I parked my car over at my office, which is located by the main area of the village where El Tovar and the bus stops are. I discovered the rim trail doesn't start here, however. It starts just past the bus stop where a bunch of covered-up, straw-hat toting tourists sat fanning themselves under a covered waiting area.
The trail begins as a paved walkway just big enough for two people to walk side by side, as long as no one is passing from the other direction. It had its twists and turns close to the edge, but was far enough away I wasn't nervous... yet.
Here's the first part of the trail. This pavement lasts about 1-2 miles. Of 7.
(The view of Bright Angel Trail--I'm attempting that later on because the elevation change is too much for someone who hasn't acclimated yet.)
There were tourists everywhere in the first few miles and observation points. I even witnessed this: two people who decided they could get a better picture down below.
And just for perspective, here's where the guard rail was in comparison to where they climbed out:
After about two miles, the pathway went from paved to actual trail, dirt and all. And then slowly, the pathway got closer and closer to the edge. It's hard to make out from my pictures, but I was literally walking on the edge of the cliff face below the road, though it looks like there might be some land there, it's a steep incline downwards. One misstep on this narrow trail and that would be it for you.
I noticed a drop in people after about four miles into the trail. People would walk from bus stop to bus stop, if they were close together. After a while, I was the only one on this trail, on the ledge, staring out (and down) into vast openness.
It was about that four-mile mark where I started to feel the exhaustion. Hiking seven miles at 7,000 feet is no easy feat for an East Coaster who basically hiked to class and back. The heat here is so dry, I hardly sweat (which if you know me is kind of amazing). It's hard to gauge the sun exposure here because there's wind and you don't pour sweat, it just dries on you. I kept applying sunscreen although I am allergic because altitude+little shade=badness. The one thing I was smart about was wearing lightweight cotton, shorts, hiking boots (oh man, when I hit the rough part of the trail they saved my life), sunglasses, sunscreen and bringing two liters of water. Trust me, that water was gone when I hit mile 7. I was down one liter by mile 4.
(To see my clip of the rim trail, it's www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQx09fGOpBk)
Every so often I would see something like this sticking out of the ground:
And here's the close up
There were moments on the trail that just completely took my breath away. Usually because I was so close to the ledge I physically couldn't breathe. Mostly though, it was because the view was fantastic. I kept having to look up from the trail and stop to remind myself that this was all real, I was really walking the lip of a cliff over the Grand Canyon.
And I was never really alone, these little guys were everywhere:
There were also these random benches off the trail in some places:
The view from the bench, in case you were wondering:
The whole ordeal took about three and a half hours. I kept telling myself, just walk to the next bus stop and reassess. So I did. And I kept going, one more mile and I can get the bus back. Ok, I feel ok, just 1.7 miles and I can take the bus back. When I finally rolled in to Hermit's Rest at around 5:30, I sat for a minute in the shade, realized I was starving, hopped a bus back to the village (a 35 minute ride).
The day came to a close as I walked the wrong way off the bus and added another mile and a half to the hike trying to find my car.
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