vacation #2 - Grand Canyon North Rim, days 1-3

After visiting the petrified forest, we drove about 4 hr to the Grand Canyon. We went to the less-frequented North Rim, which has about 400,000 visitors/yr instead of the 4,000,000/yr at the South Rim. It's cool and lovely at the North Rim, and the campground is right on the rim in a ponderosa pine forest.

Upon arriving, we set up our tent and screen tent (again, it was drizzling a little!). We ate dinner, and since the weather was clearing we decided to hike a short ways to see the view at the rim. Loren and Michelle stayed at the first view point, but Calvin and I hiked the whole Transept Trail to the Grand Canyon Lodge. It was beautiful, as it was sunset.


The next day, we enjoyed a leisurely morning around camp followed by a visit to the visitors' center and the lodge, and a hike to Bright Angel Point. Though it was midday, the vista was still spectacular.


I was glad there were guardrails on that hike, as the dropoffs were steep on both sides in places. I'm NOT fond of heights!

We picnicked at a spot with a view of the canyon. The weather was perfect.


After our picnic, we drove to Cape Royal and hiked the short paved trail there (0.6 mile loop). There were views of Angel's Window, as well as vistas with the approaching thunderstorm. During monsoon season it pretty much thunderstorms every afternoon, though they are usually brief.

The next day, we decided to go off-roading a bit. We've had a small SUV for 2 years now and haven't really taken it off-road much, so it was time for a little exploring. There is an 18-mile drive to Point Sublime that requires 4WD, so we gave it a shot. The scenery was beautiful and desolate. There was almost no one out there except forest service workers cutting down underbrush. We did pass 2 cars on the way back, but that was it. Unfortunately, the road was very, very bad, and though we COULD have driven all the way out there, it would have taken probably 2 hr each way because we had to go so slowly due to the poor condition of the road. The kids were getting squirrely after only 1 hr, so we turned around and drove back. Another time, perhaps.


Later that day we attended several ranger talks, and also worked on the kids' Junior Ranger badges. They had a lot of activities to do to earn their badges!

More photos:
Bright Angel Point
Transept Trail
Cape Royal
Point Sublime road