We started driving on Friday evening and stayed in Kingman overnight. On Saturday we had some morning coffee and reached Grand Canyon around noon. I was able to do the impossible - reserve a spot in Mather campground for 2 nights during the Memorial Day weekend. We checked-in, purchased firewood for 2 nights and left the car at the campground, then we proceeded to our exploration and hiking plan.
There are 3 main bus routes running regularly in the South Rim: Red line - West side, Orange line - East side, and Blue line - connects Red and Orange lines and makes multiple stops in the Village area. For the first day we decided to explore the East side and hike down.
Trail to the Village from our campground (you might be able to see an elk in the middle of the picture):
Views that opened to us once we reached the canyon:
From the Village we walked to the Bright Angel Trail. We wanted to walk down and were looking for the less popular trail to avoid the traffic and this trail is perfect for the canyon exploration. We went approximately 1 mile down to admire the canyon from a different point of view. These are the views from the trail:
After the hike we took a red shuttle to the Monument Creek Vista stop from where we walked approximately 1 mile to Pima Point. These are the pictures from that area:
The best points to see the sunset are considered to be Hopi Point and Mohave Point. Since we were already exhausted and still had to set up our camping equipment we headed to the campground (red bus first, then blue).
During both days we walked approximately 20 km. Here is also a map to give a perspective of the Rim Trail lenght:
