Seeing the Grand Canyon is awe inspiring in itself but touring the Grand
Canyon on a bike is mind and body altering. I highly recommend bringing your
bicycle to the Grand Canyon. Whether it's an ebike or a regular bike, you
won't regret it. It's the best way to get around the South Rim. The highlight
of our trip to the Grand Canyon Village was the 8 mile bike ride from Trailer
Village RV Park out to Hermit's Rest. This 16 mile roundtrip excursion is on
the top of my favorites list.
That morning the call was 7am before anyone at the RV park woke up. All of us
were getting our helmets ready, cleaning our
Rad Power Bikes, and
getting snacks and water ready for a full day shoot. Patrice and Karla were
riding the foldable Rad Minis and Dave and I rode the RAD Rovers which are
full sized mountain bikes. We left our RVs at 8am and made the short ride
through the park to the beginning of Hermits Road by the shuttle bus stop. No
cars are allowed past this point only shuttle buses, bicycles and
hikers.
The first mile of Hermit's Road from the shuttle stop to the first overlook is
pretty steep, so we used the
Rad Power Bike Pedal
Assist feature to help start our day slowly, so we didn't burn ourselves out.
Pedal Assist (PA) uses the motor to help you pedal the bike, so you can vary
how hard you want to workout. I use PA2 for a good physical leg workout. PA3
is a good cruise setting for cardio or don't even bother pedaling at all and
use the handle bar throttle to accelerate. All of us were using various
degrees of pedal assist and travelling between 15 and 20 miles per hour to our
first stop - Bright Angel Trail Overlook. This location is a great place to
watch the hiking activities on the Bright Angel Trail. The people looked like
ants in an ant farm marching onward. You could sit here for hours and look out
across the 18 miles of canyon to the North Rim. The best time to visit this
spot is early in the morning or, even better, in the late afternoon as the
hikers are coming back up from Phantom Ranch. The thrill of victory or the
agony of de' feet is on display every day here on the Bright Angel Trail. A
trail I have yet to challenge, but it's on my bucket list.
We made our way West on Hermit's Road passing Maricopa Point, Powell Point,
Hopi Point, and Mohave Point. Our next stop was The Abyss. This overlook sits
at the top of a 3,000 foot vertical drop. The Abyss features the longest
vertical drop from anywhere on the Grand Canyon's South Rim. It's spectacular.
We parked our bikes and hiked out to the point, so we could look back at the
awesomeness. It will take your breath away. Seeing the Mohave Wall and The
Abyss is one of my favorites places in the Canyon. Ranger Dave and Kalamity
Karla showed us this spot when he hiked the Rim Trail years ago, and I still
think about it all the time. Even if you take the shuttle, you can stop at the
Abyss. I highly recommend it.
I was looking forward to the next part of our bike ride on the new Greenway.
Grand Canyon National Park has created a 2.8 mile paved path for bikes and
ebikes. Unfortunately, you have to ride 4 miles on a paved road with shuttle
buses going by (cars in the winter) to get to it. For the first time on
Hermit's Road, we have are own path away from the shuttle buses and the road.
It was a wide, multi-use path made for bicyclists and pedestrians. I would
love to see more of these paths created at the Grand Canyon South Rim. It
would provide such great access to all of the different trails, restaurants,
hotels, and shopping and even the town of Tusayan is reachable by ebike. This
would provide further access to more people without adding more cars to the
highway. As an avid ebike rider, I am interested in creating more path
for bikes without affecting the pedestrian experience.
At the end of the 7.1 mile bike ride lies Hermit's Rest. Designed by famed
architect, Mary Jane Colter, this unique architectural structure was built by
hand in 1914 to blend in with the geological surroundings. It's listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. The building's centerpiece is a massive
fireplace inside. The staff is very friendly and you can pick up a snack or
read a book. It's a great stop for the shuttle bus. This was our first time
visiting Hermit's Rest on a bike, and I can't wait to do it again. For hikers,
the Hermit Trail down to the Colorado River starts a quarter mile past the
gift shop.
Another nice feature on our Rad bikes is the digital display. This small
screen mounted on the handlebars tells you which Pedal Assist is selected,
your speed and your distance. I love being able to see how far we've ridden.
All of us had the best time at the Grand Canyon, and all of us attributed it
having our
Rad Power Bikes with us on this trip. Rather than pedaling a mile or two, ebikes allow
you to go 10 or 20 miles. They are such a game changer for us when we travel
in our RV. We are getting two new RadExpand 5 electric folding bikes, so we
can store them in our tow vehicle everywhere we go. We will not be travelling
without our Rad bikes.
Safe Travel,
Producerman
You can watch our bike ride to Hermit's Rest, click
the link below of
if you want to watch the full episode of RV There Yet Episode #3 -
Speck of Dust from
the Grand Canyon including this bike ride.
