We’re up and out by 7:00. Our sleeping patterns keep us moving in the morning – which is actually a good thing for the driving and the heat and – well – everything! So we are on the road fast, heading down Desert View drive (same way we headed last night for the sunset) only this time in the glaring sun. The viewpoints on this side of the canyon are magnificent as well. The Lipan point viewpoint is easily the best view on this side of the canyon looking all the way back down the cliffs, along the Colorado River. It’s just spectacular.
We are so early, however, that nothing is open yet at the Desert View East Entrance. So, we unfortunately miss our last South Rim passport stamp, but it’s not worth the 15 or 20 minutes we would have to wait for the stores to open. So off we head – out of the park and up highway 64 to skirt around the end of the canyon and head back down the other side.
It’s a long drive, but amazing in that the scenery changes almost every hour. From the Canyon views, to scraggy pines and boulders to immense mesas with nothing but tumbleweeds for miles, to the Vermillion Cliffs and the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River near Lees Ferry. It’s just incredible. We saw a bald Eagle at the bridge too – pretty close. Oh – and deer too – but that was at night near the donkey barn on the South Rim. Wildlife everywhere – we guess Pietro is happy with all his 4 legged buddies….sigh.
So – back to the trip – we made a pit stop at the river, then headed up through the cliffs into the high country and the North Rim. Again, the scenery changed from rocky barren cliffs to pine and aspen forests. Of course, as we are making our way through the mesa, Alice, who has been totally quiet for miles, now pipes up and directs us to turn left off the highway onto some road called Marble Canyon ranch or something like that. No way – do you see a sign that says Grand Canyon? No, we are NOT turning, I don’t care what that witch has to say. As we pass the turn off, we look, and it’s a DIRT ROAD. Oh yeah, we’re going 4-wheeling through the mesa and canyons! Ha. Ok – so Alice needs some fine tuning – and it’s obvious, you really need to know where you are going and not have blind faith in the GPS.
So, we stay on the paved road and the higher we drove, the more the forest closed in around us. We arrived at the North Rim entrance a little before 11:00 and headed straight to Point Imperial, East of the main canyon area. We picnicked at the benches by the trails, then walked a little ways through the trail there that led through the area where the 1000 Outlet fire burned. 10 years ago, and there still isn’t all that much re-growth, it’s pretty interesting how the fire just rages and then jumps complete areas. It was started as a controlled burn, but then got out of hand and roared through the park.
Back in the car, we head down to Cape Royal, the furthest part of the scenic drive. There we wander through the paved walkways looking out over the canyon and through the Angels Window. It’s spectacular here and very different than the South Rim. Much more rustic and undisturbed, and a lot less people. Since the Rim is only open a few months out of the year (it’s only been open a few weeks when we were there) it gets a lot less traffic and retains a much more wild feel to it.
We backtrack back up the drive stopping at all the viewpoints, then head into the main area of the North Rim to the Lodge. We have the cutest little cabin for our room tonight – log cabin with our own front porch – and a gas fireplace! How fun! Once again, no internet, so we walk the North Rim trail – and sit on a bench to try to access the web through the phone (not much phone service around here either btw!).
Click here for all the pictures.
Back at the cabin, we clean up, sit on our porch for an aperitif, then walk over to the rim for Sunset. It’s neat how the sun changes the light on the canyon, we take our photos, drink our coffee (that Ed so thoughtfully made!) then head over to the Lodge for our 8 pm dinner reservations. Once you’re there at the North Rim, you’re there! You either eat at the Pizza/Deli, the Sports bar, or the Lodge. It was a very nice dinner, good food, and not too exorbitantly priced. The view was spectacular through the floor to ceiling windows facing the canyon. How can you complain?
After dinner we wander back to our log cabin and collapse after a very long, but totally fun day.
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