Lorrand RVers: West On Hermit Road Canyon Rim

March 11, 2013 was -1ºC and sunny. Later it got to 11ºC. For our first early morning walk we went around Trailer Village and had to wear warmer clothes.

Taking the Shuttle Buses is encouraged for they are free, run every 15 minutes and makes stops at key places were one can get off look around, spend time viewing, eating, shopping and taking pictures. When you want to go further east or west, just wait for the next bus and hop on.

After breakfast at 10:00 am, we took the Blue Route shuttle bus from the Trailer Village to Hermits Rest Route Transfer. It made seven stops along the way. When we arrived there was quite a large group of tourist already waiting in line. When the Red Route Bus- Hermits Rest arrived it quickly filled up, causing us to wait for the next bus. We did not mind as the sun was warming things up.

Bright Angel Trail-head was at this stop. Since we had a few minutes, we walked down a short distance, on an icy narrow path. Others could already be seen walking along the switch-backs down into the canyon. Randal and I were not prepared for any long adventure, which would have taken the better part of the day, we turned around and came back.

We decided not to get off until the bus went 3 km, passing two other view points. Our first stop was Powell Point. There was a good view of the Canyon. The 'Green' paved trail ended there, leaving a muddy, rocky trail that was only a 1/2 km to the next view point. The path run very close to the canyon rim and at one point we moved onto the highway to finish the walk to Hopi Point.

Back on the shuttle bus going further west along Hermit Road, we stopped off at Pina Point. Here is where Randal took this picture; With his capabilities on 'Photo-shop' he trans-posed another picture of my walking onto the rocky ledge and posted it on Face Book. There a couple of immediate comments on it.

This was the original photo base

Then I cut out this
portion and reversed
it to make the
shadow go to the left,
same a base shadows.

This was Lorraine walking in a very safe place
away from the canyon trail.

I then combined the two images and cleaned up the area around the body and the shadow. It turned out quit well. So never believe any thing you see in a photo.

We took the next bus up to Hermit's Rest, the last stop where there was a gift and snack shop. It was well past noon by this time and we were a little hungry, so I bought an snack; I also purchased a CD – 'Canyon Trilogy', with R. Carlos Naki playing the wooden flute. It fitted nicely with the 250 pictures Randal took today.

We returned on the Red Route bus to the transfer station and caught the Blue Route back to Trailer Village by 2:30 pm, tired and hungry. We were at an elevations of 7120 to 6650 feet.