Ate breakfast in our room and made lunch and prepared our bag for the trail (4L water, lunch, snacks). Looked out at the canyon. Disappointed how bad the visibility is. There is a controlled forest burn on the north rim which is pouring smoke into the canyon. You can't even really make out the far side.
Took the shuttle to Kaibab South Rim Trail. You can see what is close, but visibility of the wider area is still hazy. We left at 9:15. Temperature was cool. There are definitely other people on the trail, but basically you are by yourself. Went past ooh aah lookout, down to cedar point and then to O'Neill Butte. Probably about 11:30 at this point and definitely quite warm out now. We are now about 3.5km out and 450m below the rim. Still a long ways from the Colorado. Hard to imagine taking this trail all the way back to the North Rim. On our way back up, we had to let 5 groups of mules go by. We arrived at the top at 2:30 with most of the water consumed. Fall seems like a great time to be hiking ... can not imagine doing this during the summer when they say temperatures can go over 100F.
Back to the room ... took a break, then took the shuttle to one of the points to see the sun set. Again, kind of hazy ... apparently normally is is much more spectacular. Dinner at the El Tovar restaurant. Definitely a step up from the arizona dining room.
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