Day 7 of 2022 Arizona Trip, Grand Canyon National Park

Seventh and last day of my 2021 Arizona trip, my friend and I would spend the day visit the few vistas along the southern rim of Grand Canyon National Park, before driving back to Phoenix later in the day for our flight back to the east coast.

After yesterday's epic hike of Bright Angel Trail to Colorado River and back, my friend and I decided to spend the final day of our Arizona trip in a more leisure manner, visiting the few vistas along the southern rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Between Hermit's Rest in the west and Desert View in the east, it's more than 30 miles of view of Grand Canyon. While it did get a bit repetitive at places (since the geological layers were similar), I never got bored at the constant stream of awesome sights.

Hermit Road

This morning we started our tour at Hermit Road, where we left off the previous day. During the few winter months Hermit Road was open to private vehicles, otherwise one have to take the park shuttle.

Monument Creek Vista

This was a vista point overlooking a small canyon, with a creek inside. One could probably make a hiking trail in it to rival the Bright Angel Trail that we hiked the previous day (unfortunately, there wasn't).

Pima Point

Just like Hopi Point, Pima Point was located on some sort of rocky outcrop, thus offering panoramic views of the surrounding Grand Canyon. From here, it felt like the Colorado River was so tangibly close, that one could clearly identify the contours of its flow from the canyons below, while its raging waters popped into view for a few times.
In addition, one could also see portions of the trail leading from the nearby Hermit Point to the west down to Colorado River. In the early days of Grand Canyon tourism, Santa Fe Railway Company would transport visitors from its train station in Grand Canyon Village to here, and offered them mule rides into the canyon. Since the Bright Angel Trail at Grand Canyon Village was tolled, they offered this alternative to avoid tolls. It's said that Hermit Trail was maintained to a very high standard back in those days, with stone-paved sections (that unfortunately are gone nowadays).

Hermit Rest

Finally, at the end of Hermit Road was Hermit Rest, a small building that, for guests of Santa Fe Railway, served as the basecamp for the mule ride down the canyon. Nowadays, the building was a convenience store. We didn't bother to retrieve our masks so we stayed outside.
As much as views were concerned, I didn't think the views at Hermit Rest were that great. So we didn't stay here for long.

Along Rim Drive

Yavapai Point

After the excursion to Hermit Drive, we were back at the popular and developed Grand Canyon Village. Our first stop here was Yavapai Point, which housed a geology museum for its location overlooking the most stunning and geologically diverse portions of the Grand Canyon.

A highlight of Yavapai Point was that, it was directly facing Bright Angel Canyon, a long canyon perpendicular to the Colorado River, leading up to North Rim of Grand Canyon. After yesterday's epic hike of Bright Angel Trail, a rim-to-rim hike that it afforded was ever more within my reach. And inside the geology museum, one could appreciate its magnificence while sheltered from the elements.

Mather Point

Next we went to Mather Point, an overlook closest to the visitor center. Unfortunately, the visitor center was surrounded by many parking lot (for its summer shuttle volume), and we happened to park at a lot that's farthest from Mather Point.

Mather Point was an even smaller rocky outcrop than the previous ones, and with its proximity to the visitor center, the park authorities aggressively set up fences so that people don't fall off the canyon accidentally.

After that, we followed East Rim Drive for the exit of the park.

 

Duck on a Rock Viewpoint

While the viewpoint was obviously named for the shape of the rock (picture above), I was having a hard time associating that with the shape of a duck. But instead, we found another bird hanging around in its parking lot.

Grandview Point

Next we reached Grandview Point. Nearby was the site of a prosperous copper mine at the turn of 19/20 century. But unfortunately the difficulty of bringing ore back to canyon rim meant the mine didn't stay profitable for long. Yet with the mining infrastructure, Grandview Point was the site of Grand Canyon's first hotel, attracting tourists before the railway age.

Moran Point

This vista was named after Thomas Moran, who accompanied John Powell for his survey of the Colorado River in 1873.

Desert View Point

Finally, we reached Desert View Point at around 1:30pm, the easternmost vista in the park.
Here it felt like the edge of the Grand Canyon. Towards the east, it's the layered canyons that we felt so familiar throughout our 2-day tour. Towards the north where the Colorado River came from, it's still a canyon landscape, but less convoluted, less steep, and more straightforward, as the river simplified the geological layers around it.
This sight in front reminded me of the metaphor of life. In the north the river was in its youth, vibrantly beaming in the sun. Below the viewpoint it made a turn towards the west as it matured, with all its bewildering magnificence in full display before envied eyes. But at the same time, its labyrinth of canyons was both sophisticated and aloof, in somber colors against the sun. Like a man in his prime age, decorous and solemn.

Drive towards Phoenix

After that, we left the park and headed east.

Little Colorado River Navajo Tribal Park

Compared with its bigger brother of Grand Canyon National Park, this Navajo tribal park didn't see nearly as many visitors. Yet just 600 meters from its parking lot, we were at the edge of Little Colorado River Canyon, a Tributary of Colorado River.

Here the canyon wall didn't contain as many geological layers as the nearby Grand Canyon, but the steep drop-off of 500 meters was a different scene not often seen in Grand Canyon. To spice things up, here Little Colorado River made a 180-degree turn, so it's a sight that rivaled the Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River. Except the rocks here weren't that rich in color, and the viewpoint was off-center, two unfortunate factors for its lack of popularity.

After many vistas along the way and a late lunch in town, by the time we left Flagstaff, it's 4:30pm.

I70 Scenic View

A not-so-scenic view along I70, east of Sedona, southbound lanes only. After that, the highway went on a long and continuous downhill until reaching Camp Verde.

Piestewa Peak Park

It was almost 7pm by the time we reached the outskirts of Phoenix, but our flight back to Detroit wasn't supposed to depart until 10:45pm. With some time to kill, we decided to find somewhere with views of Phoenix's skyline at night, and we picked Piestewa Peak Park.

We made it inside the park before its entrance gate closed at 7pm. The park was pretty quiet at night, except for some Latino families hosting festive celebrations. While from Piestewa Peak the Phoenix Skyline should be clearly visible, we weren't in the mood for more exercise in the dark, after yesterday's odyssey of Bright Angel Trail. So we picked a small hill not far from the parking lot and went up there.
Unfortunately that meant our views of city lights were limited. But nonetheless we sat there and chatted for half an hour in gentle breeze, before continuing towards Phoenix.

After that, we returned the rental car and made our way to the airport, ready for our flight back.
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