Jun 1 – North Rim of Grand Canyon

We did the 80 mile drive from Kanab to the north rim of the Grand Canyon today. It was a day of one short hike and then viewpoint after viewpoint with a lot of panoramas. Even though they get a bit redundant I am going include at least one from every viewpoint that we stopped at.

The drive on 89A south of Kanab is across a whole lot of nothing.

Once we turned south onto Highway 67 we went through a lot of burned out forests and wide meadows.

At one of the meadows we saw some deer and a fox that looked like it was stalking them.

First, I didn’t think a fox was big enough to get a deer. Second, on this wide open meadow there was no way for it to sneak up on the deer.

Our first stop was to walk out to Bright Angel Point behind the visitor’s center.

This was not a terribly enjoyable day for Jennie. The vast, far off, open views really get to her vertigo. She just couldn’t get close enough at any of the viewpoints to really enjoy them. Her favourite place is still Bryce Canyon.

Panorama 1. Remember to scroll right to see the whole thing.

There was a short trail that went along the western edge of the point to some more viewpoints.

.You can see the next viewpoint on the white point in the upper right, below.

This one was right below the lodge.

Panorama #2

We checked out the decks at the lodge.

Jennie found a good chair so that she could see but not be too close.

A tough day on the deck,

There is one trail that goes down into the Canyon from this side. The North Kaibab Trail is a multi-day hike that takes you right down to the river. The north rim is much farther from the river (11 km) than the south rim (3 km) so this is a really long trail.

Just to say we had been down in the canyon (a bit) the ranger said that there was a viewpoint about 1 km and 500 feet vertical down the trail. After yesterday we were not up for much hiking but we decided to give it a try.

It was pretty steep and as soon as we left the rim it immediately got very hot. This is also a mule trail so it was smelly as well.

At the viewpoint.

OK but nothing special.

While I was looking, Jennie checked out this lizard, that was checking her out.

Heading back up.

We ran into the mules going down. They kick up quite a bit of dust. Some of the smarter riders were wearing bandanas. We were glad we were not following them down, for the dust and the fresh deposits.

Back in the car we drove to Point Imperial, which is the highest point in the park.

Panorama #3

The next viewpoint was called Vista Encandante.

Then to Roosevelt Point.

We could finally see the Colorado River here.

Our final stop was Cape Royal. A nice flat paved path took you about 1/2 km out to two lookouts.

The first is called Angel’s Window.

You can see the river through the window.

The narrow spot is just over the window.

Panorama # 4. A really wide one.

Onward to Cape Royal.

I noticed some people out on that point.

So off I went. I stood on the farthest out rock just below the guy in back, in the picture above.

Final panorama. FYI, this one is made up of 21 individual shots.

By now it was about 6 pm and we still had a 2 hour drive home. We had brought some dinner with us which we ate before we left.