Only hours into our first full day of exploring the Grand Canyon, I discovered the real benefit to visiting in the height of winter. It’s not the lack of crowds or the solitude (although that’s nice). It’s definitely not the weather. It’s not even the fact that the animals feel comfortable enough to wander up to you.
The biggest advantage of visiting in January is the ability to take in the Grand Canyon’s best vistas on your own timeline. The Hermit Road is only open to private cars during the lowest of the low season – December, January, and February. The other nine months of the year, you’ll have to park at the visitor’s center and take a shuttle to each of the scenic lookouts with everyone else. In winter, the Hermit Road is all yours.
This scenic drive (formerly called the West Rim Drive) was designed and created in 1935 along the southwestern rim of the canyon. The road was redone in 2008 for safety reasons, but a lot of the original details (like the hand rails at the overlooks and the stone masonry) were maintained.
There are nine scenic stops along this route, and each provides a different vantage point of the canyon.
People say that the Hermit Road has the best views of the Grand Canyon. You won’t hear any argument from me.
At Pima Point, you can get a clear view of Granite Rapids, part of the Colorado River.
You can also see the Colorado River from Hopi Point’s 7,071-foot elevation. (Those blustery cloud funnels are snow storms, by the way.)
So, who was the hermit? That would be Louis Boucher, a Canadian prospector who moved here in 1891. He worked on a path that went from the Hermit’s Rest arch down to the canyon. He spent his time there alone, looking for copper in Dipping Springs. Boucher really took to life in the Grand Canyon, and even worked as a guide for awhile.
Eventually, we arrived at the end of the road: the stone arch of Hermit’s Rest. This point is as far west as you can go on a paved road along the South Rim. (That bell was salvaged from a Spanish mission in New Mexico.)
Louis Boucher clearly liked his alone time, but as we found out, you’re never really alone here. Good thing the locals are friendly.
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