Day 15 - Page, AZ to the Grand Canyon North Rim, then back up to Fredonia, AZ

Friday, May 18, 2018

Weather:  Sunny and mid-80’s in Page down to high 50’s at the North Rim—hey, it’s better than the 30’s!

Steps: Shaun - 11,354, Shannon - 9,404

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is about 2 ½ hours away, so we got up fairly early, packed the car, ate breakfast, went to Walmart again, and stopped for gas before heading out. The drive was a beautiful one that took us through the Vermillion Cliffs area and over the Navajo Bridge (which is where Debbie Struble told us we would absolutely, for sure, no doubt about it see condors nesting...but alas...no self-respecting condor would touch his delicate feet to the scalding hot metal under the bridge at this time of the year. Bummer).

The Navajo Bridge Information Center was small but had a few condor-y postcards, socks, etc., so it was still a worthwhile stop. After that, we stopped at a few other shops along the way, but we didn’t find anything spectacular, which was lucky because it turned out that time was definitely not on our side on this day.

The hours seemed to pour through our fingers like water, and we’d been told that we needed to get to the dude ranch where we’d be staying the night before dark or we’d have trouble finding the turn-off. Since it was 90 minutes away, we couldn’t dawdle at the North Rim, which was definitely a shame because we didn’t feel like we gave it the amount of time it deserved. I guess we’ll just have to come back again someday!

Shan's first look

We decided to immediately drive all the way up the Scenic Drive and then come back down and see the Canyon on the way back down. The highest point on the North Rim (at 8,803 feet) is called Point Imperial and includes a wonderful rock formation called Mount Hayden. This vista is where Shannon got her first look of the Grand Canyon, and just seeing the look on her face when she gazed over the edge made my heart sing. These are the moments that will stay with us always, and I’m so glad I get to share them with my favorite person on the planet.

Since we’re writing this blog six months after the actual trip, I’m having a really hard time trying to figure out which pictures are from which viewpoint. To make matters worse, Shannon’s pictures were taken from her phone which adjusted to the correct local time while my camera did not. This means that the pictures are all shuffled together but they’re shots of different places! I’m going insane trying to figure them out, so I’m just going to list our stops, pick my favorite pictures, and move on. I hope you guys don’t mind...but then again, you’ll never know will you?

Mt. Hayden

Heading south from Point Imperial, we stopped at Vista Encantada, Roosevelt Point, Walhalla Overlook, and Cape Royal where Votan’s Throne and the Unkar Delta spreads out to the horizon. Since we were pressed for time, we didn’t do the hike we had intended to do to the end of Cape Royal, but we saw the Angel’s Window rock formation from the road, which was very cool.

Shaun demonstrated her superior mountain driving skills as we rushed pell-mell back down the Scenic Drive to get to the Visitor’s Center and Lodge where Shan got food from the deli and Shaun had to settle for food from the car because there was no vegan-friendly food to be found at this venue. We thought that was pretty weird, but the North Rim had just opened on 5/15, so maybe it was just a timing thing.  The holographic globe in the Visitor’s Center was really cool and showed us how the different layers of the canyon had formed and changed over the millennia, so this added one more bit of information to our ever expanding understanding of the geology of this incredible area of the world.

This tree was happy to see us

After our meal, we hiked the Bright Angel Trail, which was quite steep but had incredible views of both sides of the canyon with the light playing along the cliffs and leaving some parts in shadow and other parts in the gorgeous reddish orange light of the setting sun.  There were several hawks and turkey vultures soaring just beyond the outlook, so all in all, the hike was totally worth doing.

We arrived at Grand Canyon Ranch & Outfitters just in time for sunset, and it was a beauty! We were also just in time for a very robust dinner served buffet-style by a wonderful family who ran both the 350-square-MILE ranch and the cabins for guests, many of whom came to experience a week or more working on a real ranch. The cabins had no power or water, and the main house ran on generator only from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. We spent the time until bed playing a new game called Bananagrams by the light of a lantern and then had s’mores by the campfire.

Our cabin was quite cute, but since we had no power, we had no fans. This made for a restless night for both of us. Also, guests had to walk to the bath house after the main house closed down, and we’re very happy to report that the headlamps that Shannon had bought us at L. L. Bean were lifesavers once again. Shaun got up in the middle of the night, put on her boots and headlamp and walked down the road only to be stopped halfway by a horse who was attacking the bale of hay the folks had been practicing roping on earlier in the day. Let me tell you...there’s nothing like needing to pee and being scared out of your wits by a big, honkin’ horse running loose! I was glad we were only staying one night despite the fact that the family and the people we met were really quite nice.