Day 13 - The South Rim - PedalPushin 2024

February 19, 2024

Day 13 - The South Rim

The hardest part of today’s ride was deciding which pictures to include in this journal. Despite the strong, 15-20 mph, winds, today’s ride was one which you dream about and for us, it came true.

Views are at every turn … nice blue skies with a few clouds

We decided to ride parts of the road that we weren’t able to yesterday. The Rim Road basically follows the south rim of the canyon with various viewing points. Once we got away from the main people concentrations, the riding was quite nice. Within the park, vehicles see Share the Road signs and a posted 25 mph speed limit. In addition, once you leave the visitor and tourist centers, the cars become quite spread out and quite respectful. I only growled at 3 cars and amazingly enough, all were sporting California license plates.

We first cycled west towards the Hermit’s Rest area as the road simply stops and everybody must turn around. It was slow progress mainly because we kept stopping at each view point for another look at this amazing feature. The return ride went faster until you get to the visitor center area where you are riding paths and trails again. We got to cycle with a few deer and elk and then opted to ride the actual walking/cycling rim path to the Kaibab Trailhead. Again a people concentration point but the ride back on the actual road went very quickly although the speed limit had increased to 35 mph.

Once the 25 miles of riding were done, we jumped into the van to go repeat the process of stopping at the various viewing areas and finding a good spot for the sunset. We finally ended at Mohave Point but the cloud stayed down on the horizon and the sunset was a bust. The pictures beforehand were quite good.

Waiting for sunset which didn’t materialize but the views waiting were worth it

It is entirely possible to combine our two rides into one if time and weather conditions permit. We, unfortunately, faced strong winds both days and it definitely wasn’t a shorts, t-shirt, and sandal kind of ride.

Do it again? Absolutely!

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Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 1,489 miles (2,396 km)

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Scott AndersonThis is really a revelation for me. I biked the south rim on a ride from Cedar City to Flagstaff in 1987, the month before Rachael and I first met. We’ve never gone together though, and it never occurred to me to do it at this time of year when we’re in the region.
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3 months ago

Larry MitchellBelieve you would enjoy the ride on the way back from the Tucson Winterlude … heading to the Petrified Forest next.
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3 months ago