We drove to the Vercamp’s Visitor Center this morning.
On our way we spotted a javelin next to the road.
From the Vercamp’s parking lot, we hiked to the Bright Angel Trailhead. The walk was along the Rim Trail so we had great views of the Grand Canyon. We also saw the Kolb Studio. It was a short walk from the top of the Bright Angel Trail to the first tunnel on the trail.
The hike from the first tunnel to the second tunnel was a steep but easy walk downhill. Seeing the Grand Canyon from inside the canyon is different than seeing it from the top. Part of that is because you are lower in the canyon. Also, as you descend, you get to see things that are not visible from above. This includes things like a view of the Bright Angel Trail’s path down into the canyon, or look of some of the cliffs from the bottom instead of the top. Even a short walk down into the canyon gives you a new appreciation for new and different aspects of the Grand Canyon.
When the trail comes to an open spot, it is time for a wide angle view.
The view below is the wide angle view in a 360 view.
We stopped for a short time at the second tunnel. It is tucked in a corner of a side canyon. We are only going a little further down the trail to the end of the current switch back. Here you can see how far down we had climbed. We hiked about 540 feet down in about a mile.
This is the turn where we stopped. Just after this point there is a series of 10 short switchbacks that drop about 300 feet in a quarter mile as you walk down to the bottom of a steeper part of the canyon wall. The view from this point was amazing.
If you look closely at this last picture, you can see the change in descent from the top trail to the lower trail.
The hike back up was a little bit harder. Our hike down was about 40 minutes. Our hike back up was about an hour. Both were fun, both were different. We take our time, and we take a ton of pictures. This selection from the Bright Angel Trail was culled from about 200 pictures that we took on this hike. When you turn around and hike back, you get to see some things you did not see on the way out. One of the most interesting of those things was a section of the canyon that looked like a stone wall.
There is one part of the trail we hiked that is out of sync with everything else. On the way back up, we had to hike downhill for a short distance. It was a nice break.
We also noticed more of the downhill part of the Bright Angel Trail that we did not hike. Looking at the red cliffs below where we were, made us appreciate the challenges of hiking all the way to the bottom of the canyon.
As we neared the top, we took a few shots of the canyon from below the rim. We truly enjoyed this hike.
Kolb Studio is an artist dream. It is located in a perfect spot for drawing or painting some part of the canyon. We noticed a painting displayed in the studio that appeared to have been of the same place we photographed only moments before from the deck of the studio.
Just a few steps down the rim trail from Kolb Studio, we saw some big horn sheep. There were at least nine of them on the hill (cliff). We watched them for awhile and then continued our journey.
Shortly after that, we arrived at the Mary Coulter’s Lookout Studio. It is now a gift shop on the rim of the canyon. It has some nice scenery as well. We completed our hike back to Vercamp’s Visitor Center when we left the lookout studio/gift shop.
On our way to the visitor center, we got this wide angle view of the canyon. You can see the gift shop on the left side of the photo.
We converted the wide angle view into this 360 degree panorama.
After the Vercamp’s Visitor Center, we caught a bus to Powell Point. Yesterday, we hiked the Rim Trail from Powell Point to Hermits Rest. (We did skip one small section during our bus ride.) Today, we are hiking the Rim Trail from Powell Point back to our car at the Vercamp’s Visitor Center parking lot.
At Maricopa Point, we hiked out to the point. You could see a 270 degree view of the canyon.
Here is the wide angle view of Maricopa Point, followed by the 360 degree view below.
After Maricopa Point, we headed to Trail View Overlook. On the trail, we had numerous views into the canyon and snapped a picture of a Fernbush.
Here are some additional Grand Canyon views from the Rim Trail between Maricopa Point and Trail View. The first three are a set. A wide angle view of the Canyon, then a close up from a slightly different angle, and finally a zoomed in shot to show a tree growing from out of the rock on top of a cliff.
The last three include an Arizona Thistle, a selfie, and a unique spherical rock formation.
Trail View Overlook lets you see the Bright Angel Trail from the rim of the canyon.
Earlier this morning, we hiked from the rim down to the top of the yellow cliff. We stopped at the top of the cliff just about in the middle of the picture. That hike is only about 10 percent of the hike to the bottom of the canyon.
Here are two other views of the Bright Angel Trail from Trail View.
We took one more picture of the Bright Angel Trail from the end of the side canyon where the trail begins.
This was an interesting view into the canyon from a split in the rocks. The view became scary for a moment when a man jumped across the gap. He made it, but barely. He had to stumble forward when he landed because he landed on a part that tilted back into the gap.
We do not think he knew how far down it was. He got an earful from his wife after his jump.
From there we finished our hike back to the car and drove to the Yavapi Lodge.
That was not the end of our day. After dinner, we attended the Night Sky Program. The directions to the program were start at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center and follow the red rope light. We ended up in a parking lot far from any buildings. It was quite dark.
The program was interesting. A ranger was pointing out constellations. Some were familiar, but looked much brighter. Some had familiar names, but are not usually visible in an urban or suburban environment.
We left the program early to find a place where the moon was hidden from view. Then we took some night sky photos. You can see the stars much easier in a darker night sky. You can also see a little bit of the Milky Way white light in the photos.
We had a long fulfilling day today.