Bob - Along the Rim to the West - Monday, June 1, 2009

Monday we decided to sightsee along the rim going west from Canyon Village. Our first stop was the Bright Angel Lodge History Room. This room has panoramic windows looking out into the Canyon on either side of a fireplace, designed by Mary Cutler, to show the stratification of the rock layers of the Canyon. She directed that rock from the different elevations be brought up by mule to build this fireplace. The room is also full of Fred Harvey company memorabilia. Apparently there is a 1946 movie titled, the Fred Harvey Girls. We'll have to look for this on netflix!

Next we walked along the rim to the Lookout Studio, designed by Mary Cutler of stone to blend into the Canyon rim and built by the Fred Harvey Company to compete with the older (at the turn of the century) Kolb brothers Studio. Both are primarily gift shops today, but in great locations hanging onto the Canyon rim near the southern terminus of the Bight Angel trail. Kolb also has a small gallery in what used to be the theatre. The Kolb brothers were very early photographers and filmmakers of the Canyon scenery.

A little further to the west we caught the blue shuttle to Hermit's Rest (the end of the line). This section of the road is closed to most private autos. I say most because we saw 3 or 4 cars had the pass code allowing them to drive their private cars on this route. We were curious as to how this privilege is allocated by the Park Service.

Our plan was to start at the western most point and work our way back towards Canyon Village. Hermit's Rest is another Mary Culter stone structure built to blend into the Canyon rim. It was originally a rest stop and view point for the horse drawn carriages that were used for Canyon rim tours. We had a snack lunch there before heading back. We took the shuttle back to Mohave Point then walked the rim trail from there to Hopi Point and on to Powell Point.


This was only about 1.1 miles, but it felt very adventuresome as it was a dirt path and there was no barrier along the rim.



The trail was typically six feet or so from the rim, but occasionally we were right at the edge. All three lookout points were spectacular, but Powell Point juts out into the Canyon giving a 180 degree view. Lots of places along here gave us views of the Colorado River in the inner Canyon.