Friday, November 13, 2015

Grand Canyon, North Rim

We first visited the Grand Canyon in 1970, on our first-ever cross-country road-trip. We took Rachel and Rebecca on spring break in 1992 and did the hike down to Phantom Ranch and back up. And Vicki took a group of high school students on the Phantom Ranch hike again a year or two later. But all this was from the south rim. We'd always wanted to see the north rim, but it was always an extra day or two's drive and not that high a priority on limited vacation time. Things are different now in our Golden Years, but winter was closing in, and we were fearful the next storm might be the one that closed down the road, Arizona 67, for the season. So we made straight away from Bryce toward the north rim...
Spending the night in a dispersed camping area in Kaibob
National Forest
















Everything is closed, of course; well, oddly, the gift shoppe
was open, but not doing much business
















But we were there















The closed visitor center















Vicki takes it all in from the lodge balcony
















Side canyon
















Now walking out to Bright Angel Point
















Panning around, toward the Canyon















Thus
















Us, there
















Looking toward Phantom Ranch (middle, down, well out of
view)
















More panning around
















Ditto; the light was actually not all that great, looking down
into the depths, so we said good-bye, crossing another one off
our extensive bucket list; we did see one young couple
departing for the rim-to-rim hike; that may still be on our
list, particularly if Vicki's knees continue to hold up...but not
in the cold season



















Descending the Kaibob Plateau toward Fredonia* and Kanab:
my own photo of the vermillion, chocolate, white, grey, and
pink cliffs, aka the Grand Staircase



















*not Freedonia (look it up)



1 comment:

Tawana said...

Hate to admit it, but we have never been to the Grand Canyon. France has always been a greater pull for our limited budget and time!
Nice Grand Staircase photo!