Hermit Trail was built  in 1914 by the Santa Fe Railroad.  In Grand Canyon Village, Ralph Cameron had taken control of the Bright Angel Toll Road and charged $1.00 for pack animals and riding animals.  Back in the day, this was roughly equivalent to $25 or so.  The Santa Fe and the Harvey Company didn't see why their visitors should lay out money to some other entity to get into the Canyon, so they built their own trail. That way visitors would lay out their money to the Harvey Company.

They paid Cameron $40,000 for the right to cross "his" land, and built the West Rim Drive, the Hermit Trail, Hermit Camp, and Hermit's Rest.  The Hermit may have been Louis Boucher, who had mining claims and tourist facilities there, but it may have been the invention of the Harvey Company in order to generate interest.  It sounded romantic.

Hermit was the first trail built strictly for tourism.  It was flagstoned and well graded.  There were several rest stops along the way at Sweetheart Spring, Santa Maria Spring, Four Mile, and Breezy Point.  Hermit Camp was supplied by a tramway from near Pima Point.  The facility had showers, phones, electricity, a chef, and a Model T Ford.  When Phantom Ranch was built in 1922, Hermit Camp was no longer used.  The Park Service and the Harvey Co. wanted the tourism activity centered at the Village, so in the 1930's, Hermit Camp was torched.

flagstones along the trail

Dripping Springs Trail leaves Hermit at the edge of Hermit Basin.  It is narrow, steep, and loose.  The exposure can be pretty intense for new hikers.   After about a mile, the Boucher takes off along the Hermit Shale and the Dripping Springs trail continues up to the amphitheater.  There is water here year round, no camping allowed.

Boucher's original Dripping Springs Trail wends its way down from Eramita Mesa above.  Boucher had a tent camp here and kept goldfish in the spring.  There used to be a picnic table, but it has vanished, I suspect when some good citizen chopped it up for firewood.

An old Santa Fe brochure from1951, speaks of a saddle horse ride to Dripping Springs along a "forested path". I suspect if this trip went to the actual Dripping Springs, it followed Boucher's trail rather than the present day Dripping Springs cutoff. I personally would not ride a mule, much less a horse, along that trail.

People often build campfires here. One assumes because they are cold, though it may be because they are camping illegally.  I clean out fire rings more often than not at the springs. Usually this involves trash, since there is a lingering notion that anything thrown into a fire ring magically vanishes.  Spoiler: it doesn't.

dripping springs

ancient footprints

This weekend we hiked to Dripping Springs for a new kind of workout.  Hiking the Corridor is good, but the Hermit is rougher and uses different muscles. Usually we are all alone on this trail.  Sunday we started down with three other groups (left them behind -- two had backpacks, and a couple couldn't decide where they wanted to go). We were all alone at the Spring except for a pair of nesting peregrines.  One the way out we met five other groups (!). One gal had very poor shoes and kept sliding, but her big, strong boyfriend was there to grab here.  Maybe that was the plan?

For most of the year, the West Rim Drive is closed to private vehicles.  It is open December January, and February. Probably because there just isn't enough visitation to justify running the shuttle buses.  This was the last weekend the road was open, and the weather was nice.  So the parking lot was full, full, full.  One guy in a macho truck drove around and around waiting for our spot so he could be right next to the trail head and not have to walk before he started his hike.