Grand Canyon NP–North Rim

The weather forecast finally said it would be sunny with no chance of rain so we decided it would be a good day for a fairly long day trip to the the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  It was about 100 miles from our campground to the Park.  So, we roll into the Park and what happens?  Yep, the clouds and rains roll in.  Fortunately it was light and intermittent rain, but enough already.

The Grand Canyon has a much different look than Canyonlands NP.  Canyonlands was cut by two rivers which meet up in the Park.  They cut a very wide swath of the sandstones.  The Grand Canyon is narrower and deeper.  The topography makes Grand Canyon somewhat less accessible.  You go to the lookouts and you look down and across.  Unless you are prepared to to hike to the depths of the canyon – and we weren’t, you just look and contemplate at each of the vantage points.  One of the major roads of the north rim was closed for construction and we didn’t get to the views off that road.

The lodge at the north rim has beautiful views out of its back windows and off its decks.  We caught this picture near there.  NO, that isn’t me.  There is no way I would be sitting out there on that rock.

We also saw a couple coyotes hunting out in a meadow a couple hundred yards back off the road.

So you are probably thinking what with the rain and the road closures we can’t wait to get to the south rim of the Grand Canyon and experience its views.  Well, we have had some second thoughts about that.  Although we could readily see the south rim only about 10 miles across from the north rim, it is a 250 mile trip by road to get there.  And as we are heading toward Las Vegas it would be over 500 miles extra to our travels.  As surprising as it might seem for us, we are actually becoming somewhat tired of looking at rock.  That is basically what we have been doing since we arose from our winter hibernation back in March.  The rocks have been beautiful but it is now time for a bit of the bright lights of the city.  We will stay on here at Mt Carmel Junction for another week and catch up on some of the exploring we missed because of the rains and play a little golf as well.  But by the end of next week it will be Vegas.

If you would like to see our pictures form the Grand Canyon, click on the following link:  https://picasaweb.google.com/116107386675555024952/GrandCanyon