Santa Maria Spring

Santa Maria Spring sits roughly two and a half miles down the Hermit Trail below the South Rim, a natural water source that's been a fixture of this route since the trail was built in 1913. A stone-walled rest house with a gabled wooden roof stands next to the spring, offering rare shade on an exposed, sun-baked descent — the roof has been rebuilt more than once over the decades but the original masonry walls remain. Nearby, a metal water trough on a stone base and an old hitching rail are leftovers from the mule-train era, when tourists and their gear were packed down to Hermit Camp.

What to know

• The spring runs year-round but is not a reliable or treated water source — water here is known to carry Giardia and must be purified before drinking
• Reaching it involves a steady, rocky descent of well over 1,000 feet from the trailhead near Hermits Rest, with no shade until you arrive
• It's a common turnaround point for a half-day out-and-back hike, and a rest stop for hikers continuing farther into the canyon