During cooler months (usually October–April) the two higher elevation resthouses are shut off from the water supply to prevent the pipeline from freezing.

At either site, they can stay overnight with a permit issued by the Grand Canyon National Park Backcountry Information Center.

[9] The upper part of the trail was originally built by the Havasupai people for access to the perennial water source of present-day Garden Creek.

[13] Ralph H. Cameron, who would later become a United States senator (R-AZ 1921–27), settled on the canyon rim in 1890 and began improving the old Havasupai trail.

The next year, Ellsworth invited his brother Emery to come to the canyon as the possibility of mine work opened up.

He and Ellsworth began taking photographs of visitors who took the mule rides down Cameron's trail, charging a fee for the pictures.

The Cameron family leased a small piece of land nearby to Emery, where the two brothers set up a photography studio in a tent to develop and sell their photos.

The business was profitable and after a few years the Kolb brothers built their permanent studio building on the rim of the canyon.

In 1924, the newly created National Park Service began construction of the South Kaibab Trail near Yaki Point as an additional bypass for Cameron's tolls.

[16] After a long series of legal battles, the trail was turned over to the National Park Service in 1928.