South Rim Guide: Viewpoints from Hermits Rest to Desert View

The developed South Rim runs for about 35 miles, from Hermits Rest in the west to the Desert View Watchtower in the east, with Grand Canyon Village in between. You'll want a full day to see all three parts without rushing, and it helps to know that the viewpoints face different ways: the west end is best in the evening, the east end in the morning.

West: Hermit Road

From March to November you travel this seven-mile road on the free Hermits Rest (Red) shuttle, which leaves from the Village Route Transfer near Bright Angel Lodge. The bus stops at nine viewpoints, and you can hop off and on. Powell Point has a memorial to John Wesley Powell, who led the first recorded boat journey through the canyon in 1869. Hopi Point juts far out and is the most popular sunset spot. At Mohave Point you can see several rapids on the Colorado. Pima Point has the widest view west. The road ends at Hermits Rest, a 1914 stone rest house by Mary Colter, with a snack bar and a huge fireplace. A pleasant plan: ride the bus out, then walk the Rim Trail between two or three stops. The paved Greenway section between Monument Creek Vista and Hermits Rest is the quietest part of the rim.

Centre: the village and Mather Point

Grand Canyon Village grew around the railway depot in the early 1900s, and its historic buildings sit right on the edge: El Tovar, Hopi House, the Kolb Studio (a photographers' home and studio built into the cliff) and Bright Angel Lodge, next to the head of the Bright Angel Trail. Walk east along the Rim Trail past the Trail of Time to Yavapai Point, then Mather Point, about two miles in all. The visitor centre, with the main shuttle hub and car parks, is a few minutes behind Mather Point.

East: Desert View Drive

This 25-mile road is open to private cars and runs to the park's east entrance. Stop at Grandview Point, where an old mining trail drops steeply off the rim, and at Lipan Point, the best place on the South Rim to see a long stretch of the river. Just before the end is the small Tusayan Ruin, an Ancestral Puebloan village from around 1185. The drive finishes at the Desert View Watchtower, 70 feet of stone built by Colter in 1932, with Fred Kabotie's Hopi murals on the first floor and the Painted Desert on the horizon. Yaki Point, near the village, is shuttle-only.

Most people do the east side in the morning and Hermit Road for sunset, as in our two-day itinerary. To see the canyon from below as well, add a short walk from our hiking guide.