In
furtherance of this policy the Santa Fe Railway has built a new roadway
from El Tovar and Hopi Point along the south rim of the Canyon to the head
of Hermit Trail, nine miles west of El Tovar. It is called Hermit Rim Road.
This roadway is thirty feet in width, with a central driveway, fourteen
feet wide, of crushed stone rolled hard and sprinkled with crude oil. It is
so wide, so well macadamized, so level and so dustless that it may well be
likened to a city boulevard in the wilderness.
The road ends at the head of Hermit Trail, a new pathway now being built
down the south wall of the Canyon. Though this trail is being completed, it
will not be opened for regular trail service until the summer of 1912. It
leads down into the very heart of the Canyon and reveals innumerable
scenic wonders and surprises.
Hermit Rim Road to Hermit Basin. Hermit Rim Road closely follows the rim
from Hopi Point to the head of Hermit Basin and the top of Hermit Trail,
- not too near the brink, but in and out among the trees, affording
wonderful vistas of the Canyon and the cliffs of the opposite wall. Hermit
Rim Road is perhaps the most unique highway in the world, for there is no
other roadway on the brink of such a tremendous gorge.
