We started off the morning with a wonderful buffet breakfast at the Best Western in Tusayan AZ south of the Grand Canyon Village.
After a long drive into the village & a shuttle bus to Hermits Rest, we started on a long day of hiking down the Hermit Trail. We descended about a 1000 ft in elevation walking about 2 miles down with a return trip back up. We made many stops along the way down to where the Coconino Sandstone starts.
The students project for the day were to study the details of the Coconino Sandstone with coconino stack expert Dr. Leonard Brand.
On their walk back up, Dr. Whitmore instructed the students to observe and record various structures, track ways & cross beds in the Coconino Sandstone.
Before taking the shuttle to Hermits Rest, Dr. John Whitmore instructs the students what they should be looking for while hiking down the Hermit Trail.
On the walk down, Dr. Steve Austin talks with the students on how to describe limestone.
Steep terrain on our walk down the trail.
Dr. John Whitmore & students talk about what caused the foot print tracks in the sandstone.
An afternoon view while eating lunch before making our way back up the trail.
As the students made their slow walk back up the trail, I continued down the trail to get a better view of the Grand Canyon.
Looking back over the area that we spent the morning and the overlook I took the previous image.
The students studying & making observations of the foot prints in the sandstone.
On our walk back up the long hike, you can see Dr. John Whitmore & Mr. Tom Rice making their way up the trail.
Our original schedule was to be back up to the top of the trail at 3pm but we did not get to the top until after 4:30pm. As we got back on the road, we had an hours drive to Williams AZ where we stopped for dinner at a fantastic restaurant called the Pine Country Restaurant. After dinner, we had another two hour drive to Kingman AZ (on Historic Route 66) where we were going to stay the night.
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