Santa Maria Springs

I like to explore. I love wilderness, and I love spending time adventuring in it. Today my cousin and I decided to take a hike. We packed snacks and I had 1 liter of water, 1 liter of Gatorade. Driving up to Hermit's Trailhead, we jumped out of the car and headed down to Santa Maria Springs.

I know I've said you should always hike before 10am, or after 4pm to stay out of the heat of the day. We started our hike at about 1pm. The hike down to Santa Maria Springs follows the Hermit Trail into the canyon. It is about 5 miles round trip, with a drop in elevation of 1,760 feet. It's not an easy hike. I know five miles doesn't seem like a ton, but when you're hiking in to the canyon or back out, this hike should take between 4 and 6 hours.

With my camera in hand (there will be photos up shortly), we took off down the trail. Hermit's Trail is rough and the park service does not maintain it. Originally it was built by the Fred Harvey company so they could bring mules down in to the canyon. In fact the trail does go all the way to the river. As the trail was built for mules there are large cobblestones laid out on great portions of the trail.

Along the way we stopped once or twice to cool off in the shade and rest our feet. As the path descends in to the canyon you can see the change in rocks around you. It's a hard hike, but a good one. Coming out to the Santa Maria Springs Rest House, we took rest under the shelter, snacking on pistachios, chicken jerky, and water. There is a small spring (Santa Maria) that runs there. You can drink that water if you treat it, but we just used it to cool off. Around 3pm my cousin realized she had to be at work in a few hours, so we split up. She started hiking right back out while I hiked out, but at a much slower pace. I'm not as used to the elevation or the toll on your body.

Every ten minutes (or less if there was no cloud cover) I'd stop and find shade to cool off. I waited for my heartbeat and breathing to return back to normal and then I'd take off again. It was a difficult hike. I had no idea how far I had come, nor how far I had yet to go. That's not really comforting, let me tell you. I still had a blast though, stopping to watch the clouds, checking out the vegetation (I can name quite a bit of it now), watching the lizards dart across my path.

It took me a little less than two hours to get back up the path (though it felt much longer). When I got to the top I felt this great sense of accomplishment, though I knew I was in desperate need of water. I still had maybe 6-8oz left, but I had been saving that, not really knowing how much longer I'd be on the trail. Stopping to buy a bottle of cold water (and downing most of it quickly), I jumped on the shuttle buses, and out of the kindness of her heart, my other roommate picked me up at my shuttle stop so we could go back home.

Taking another shower and making some dinner, we spent the evening chatting and watching movies, just laying low. Another amazing day in the Grand Canyon!!