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7:43 am - Thursday - December 7th - Grand Canyon - 24º F, humdity 31%, wind 8 mph out of the east.....sunny today with wind up 16 mph, and a forecast high of 38º F.
Wednesday was our 'Saturday', but we had to devote 4 hours of our off day at our Delaware North orientation meeting held at the Grand Canyon Recreation Center near the Village. In order to be at the Rec Center before 8:30 we decided to leave Desert View no later than 7:30 to make the 27 mile drive. We've been through a similar DNC orientation just prior to starting our summer jobs at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone NP. I know the presenters do their best to make essentially boring material interesting, but there is only so much one can do. Our friend, Art Young, was there also. I've written about Art a few times....we first met him at Amazon in Fernley Nevada back in 2014, and then began this past summer working with him at Tahoe Valley Campground.....all three of us ended up quitting TVC in early June for essentially the same reasons to move up to Yellowstone NP to work out the summer. We worked at different stores in Yellowstone, but kept in touch throughout the summer, and he eventually decided to transfer to the Grand Canyon to work at the Marketplace store in Grand Canyon Village.
Our orientation session was over about 12:15 at which time TLE and I headed out in the VW to do some more exploring. The air temp was in the low 40's when we exited the Rec Center and never really got out the 40's the rest of the day.....thankfully it was not breezy, or windy. We had not yet done any exploring west of the Village, so our first stop was Powell Point which is on the road out to Hermit's Rest......
......Powell Point juts way out into the GC so the view is spectacular.....
Powell Point
.......our primary destination was Hermit's Rest located at the extreme western end of GCNP. Hermit's rest was also designed by the architect Mary Colter who designed at least 5 other landmark structures at the Grand Canyon including Desert View Watchtower, Hopi House, Bright Angel Lodge, etc......
Hermit's Rest is at the end of the road on the west end of the South Rim
......like the Desert View Watchtower, Mary Colter designed Hermit's Rest to appear that it had been there for decades, and have the appearance that it had been carved out of the landscape by a 'mountain man'. Hermit's Rest is also the trailhead for the Hermit's Rest trail which takes you down into the Canyon......
After visiting Hermit's Rest we made our way back to the Village stopping at several additional vista points along the Hermit's Rest Road (Pima Point, Mohave Point, Hopi Point, Maricopa Point, etc.).
We arrived back at the parking lot for the El Tovar Hotel around 2:15 pm.......the El Tovar hotel is at the end of the Grand Canyon Railroad tracks, and sits just feet from the rim of the Grand Canyon....
Hopi (pronounced hōpē) House, also designed and built by Mary Colter
The El Tovar Hotel
Grand Canyon Railroad train awaiting passengers for its return trip to Williams, AZ
......by the time we finished our brief tours of The Hopi House and the El Tovar Hotel it was closing in on 3 pm and we were getting hungry, so we made our way over to the Yavapai Tavern (run by Delaware North) located at the Marketplace Center.....they have a number of craft beers on tap, and have a great pub food menu. We arrived just as they were opening and took seats at the bar. We both ordered their Piehole Porter (Historic Brewing Company, Flagstaff, AZ).....
Yavapai Tavern
.......we then ordered a plate of their potato skins, and a plate of their Bison Sliders, which we split......two potato skins for each, and one Bison Slider each. We thoroughly enjoyed talking with the bartender, Masha, who is a 20 something lady from the Ukraine. Yelp gives them 3 stars on 6 reviews, and Tripadvisor gives them 3.5 stars on 143 reviews.....we would rate them somewhere between 3.5-4 stars.....great ambiance, service and food!
Just across the large parking lot from the Yavapai Tavern is the General Store where we headed next to do a small shopping before heading back to Desert View. We were back home just before 5 pm. We had a staff meeting at 6 pm at the Desert View store so we put our groceries away, changed clothes and headed over to the store. Apparently there is a possibility of a Federal Government shutdown due to a lack of a budget, which would happen as soon as this weekend, so we may find ourselves on an unexpected vacation by Monday......hmmmmm.....what to do?
Thanks for stopping by!
When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission.
Looks like a fun day mostly until the ending at the meeting. Hope all will work out for you, Stalest you had a nice time at YSNP so far.
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