Hermit Trail

Hermit Trail is a 9.7-mile point-to-point descent from the signed trailhead west of Hermits Rest to Hermit Rapids on the Colorado River. It drops about 4,340 feet and is a strenuous backcountry route for experienced desert hikers. Plan on a full day to reach the river; most people make it part of an overnight trip. The return is another 9.7 miles, and the park advises against hiking to the river and back in one day. Camping below the rim requires a backcountry permit, and overnight stays are limited to the designated campsites at Hermit Creek and Hermit Rapids.

Santa Maria Spring is the usual shorter turnaround: 5 miles round trip and 4–6 hours. Dripping Spring is a separate 7-mile round trip via its signed side trail. Lookout Point lies another 1.5 miles below Santa Maria, so it makes a longer out-and-back. The Hermit Trail begins west of Hermits Rest, down a signed dirt road. From March through November, day hikers ride the Red Route shuttle to Hermits Rest; there is no day-hiker parking at the trailhead. Permit holders have vehicle access on Hermit Road. The road is open to all traffic in winter, when the shuttle does not run.

The masonry rest house at Santa Maria Spring gives welcome shade, but it may be only a trickle, so do not count on it. Carry the water you need and purify every natural source. Vault toilets are near the trailhead; Hermit Creek campsite has a pit toilet, while Hermit Rapids has none. Pack food before setting out. Pets are prohibited below the rim except service animals. Campfires are prohibited below the rim, too.

The first 2.5 miles drop almost 2,000 feet through the Kaibab and Coconino formations on sustained switchbacks. Fragments of the original hand-fitted stone paving survive where erosion has not taken it. Look for fossilized, lizard-like tracks in the lower Coconino; this is where those tracks were first studied in detail. Waldron Basin appears about 1.2 miles down. Stay right at the Waldron and Dripping Spring junctions to remain on Hermit Trail, then descend into the Hermit Creek gorge to Santa Maria.

Below Santa Maria, the trail traverses the Supai Formation along west-facing canyon walls. Some stretches are shaded in hot months, but gullies and rockslides break up the tread and can make the route hard to follow; watch for cairns. Lookout Point is on this section. At Cathedral Stairs, rocky switchbacks cut through the Redwall Limestone and descend across talus below Cope Butte to the Tonto Trail. This is the roughest, least forgiving part of the walk.

Turn west on the Tonto Trail and follow it about a mile to Hermit Creek. The grade eases as the path contours the canyon wall, passing foundations, cisterns and the lower end of an old tramway near the Hermit Camp site. From the creek campsite, continue about 1.5 miles downstream through the Tapeats gorge to the Colorado River. The lower route follows the drainage and can fade into rocky creek-bed travel; small falls and the big rapid are the payoff. At Hermit Rapids, include the sandy bank and surrounding cliffs in a photo so the river has some scale.

The Santa Fe Railroad began building the trail in 1911 to serve Hermit Camp, a luxury resort below the rim that opened ten years before Phantom Ranch and closed in 1930. A tramway once carried visitors down from the rim, and the camp employed a Fred Harvey chef. Erosion has taken most of the trail's labor-intensive paving, but the remaining slabs and camp foundations still show how ambitious that early visitor route was. Louis D. Boucher, whose name survives on the neighboring Boucher Trail, lived in the basin for about 20 years. He was called a hermit despite being socially active on the South Rim.