After leaving the North Rim we headed south to the South Rim, about 200 miles by car, a four hour drive or about 22 miles if we hiked it down and up, a two day affair. We drove. On the way we passed through the Vermillion Cliffs as seen below. We stopped at a very cool cafe for brunch.

We arrived  at the South Rim in the late afternoon and set up camp in the National Park. The park was a totally different experience than the tranquility we had experienced on the North Rim. It was a buzz with many tourists from all over the world but the campground was fairly empty so we felt laid back. We decided to drop off Apollo at the kennel in the park. He was not that happy about it but he was quite happy when we got back. Nicole, the director does a great job.

We took a six mile hike on the Bright Angel Trail. We went 3 miles down into the canyon and three miles back up. We only went about a third of the way down and were still six miles short of Colorado River. This was not a particularly tough hike because of the many switch backs, although the climb back gave us a good cardio workout. Joanne was a champ in overcoming her fear of ledges overlooking the abyss. The canyon is quite a sight with the Colorado River running through it.  Here are some of the pics from the hike.

Other South Rim Photos