The Grand Canyon-North Rim (06-18-22)

 Most people who visit the grand canyon visit the south rim- it has more view points, amenities, and is accessible more of the year. The north rim sits at a higher elevation and it gets a lot more snow than the south rim. It's also a lot cooler, and that’s what we were looking for.

We stopped at the nearby Kaibab National Forest visitor center and spoke to a volunteer about good places near the park for dispersed camping. Armed with some great suggestions we took off for the east rim.

About 6 miles down a dirt road we found the perfect spot. Enough sun for solar, level ground, and a perk- using our cell signal booster, we had decent data speeds to use our electronics.

The view from our chairs was amazing.

The north rim has a smaller visitor center than the south rim, but we checked it out.  I had forgotten my hat (rare for me) so we went into the gift shop to see if I could find something decent. I have always wanted a hat from a national park- but for the most part they are “ranger” green- kinda boring.  Lucky for me I found one that wasn’t!

We did some short hikes in that area since we were there. Bright Angel Point is a short walk to a popular viewpoint, so we joined the throngs of people on the trail.

Back at the rig, we made some tentative plans for what we wanted to see and do.

Our first full day we drove back to the visitor center to hike 3 miles of the Trancept Trail. There are, for the most part, two types of trails in this park. Those that go down into the canyon, and those that go along the rim. Temperatures in the canyon are over 100 right now, so we stuck to the rim trails.

After our 3 mile hike, we had more time so we decided to drive to one of the viewpoints that was on our list for the following day.

You start to wonder after a while, just how many different viewpoints do you need to see? The view doesn't change that much.

That being said, Point Imperial was one of the better views, in my opinion. I am glad we made the effort to get there.

Day two we drove the scenic Cape Royal Drive. There are hikes and viewponts along the way but we decided we'd better do the hike first, or we might get lazy. 

This hike, Cape Final was about 4 miles round trip to a pretty nice viewpoint.

Done with our hike, we stopped at a picnic area and ate our lunch, and drove to the end of the road- Angels Window Viewpoint.  There are 3 pictures of this…

the one we took looking at Angels Window (note the hole in the rock),

the one we took walking out onto that rock….

and the view from that rock. What was neat about this spot is that you  could clearly see the Colorado River deep in the canyon.

We honestly decided to skip most of the other “viewpoints” along the road.

After a day off, where we just went for a walk down the road and hung around the camper, our final day we hiked part of the Widforss Trail.

It is named for a gentleman who was known for his paintings of the park.  The actual trail is 10 miles- we did half of it. This is one of those trails that we call “good exercise”.  Although it was along the rim, we were mostly hiking in the woods, with occasional glimpses of the canyon.  Had we done the whole trail I am sure the view would have been spectacular- but we aren’t up for a 10 mile hike yet. 

Grand Canyon National Park (09-01-15)

Pictures don’t even begin to do justice to the phenomenon that we call the “Grand Canyon”.

Paul and I have both been here before, but it’s been quite a few years.  When I went online and saw that there was an opening in the RV park , we booked it for the weekend.

Our first day in the park we just wandered over to the edge of the canyon and took in the views.  The canyon is so deep there are very few spots where you can actually see the Colorado River:

Meanwhile, back at the campground, Dozer took in the views as well. If we thought he got excited when a dog walked by, that was nothing compared to when all the elk walked by….

It’s actually pretty common for female elk to head towards the campgrounds.  At least no one is shooting at them, and they can give birth in peace!  We saw several mamas with their calves.

The first order of the weekend was to determine what trails to hike. The most famous trail is Bright Angel Trail.

It travels from the rim down to the bottom of the canyon. We looked over the edge at the 4800 ft drop and thought…….”no thanks”.   Actually, there are signs all over the place that warn against attempting to go down, and all the way up, in one day.  And to stay at the bottom of the canyon requires making reservations months in advance.  Oh well… maybe next time. 

Instead, Paul looked over at the South Kaibab Trail and got very excited about hiking this ridge line trail.





Although you can hike it all the way to the bottom ( if you have reservations) its quite common to hike down to Skeleton Point and back up.  That was fine with us. (We started at the black arrow and stopped at the white arrow).




 

The trail extends out onto a ridge, and drops in elevation 2300 feet. The views were spectacular!

There is a sign along the way the cautions: “Going down is optional, coming up is mandatory”.  Many hiking trails lead with the difficult part- going up, and finish with the easy part- coming down.  The sign was a reminder that difficult part of this trail lies ahead.

After a few hours, and about 3 miles, we reached Skeleton Point, and enjoyed the view of the canyon below.

We took a lunch break as the mules, making the trek up from the bottom, passed us on the trail.  For those who don’t like to hike, you can ride a mule down into the bottom of the canyon, and back up again.

We chatted with several people along the way.  This  couple trudged along at about the same pace that we did. By the time we were headed back up, the sun was beating down on us and we were glad we had a lot of water.

The steepest part of the trail (going down) was at the beginning, which meant, of course, that it was also the steepest (going up) at the end.

The day after our hike down South Kaibab Trail, we decided to “take it easy” and wander the Rim Trail. Relatively flat, the Rim Trail traverses more than 20 miles of the rim of the Grand Canyon. There are plenty of opportunities to scare your significant other by stepping out onto an interesting looking ledge.

 

There is a shuttle bus that stops every mile or so along the rim, which makes it accessible to most people.  We could walk for a few miles, then take a shuttle for a stop or two, and then get

 off and walk again.  We ended up walking 6 miles.

On our last day in the heart of the park, the weather took a turn. The rain and thunderstorms moved in.  It didn’t “dampen” our enjoyment of the park though. 

We love storms, and watching them come across the canyon was awesome. The rumble of the thunder echoed through the canyon.

We got drenched, and there were a few times that the umbrella couldn’t quite protect my good camera, so I switched to my smaller one. Mostly I took videos anyway, waiting for a decent bolt of lightning, like this one:





There was never a shortage of people willing to take a picture for you, like this squinty one, taken at the Desert Watch Tower, on the way out of the park.

277 miles of the Colorado River run through the Grand Canyon. Its not actually  a pretty river at this point- there is a lot of sediment turning the water brown- but it is incredible to realize that something as innocuous as water carved this immense canyon.

 

  I thoroughly enjoyed our 4 days at the Grand Canyon, and love the fact that it’s less than a 3 hour drive from Havasu. Although it was warm during the day, usually in the low 80s, it cooled off to the low 50s at night, making it a great summer destination for  us.

House Update

As Paul so eloquently put it- we have electricity! I think it’s cool that he got a picture of it while it was all zeros!  THAT will never happen again!

Just before we left for the Grand Canyon, they were working on putting in the insulation.  Some of it is sheets, some of it is blown in.







We purposely chose a builder who builds an Energy Star rated home, and good insulation is a key factor. We’ve found out just how key insulation can be, this summer. With the extreme temperatures we’ve had, our very well insulated Mobile Suites has maintained an interior temperature of about 74-76 degrees.  Not bad for a 5th wheel!


While we were at Grand Canyon, we were pretty excited to hear from Wes that the sheet rocking had begun!







It will take about two weeks to finish the sheet rocking, but once the nailing is done, we will be getting our first coat of stucco (called Brown Coat) on the exterior of the house.

Paul and I are always shopping and trying to make decisions about what we want in the house.  Today we finally chose the accent tile for the showers. The large tile is the floor tile, which will also be the wall tile in the shower.  The two small squares are the travertine, which will be the floor tile in the Master walk in shower.  The other accent piece will be in both the guest shower and the master shower.

 

Whew. It may seem like its a simple, almost plain set up, but we chose it only after considering everything  from brightly colored glass to granite inlays.

One major decision that we made last week was the pool contractor!  We signed a contract with Advantage Pools.   Of course, with that decision came more choices we had to make.  We chose the pool accent color easily.  The blue tile is the accent tile and the round piece is what the  Margarita table will look like.

 

We still have to choose the stonework that will surround the spa- but we are thinking we want it to match the stonework in the front of the house, so we have to see if we can find something that works for both.