Grand Canyon

While out west last month, I spent a day at the Grand Canyon. What a beautiful place. On this trip, I hit the North Rim, which is much more remote and much less crowded than the South Rim where 90% of the visitors go. The road to get there takes you though this burned-over area left from a fire a few years ago. At this elevation and with as little moisture as this area gets, recovery will take a while.

Going into the park, I saw Bison.

After a while, I drove on. Now that song about "You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd" was stuck in my head. (Click at your own risk. You were warned.) It was 45 miles from Jacob Lake to the North Rim Lodge, and me being me, I made it in about 35-40 minutes. I love remote two-lane roads with no one else on them.

The North Lodge is a big complex of bookstores, cabins for rent, and housing for concession employees. It's centered around a big log lodge built back in 1926. Here's an inside shot. It has some impressive views if you can afford to eat there.

There'a also a nifty statue of a burro.

And yeah, I patted it's nose. I'm thinking that I wasn't the only one.

Then it was time to start exploring the canyon. The views right outside the lodge were pretty god, although there is a bit of haze in the air from another forest fire burning some distance to the west.

I hiked the short trails here, then, after a momentary work-related distraction that I won't go into here, I drove out to Imperial Point and Cape Royal and spent the rest of the day hiking the trails and taking pictures, usually from vantage points where I was the only one there. It was incredible to virtually have the whole Grand Canyon to myself. Even at the North Rim, it seems that most visitors don't want to walk more than a few dozen yards from their cars. As a consequence, they miss a lot.

No safety rails out here. It's just you and gravity and hopefully, common sense.

The cactuses (cactii?) were in bloom out here, too.

I'll be back here again, and next time I want to hike across the canyon from one rim to the other--a 22-mile hike that descends all the way to the bottom and back up the other side. I didn't go below the rim this time though as I was still fairly fresh off of my five-month lay-up following that pesky leg surgery back in December and I decided not to push it this time. But I will be back, and next time I'll have the fitness and the gear for some serious hiking.

Back out past the bison again.

"Oh, you can't roller skate in a buffalo herd..."