Hermit's Rest

Hermits Rest is a structure at the western end of Hermit Road, on the south rim of the Grand Canyon in Coconino County, Arizona. It was built in 1914 for the Fred Harvey Company as a rest area for tourists travelling by coach to the now-vanished Hermit Camp, and was designed by the architect Mary Colter to appear as a natural stone formation, in a mix of stone and wood. It now holds a gift shop and snack bar. The location was named for Louis Boucher, a Canadian-born prospector who staked claims below it around 1891, helped carve the Hermit Trail into the canyon and for years lived alone at nearby Dripping Springs. Hermits Rest is the westernmost point on the south rim accessible by paved road and the western terminus of the Rim Trail; the Hermit Trail, which runs to the Colorado River, begins about a quarter of a mile beyond the shuttle bus stop there. It is one of four Mary Colter buildings added as a set to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987, a designation that includes the furnishings Colter selected.

Where it is

Hermit's Rest is a historic site near Grand Canyon, in Coconino County. It is one of the historic sites in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Hermit's Rest, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikivoyage(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates

Record last verified 2026-08-12.