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The Grand Canyon…..Only North Rim This Time Around.

We have both been waiting since childhood to see one of the 7 natural wonders of the world called Grand Canyon.  We are pushing the envelope on temperatures around here as the general elevation is 5000-8000 feet and the temps dip into the 20s at night.  We drove for over an hour on the winding Arizona/Utah roads to reach the North Rim and were not disappointed by anything we saw during our drive or visit.

We were the only people on the approach road to the park so we did not even have to pull the truck over to get a picture of the entrance sign!
Our path to the canyon was temporarily blocked by this small herd of bison. There is a watering hole on the left side of the road so no need to ask “why did the bison cross the road?”
The two alpha males of the herd made sure all were safe during the 20 minute road crossing ordeal.
This lodge was closed for the season but we could not imagine what it would cost to stay in one of those “rooms with a view” as they overlooked the canyon.

We divided our day into 3 segments.  The first allowed us to take in all the wonderful scenery along the same path that all tourists flock to on the North Rim.  Absolutely gorgeous (if you are familiar with the bumper sticker “Ithaca is gorges” you would agree that NPS needs to come up with some slogan for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon as it must be one of the world’s biggest gorges)

Laurie cannot think of any better place to be! Fresh air, scenery and each other’s company cannot be beat.
That rock outcropping is screaming “climb me”. Can you hear it?
That was not that hard to climb!
Those happy smiles are as genuine as they get.  And this was just the beginning of the day

Our next adventure took us out to Point Imperial for a 6 mile hike along the rim (3 miles out  and 3 miles back).  When you do an out and back hike versus a loop you do get to see different views of the same scenery and, although seemingly repetitive, wonderfully different at the same time.  Here are some views we had on our hike:

Nature’s ancient coliseum?

That looks like a nice spot for lunch Indeed! ……..NOT
Laurie “followed” that spire in the middle of nowhere as we did about a 270 degree walk around it.  The spire kept changing its view for her at each turn.
Check out the boulders half way down lying precariously close to the edge!

After our gorgeous hike we the drove windy road out to Cape Royal and walked the path out to the lookout areas to see the sun go down (well, almost down)

This is a picture of Cape Royal from the distance. We thought twice about walking over that big “hole” in the wall.
Not sure I needed the sun glasses at this point but don’t they look cool?
Check out the angle of the sun and the shadows that were created on this wonderful evening.

On our drive back to Fredonia, AZ we stopped at one of those “scenic view points of interest”.  This announced the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  There was a neat placard that described the different color layers to the vast monument:

This detail is all our camera could muster but it was impressive to look at. Even my color blindness did not take away from the beauty.

 

I wonder if Mollie gave her permission to have her physique represented in this picture.

 

We thought it very odd that these domesticated bovine specimen were just wandering down the approach road to a national park. the concept of free range cattle is something we are not used to experiencing.

6 Replies to “The Grand Canyon…..Only North Rim This Time Around.”

  1. A lot of really great views there. Given the size of bison i would never question them really. I understand they dont see well and they are easily spooked and that is when people can get hurt by them. As I remember some pdd fact i heard the other side of the canyon is rather hard to gain access to for geographical reasons.

  5. Looks absolutely gorgeous. Ithaca is nice but no comparison. Looks like the weather was nice. Glad to see you find others to take pictures of you and Laurie together. You both look like retirement agrees with you.

  6. Let me start by wishing you a happy belated Uncle Roy, my phone has been broken for a few weeks now so I have been out of the loop on your travels.

    Glad to see you could reference the cows coming home once again, a theme that was a constant in your classes.

    Aunt Laurie, your pictures of complete joy make me smile, glad to see you guys are still having the time of your life!

    The lodge overlooking the canyon looked absolutely beautiful, as well as the canyon itself.

    I cannot imagine seeing those bison up close, as they look to be quite intimidating creatures.

    Glad all is well, love and miss you guys!

    -Jake

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