On our bus tour on our first day at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, we visited Hopi Point and Mohave Point. From there, the bus headed back to the Grand Canyon Village and stopped at Trail View Point.
Google Maps
The squiggly white line across the lower mesa is the Bright Angel hiking trail down to the bottom of the Canyon from the South Rim Village. As you can see, you descend a couple thousand feet to get down to this lower plateau, hike a couple of miles, then pretty much drop over that far cliff and down another few thousand feet. The total hiking distance is only 9.3 miles, but the total vertical drop is over 5,000 feet – and then you get to hike back up. I would love to do it someday, but I’ll need to be in better shape than I am now.
The South Rim Village is built at the edge of the Canyon, near the center of a huge horseshoe-shaped bend, so that there are “arms” of land sticking out to both the east and west of the Village. Trailview Point is on this western arm of land, and here we can look back and see the Village, perched on the edge.
Embiggenate this picture to see most of the South Rim Village on the top of the mesa, with the Canyon falling away below it. You can also clearly see the Bright Angel trail descending down from the Village. Even if you can’t hike all the way down to the river, it’s not too terribly strenuous to hike down a half mile or so (YMMV!) always keeping in mind that you have to go back up.
As spectacular as the scenery was, one of the best highlights of the day was seeing a pair of condors soaring in the thermals rising up just off the edge of the cliff. The both came within fifty feet or so of us as they circled up from below the rim, riding the thermal until they were way over our heads. I had never seen on in the wild – they were spectacular, and HUGE. Watching them was special.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 