October Break Round 3: Biking the Grand Canyon

First things first- Happy Birthday Aunt Jenny!!!! We hope that you had a fantastic day with some time to relax.!

Today is the first official day of October Break for Flagstaff schools.  To celebrate Derek, Ashton, and I drove to the Grand Canyon early this morning to enjoy biking and ogling the views at the South Rim.  We had wonderful weather and the views were spectacular! Thanks to Grandma Dixie for letting us borrow her bike carrier. 

After entering the park, we parked in the big lot by the Backcountry Information Center which is near the Bright Angel trailhead and the beginning of Hermit Road.  

Hermit Road is closed to all traffic except for official park tour buses and vehicles and bicycles. So we were able to ride safely on the road all the way to Hermit's Rest.

Travelview Overlook

Maricopa Point

Powell Point with a memorial to J.W. Powell.  

Hopi Point! Such an expansive vista.  Outstanding! 

Great views of the Colorado River! 

Mohave Point

Ashton and I spotted a tarantula crossing the path in front of us.  We stopped to get a picture while making sure that it crossed out of harm's way. 

Pima Point! Ashton "points" to the Colorado River.  

The colors were just outstanding! 

Ashton at Hermit's Rest! 

We really worked our quads and hamstrings this ride!!! The out and back profile looks non-symmetrical as we were on both the road and bike paths on the ride out and primarily on the road on the ride back from Hermit's rest.  As you can see the route was very hilly with lots of ups and downs.  Luckily we had lots of reasons to stop and see things along the way (and rest a bit).  The major downhill at the end of the ride was a blast!  

We rode back to the car and had a picnic lunch by the Backcountry Office.  Sandwiched always taste better after a hard workout! 

After lunch we road from the Backcountry Information Center parking lot on the Greenbelt Biking Trail which paralleled Yavapai Road in the woods and then cut across Highway 64 over to the Rim Trail.  Our aim was to bike all the way to Yaki Point.  However, we were pooped from our morning ride and all of those hills.  (Actually the ride east was also like one big hill- see profile below!)  So Ashton and I ended up turning around at Pipe Creek Vista.  Derek was quite a bit a ways ahead of us and made it to South Kaibab Trailhead before he saw my text and turned around as well.  The ride back was very quick as it was mostly downhill!! 

Pipe Creek Vista!  Beautiful! 

We greeted the mules twice as we rode by their paddock right by the train station.  

It was a great day!!!  In all we biked around 25 miles.  We look forward to going back and biking all the way to Yaki Point in the future as well as exploring parts of the Arizona Scenic Trail!  (Ashton says that biking at the Grand Canyon is loads better than hiking it.  Ha!)