We earned this cornbread!
Thursday morning we woke up to a very breezy, very chilly day (40*). It was the day we had planned to ride Hermit Road out to Hermit’s Rest. We were tempted to just stay put in our warm and cozy home away from home, but we were scheduled to leave on Friday so the question loomed… ”If not now, when?”. So, we dressed in layers and headed out. The ride was magnificent! Only park shuttle buses and bikes are allowed on Hermit Road so we practically had the entire road to ourselves. The road rolls along the western end of the south rim and the vistas were breathtaking. “Rolls” is a key term because we ended up riding a total of 1200 feet of elevation gain. That’s a lot for us flat landers! It was a tough, 20 mile round trip ride but worth ever pedal stroke. My crystal ball sees Electric bikes under our Christmas tree😉.
Hermit’s Rest, itself, was a charming historic building designed by Mary Colter. She was also the architect of the Dessert View Tower which we were able to visit on Friday as we headed to Page, Arizona. She had an amazing ability to design buildings that seemed to grow out of the landscape.
Oh my, I almost forgot to mention that along the road we came across an Elk bull and his harem. He was bugling and looking very protective of his group of females so we did not linger long!
Staying Salty On The Road 