleasures, such as ice cream cones at the snack shop behind Bright Angel Lodge.

View of the Grand Canyon from the rim.

The Bright Angel trail leaves from near the Bright Angel Lodge and heads to the Colorado river, almost 5000 feet below. You can walk down or ride mules. But since the temperature at the bottom is at least 20 degrees warmer than at the rim, and there is no shade along the way, we opted for enjoying the view from the rim. The switchbacks and steepness of the trail also looked intimidating.

The Colorado River, as seen from near Hermit's Rest on the rim.

A rim to rim view with the Colorado River and the inner gorge. The south rim is on the left and the north rim on the right. 

As sunset approached we headed for Yavapai Point to watch the event and see if the changing light would produce some interesting pictures.  It seemed that everybody and their brother also had the same idea. The rim was crowded and we heard a multitude of different languages spoken. It was an interesting experience, but the sunset was disappointing that night. I am told that you can get very good pictures at sunrise, but that happens at  5:15 A.M., and I am not that dedicated a photographer, so there will be no sunrise pictures. Sorry about that.

We had a great dinner at the El Tovar Hotel; tomorrow we leave for the north rim.