Day 27 – Grand Canyon

Miles traveled: 266
Hours on Road: 9
States covered: 2 – Utah, Arizona

It was hard to leave our beautiful Kodachrome Basin, but we knew we were heading out for more adventure, so we said our good-byes to the rocks and the scorpions we never saw, and hit the road. I took a shower before heading out, though. I just couldn’t go another whole day unclean.

When we set the GPS, it was no longer Lee. Somehow Jill had infiltrated the airwaves along with some new car that did not have a dog hanging out the window. Parker immediately set about having Lee return to us, but instead of the same old car, we opted to follow an eagle for a while. It makes me tired watching those wings flap and flap, but it’s something different.

At one pullout, I looked and saw that no one was coming, but shortly after pulling out, I was passed by three motor cycles. Lord only knows why they passed me, because as soon as they did, they slowed down. Their jackets said Iron Workers, and we decided they were the worst bikers ever because they drove so slowly. I actually wanted to go faster than they were going. Now that’s saying something.

We found our campground, the Kaibab Camper Village, which I will recommend, with a resounding NAY, to never use. I had searched the internet for a campground at the Grand Canyon, and this is the only one I could find. Believe me, there are better choices. The people at the Office were nice enough, but the sites make it look as though someone who owned a farm thought to himself one day, “How can I make a little extra money? Oh ya, I’ll let people camp out in my field. All I have to do is put some outhouse out there.” And that’s what he did. Sure, there’s a filthy shower that you can pay $2.25 for five minutes in, and there are sinks for brushing your teeth, if you don’t mind sinks set outside. There they sit, four sinks set in a large countertop, placed right behind the outhouses. Two of the four outhouses were chained shut at any given time, because they were too full to use any longer. There was also a laundry facility that was locked every time I checked it. But we weren’t there for the campground, so we set up the tent quickly (it was soaking wet from the storm at Kodachrome), and we headed out for what we had really come for – the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

The North Rim was another 25 miles down the road past our campground. We drove through the Kaibab National Forest to get to it. It looked like there had been a pretty bad fire along several hundred acres of the forest. Not a live tree in sight for miles.

The ride to the North Rim was fairly unremarkable. You’d never guess that something Grand was not too far ahead. In fact, I did pretty well along these roads because they were a lot like being in New England. They were windy and tree lined, and they weren’t steep at all; just fields to either side. It wasn’t until we’d entered Grand Canyon National Park and driven about 15 miles that the roads got steep at all. Even then, there was only an occasional glimpse of the Canyon. When we reached our destination, there were cabins to rent! I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t seen them online. The ones on the outside overlook the Canyon. I can’t think of a nicer place to stay.

But the Grand Canyon – there are no words. Jeff and I had been saying that it had better be awfully grand to compete with the Tetons, Yellowstone, Bryce Canyon, and Dead Horse Point. Well, it was that Grand. The immensity of it is beyond words. It’s deep, long, colorful, and amazing. Our first walk was to Bright Angel Trail. It’s only about a half-mile long, but it goes right along the edge of the canyon and doesn’t have any guard rails, so I flipped out a little. I was in my usual squat, arms-out-to-balance posture. One guy stood right on a rock edge for his photo; I had to move along; I couldn’t watch.

From Bright Angel Point you can see the entire canyon – miles and miles of it. The haziness created by the heat prevented us from getting a great distance photo, but it was shocking how far we could see. At another viewing spot that had a northeast view, we could see the Henry Mountains, which were 133 miles away. The canyon had to be that far in the other direction.

After viewing the Canyon from Bright Angel Point, we drove to Cape Royal and Point Imperial. From the Cape Royal Point the Colorado River was visible. When driving to Point Imperial we saw more burned land and learned that there had been an Outlet Fire in 2000. No matter where you look from, the Grand Canyon is just that – Grand. The drop-offs are thousands of feet deep and the colors, shapes, and smoothness or cragginess of the rocks is incredible. Jeff and I will have to come back here and spend time at the cabins. That I absolutely recommend; skip the Kaibab Camper Village!!

Back at camp we could finally set up the mattresses since the tent had dried while we were gone. The people next to us, two older couples, were nice enough. I had to ask them what time it was since Lee seems to be a little off these days. He must think we’ve passed a time change line because he keeps telling us we’ll arrive at some place an hour earlier than we actually will. While they were nice enough to tell us the time, one of the guys kept belching. It was tolerable at first, but it lost any sort of endearing qualities as the evening wore on. As it neared bed time I panicked that the two guys were going to be horrible snorers. I had the fan right next to me all night just in case.

For corresponding photos, go to:
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1925508027/a=2740108027_2740108027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/