Going Out on a Rim

Oh, the Grand Canyon!  So grand indeed!

Kevin, Emily, Trish, and I had a spectacular couple days at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!

We stopped in Las Vegas for a night on the way, and as we drove to the Grand Canyon's North Rim, I realized that Zion National Park wasn't too far out of our way, and if we went there, we could visit the Flying Monkey, home of some of the best pizza in the country. So, we drove the extra few miles and got to munch on pizza and then marvel at the Navajo sandstone cliffs. I shared with you a previous trip to Zion.  You must go to Zion!  It is aaaaamazzzing!

Some monkeys:

Fueled and ready for adventure!

Angel's Landing. No time to do the hike this time!

Of course, one of us had to do a little poking around, too (outside the park, of course!).

As we drove toward the Grand Canyon, we were lucky to watch a nearly-full moonrise. Spectacular! We had hoped to catch the full moon over the canyon the next night, but it was too cloudy. Boo!

We stopped to enjoy the moonrise....

....and the sunset.

We checked into our cabin fairly late, so we didn't get a view of the hole in the ground till morning, but Wow! This is what greeted us in the morning!

It was a little hazy because of clouds and smoke from a managed fire.

At Bright Angel Point

That first morning, Trish and I set off on a few small hikes, right around the North Rim Lodge, and in the afternoon we drove to Point Royal on the Walhalla Plateau and walked to some more spectacular viewpoints.  We did over 5 miles altogether on these hikes!

We walked these trails:
Bright Angel Point (.5 mile)
Transept Trail (3 miles)
Point Royal Trail (.6 mile)
Walhalla Ruins (.1 mile)
Cliff Spring Trail (1 mile)

Come along and see a few pictures.  I don't pretend to be a good photographer; snapshots is where I'm at.  Pictures don't do the Canyon justice in any case. I hope you'll enjoy these, though.

Of course I took pictures of wildflowers.....

Indian Paintbrush

Penstamon

And  critters.....

These wixked-looking wasps were everywhere!

On the Transept Trail we saw a couple does.  One of them crossed right over the trail and didn't mind us at all.

At Point Royal, there is a natural window through which you can see the Colorado River. This area is the only place where you can see the river from the North Rim.

I played with the "Super Vivid" setting of my camera.  Here is vivid:

And here is "normal."

There are some Anazasi ruins on the Walhalla Plateau, but for some reason I didn't get any shots.  Guess you'll have to go see for yourself!

Our last trail of the day was down to Ciff Spring. This is where water seeps out of the rocks. There is a natural spring there.

Well, it's more of an algae-filled puddle than a spring, but still...!

Plants are happy growing right out of the rock above....

And there's cool minerals and moss gathering on the cliff-side, too.

Here is a video of the drips!

 There was an ancient Indian granary along the trail.  They built it under a rock.  It's pretty intact!

Trish was a hikin' fool, and she did great!  Even on the last trail of the day, a down-and-up miler, she booked along.  I was proud of her for hiking all day. Here she is.

Trish coming out of the Cliff Spring trail:

It was a super first day enjoying the canyon's rim.

Now, please follow this link to see the second installment!