Sorry it’s taken so long to post but there was no internet access at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. To be honest, it was nice to disconnect for a couple of days.
We left Flagstaff bright and early on Friday, August 27th heading for the north rim. On our way we passed the southern edge of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. We didn’t actually enter the monument as the roads are undeveloped and Peter doesn’t like to drive on unpaved roads. If we had gone in this is what we would have seen.
What we saw, though, was still very beautiful.
We drove to Lee’s Ferry which is the starting point for many of the Colorado River rafting trips. We talked with one of the guides and the trips are 3-7 days long. While it sounds like fun, there’s no way I could sit in the sun hour after hour for days. Besides no way am I sleeping in a tent. My idea of roughing it is a hotel without room service!
We found a spot we could wade in the Colorado River.
While the drive from Flagstaff to the North Rim is less than 4 hours, with all of our stops it actually took over six. But we weren’t in any hurry and we really enjoyed our side trips.
We’ve visited both the west and south rims but this was our first time at the north rim. I had heard that it was the prettiest of the rims but I’m not sure I agree. Of course it was breathtakingly beautiful but so are the other views. I really enjoyed this one though as it was less crowded than the south rim. Since it’s so far out of the way, you have to make an effort to get there. The best part was there were no tour buses off loading 50-60 people at a time. One of the workers told me that they rarely get tour buses; maybe one a week but sometimes not even that. On the other hand, the lodge cabins were much smaller and more primitive than the ones at Bright Angel Lodge at the south rim.
Since we didn’t get checked in until after 3pm on Friday, we spent the rest of the day getting settled and sitting on the main lodge veranda admiring the view. We had a lovely dinner in the lodge thanks to a couple (Julie and Joe from Pasadena) we met on the veranda. While I knew we had to make reservations for the room months in advance, it never occurred to me that we needed dinner reservations that far ahead as well. Unlike the south rim where there are several restaurants, the north lodge had only one restaurant that was only open for dinner. There was a deli to pick up to-go food but that was it. Luckily Julie and Joe decided not to use their reservation for their second night and gave it to us. The menu had some odd offerings (venison meatloaf anyone??) but we stuck with something less exotic. Peter had a rib eye and I had the duck. Both were delicious but very expensive. We lucked into reservations for our second night when Peter just happened to be standing at the hostess desk when someone cancelled. But like Julie and Joe, we decided not to have a heavy, pricey dinner two nights in a row so we gave up our Saturday reservations to someone else and picked up sandwiches at the deli.
On Saturday we drove Cape Royal Road along the rim of the canyon. It was 30 miles one way and there were lots of places to stop and enjoy a hike or just look at the spectacular view.
It was so hard to decide which pictures to include as there are so many that are breathtaking, but here are some of our favorites.
Both nights we spent hours on the main lodge veranda meeting people, having a few drinks and enjoying the gorgeous sunsets.
That was our visit to the Grand Canyon North Rim. It was a very relaxing two days so we’re ready for the next part of our adventure…Durango CO. I’ll post again on Tuesday night to tell you all about it.