6 Aug 2023 - Final Day at Grand Canyon: Village Area

 

Our last day at Grand Canyon.  I am glad we plugged in four nights here.  We've seen pretty much everything we wanted to.  The last area for us to explore today is called "The Village".  So we headed back into the park a little later than normal, and the lines showed.

 

After processing through the gate, traffic came to a halt which usually means there are critters of some sort.  Sure enough, an Elk family was having breakfast right along side the road.  We were forced to stop because of those in front of us, and of course there were some 'statistics' that exited their vehicle and were approaching the critters, iPhones in hand...  Ugh!  When will people learn?  What do they call that, 'natural selection', or future Darwin Award winners?  

Once on the way again we headed for the Village area.  The first steam-powered train arrived to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on September 17, 1901. With the arrival of the train, so did visitors and the South Rim rapidly expanded into the bustling Grand Canyon Village. The luxurious El Tovar hotel was built along with shops such as Hopi House and Verkamp’s Curios, now called the Verkamp’s Visitor Center. Over the years the Grand Canyon Village continued to expand to accommodate its growing visitation. The Village is a historical and beautiful part of the Grand Canyon area.

We started our visit walking from the parking lot, along the Rim Trail and to the Hopi House.

The view along the Rim Trail is incredible no matter where you are!

The Hopi House is a large, multi-story building shaped and built like a Hopi pueblo. This is another example of  Mary Colter's design for an “Indian Arts Building” better known as a souvenir shop. Her goal was to design something that appeared native, natural and timeless.

Our next stop in the Village was the historic El Tovar Hotel.  The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway partnered with the Fred Harvey Company to construct this quaint hotel that could cater to the prospective travelers that the railroad hoped it would serve. The hotel was built from local limestone and Oregon pine and cost $250,000 to build.  The hotel opened it's doors on 1905 and is widely considered the crown jewel of Historic National Park Lodges.  We explored the lobby and relaxed in a couple of the hand-made rocking chairs on the porch area and hydrated a bit.

The lobby area.

Next stop was the Verkamp's Visitor Center, which dates back to 1898. John George Verkamp moved to the grounds of the Bright Angel Lodge and sold souvenirs out of a tent to visitors traveling along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. After several slow weeks, Verkamp closed and sold his stock to the hotel, but returned in 1905, building Verkamp's Curios. He constructed the current building with supplies shipped in from Los Angeles and opened his business early in 1906. It is now operated by the park's non-profit, the Grand Canyon Association.  It also contains historical information about the Grand Canyon.  

Exiting the Visitor Center, we walked west along the Rim Trail and stopped at the many overlooks along the path.  There are probably 40 more pictures I won't post!

Don't know if you can read this plaque, but it commemorates the trans-canyon telephone line which was built in 1935 as a CCC project and then maintained by Mountain Bell Telephone Company.  Remnants of the cable and poles are shown below.  As a former telephone maintainer myself, Doreen knew I would want to see this so she made me aware!!

Further down the trail we passed the Kachina and Thunderbird Lodges and businesses along the South Rim, including a steakhouse which smelled incredible!!  

Another historic structure along the South Rim is Buckey's Cabin and it is the only remaining building from the early pioneer settlement era of the Village. Built on this site in 1895 by William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill, the 2-room office and bunkhouse—complete with v-notched logs, rough mortar chinking, and a native stone chimney—was the rustic home of Buckey and his wife while they operated a small hotel on the South Rim.  Buckey was killed fighting with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Battle of San Juan Hill in Puerto Rico in 1898.

Buckey's Cabin

These next few pictures are of the Lookout Studio, which as designed by architect Mary Colter (imagine that!!) and constructed by the Santa Fe Railway in 1914. The studio was intended as a place for visitors to safely view and photograph the Grand Canyon from its edge. It was also meant to be a place for visitors to rest after hiking.

Lookout Studio 

Continuing down the South Rim trail,  the Bright Angel Trail came into view. This trail is the most popular hiking trail into Grand Canyon.  It's pathway lets hikers "walk in the footsteps of the canyon's Indigenous Peoples, miners, and early tourists, as they descend into the canyon's depths. Offering big views, morning and afternoon shade, rest houses, vault toilets, and drinking water during the summer, this trail offers an excellent first trip into the canyon."  The entire hike involves 12 miles (one way) down into the Grand Canyon to Phantom Ranch, with an elevation change of approximately 5000 ft!  Remember, what goes down must come back up!!  This hike is not for the novice hiker.  There are shorter hikes on the trail including a couple tunnels, the first one being only 0.1 miles  from the start, but the second one is 1.8 miles and 590 feet of elevation change.  Needless to say, we did not attempt this hike, but we enjoyed seeing parts of the trail from above and seeing the trail head.  

Each year the Grand Canyon National Park assists more than 600 hikers and helicopter rescues an additional 150.  Most are due to overestimating their fitness or hiking ability.  They remind everyone with signage that rescue is not guaranteed and that you are responsible for your own safety!  As they say, "Don't be a statistic!"  Know your limits and be safe!

A well-equipped park ranger heading down the trail to check on hikers.

Hikers on the trail look like specks from above.

One small switchback on the way down, or up!

The upper tunnel

That's a wrap for the Grand Canyon!  Again, so glad we had time to see what we wanted to see.  This evening we will do our normal pre-departure tasks and then tomorrow we will head south and catch I-40 and US-93 up to Las Vegas and our next stop which is Nellis Air Force Base.  We will be there for a week.

Next report - "Vegas, baby!!"