After our first’ day off’ yesterday (by which I mean no hiking and biking, although there was the six hour drive), we decided we would also have a lie in. I slept until the alarm went off. Unfortunately, it wasn’t our planned alarm, but the one on the clock in the hotel room. And it was set for 0550. Andrew turned it off, but it must have only been on snooze… it went off again… and again… and again. At which point, I pulled the cable out of the wall. Sorted.

We did have our lie in and got up about 9am. We had breakfast and then relaxed in the room (or in my case, on the balcony) with coffee. It was fun watching the squirrels rummaging around in the pine trees, and listening to the sound of the Grand Canyon train hooting its way in to the village. We finally got ready to hike and were out the door just after noon.

We hiked from our room to the rim, where we turned westward and set off to complete the 8 miles to Hermit’s Rest. The last bus back was to be at 1720, so we had five hours to complete the hike. As it turned out, we did it in 4 hours, so had plenty of time in hand. It was as beautiful as ever, the vistas somewhat surreal and looking like a painted backdrop. We found a table to have lunch at with a great view. We encountered some elk on the trail. I particularly enjoyed the views at Pima Point, which is one of my favourite rim viewpoints.

Although not as hard as some hikes, because there is much less elevation change, it is still 8 miles and the legs were definitely feeling it after we got off the return shuttle bus. We relaxed in our room (and on the balcony again!), showered and then went to the Maswik canteen for a pasta dinner.

I thought I would see what night photography I could do off the balcony, and it was a bit of a luxury to set it going and wander back inside. It isn’t the most exciting night photo, but perhaps I’m just getting picky these days!