{"id":3388,"date":"2014-09-01T21:16:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T02:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=3388"},"modified":"2014-09-07T20:08:29","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T01:08:29","slug":"grand-canyon-hermit-trail-hermits-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/09\/grand-canyon-hermit-trail-hermits-rest.html","title":{"rendered":"Grand Canyon: The Hermit Trail & Hermit’s Rest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hermit's<\/a>

Hermit’s Rest is on the far western end of the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.<\/p><\/div>\n

We had made it clear to the boys that we would be hiking at least part of our two days at the Grand Canyon. I saw a list of family-friendly activities in the park summer guide<\/a>. We chose the Junior Ranger Family Adventure Program, in which families can descend down into the canyon via the challenging Hermit’s Trail. Dave and I wanted to get some exercise, and we were confident our kids could handle it.<\/p>\n

Getting to Hermit’s Rest, where the program began, was a task in itself. We drove to the\u00a0Grand Canyon Village part of the park, where we then caught a bus that took us on the 45 minute drive to the western end of the park. It was a gorgeous drive with several views of the canyon to enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"Timmy<\/a>

Timmy on the bus to Hermit’s Rest with his walking stick.<\/p><\/div>\n

We arrived at Hermit’s rest with enough time to look around at the gift shop there before meeting at the bell (seen in the top photo) with several other families and Park Ranger Alex.<\/p>\n

Ranger Alex was our (very young) guide on our family adventure. He told the kids about the history of the Hermit’s Rest area (which you can read more about here<\/a>), and then we started our trek down below the rim on the Hermit’s Trail.<\/p>\n

He told us that less than 5% of Grand Canyon National Park visitors even go below the rim, which I couldn’t believe!<\/p>\n

On the way, Ranger Alex\u00a0discussed the geology of the rock layers we were seeing, as well as the fossil life immortalized in some of the rocks. We had some really young children with us, so we made numerous stops.<\/p>\n

Ranger Alex handed out Junior Ranger workbooks and pencils, which Timmy completed\u00a0with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\"Timmy<\/a>

Timmy working on his Junior Ranger workbook with the other children on the hike.<\/p><\/div>\n

We didn’t go down very far. Perhaps two layers? About 60\u00a0minutes into the hike, Ranger Alex said “goodbye” to the kids and the event was over. We could continue down further, but we elected to climb back up. I was very nervous about the kids having a hard time if we descended down too far.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9689\"<\/a>

We enjoyed many awesome views from throughout the Hermit Trail.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"IMG_9741\"<\/a>

I <3 my boys!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"IMG_9731\"<\/a>

I love this picture of us!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had made it clear to the boys that we would be hiking at least part of our two days at the Grand Canyon. I saw a list of family-friendly activities in the park summer guide. We chose the Junior Ranger Family Adventure Program, in which families can descend down into the canyon via the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[522,545,549,550,158,37],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-SE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3402,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/09\/grand-canyon-bright-angel-trail.html","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":0},"title":"Grand Canyon: Bright Angel Trail","date":"12 September 14","format":false,"excerpt":"On the 2nd full day of our Grand Canyon trip, we decided to get an early start and hit the Bright Angel Trail. The Bright Angel Trail originates at the heart of the \"touristy\" part of the South Rim Grand Canyon park. It's a well-maintained trail, in part because this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"One of my favorite photos ever. My boys enjoying America's beauty.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_9772-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3281,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/07\/a-grand-canyon-preview.html","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":1},"title":"A Grand Canyon Preview","date":"29 July 14","format":false,"excerpt":"I \u00a0have several posts to write about our trip out west in June, but between my full time work and making sure the kids are squared away this summer, I've been quite slow. Feel free to browse these Grand Canyon photo albums and at the end of this post I'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IMG_9772-1-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3567,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/01\/june-july-vacation-summary.html","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":2},"title":"June\/July 2014 Vacation Summary","date":"01 January 15","format":false,"excerpt":"Our June\/July 2014 summer vacation to the American southwest was fun and filled with National Park goodness. We are grateful for\u00a0the National Park Service's \"Military Annual Pass\" program which saved us nearly $80 in entrance fees on this trip. Here's the summary of everything we did: Drive to Durango Durango\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"IMG_9830","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_9830-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3474,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/12\/grand-canyon-junior-ranger.html","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":3},"title":"Grand Canyon: Our Junior Ranger","date":"31 December 14","format":false,"excerpt":"Timmy earned his first National Park Service Junior Ranger badge while we were at the Grand Canyon. He was required to complete several age-appropriate activities in a workbook (which includes things like taking observations, coloring pictures, answering questions, and writing a poem about the park), attend an age-appropriate Ranger-led program,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"grand canyon\"","img":{"alt_text":"Timmy performed all the tasks to earn Junior Ranger. He then had to pledge to respect nature and the environment before earning his Junior Ranger badge.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/DSC_0277-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3366,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/09\/grand-canyon-first-impressions.html","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":4},"title":"Grand Canyon: First Impressions","date":"01 September 14","format":false,"excerpt":"The day we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park and the Four Corners Monument, we had to eventually make it to the Grand Canyon campground. It's only about 5-6 hours worth of driving from Durango, but we made several stops. So we were hard pressed to get to the campsite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"Our first views of the Grand Canyon were breathtaking.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DSC_0094-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3377,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/09\/grand-canyon-elk.html","url_meta":{"origin":3388,"position":5},"title":"Grand Canyon: Mather Campground Elk!","date":"01 September 14","format":false,"excerpt":"We arrived at our campsite with plenty of time to set up camp. We enjoyed a relaxing evening with a camp stove dinner (I can't remember what, probably burgers and hot dogs). We had to walk 1-2 campsites over to reach the restroom building. On one of our walks to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"elk\"","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_0113","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DSC_0113-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3388"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3401,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions\/3401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}