Sitting in a tiny log cabin listening to massive claps of thunder.
This is our first full day at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Just saw lightening outside our open window towards the canyon! Beautiful! One cabin isn’t ON the rim. We’re set back in the forest behind some rather mature pine trees inhabited by vey vocal squirrels. I can see the canyon past the trees…and the lightening is beautiful watch…sadly Sam keeps missing it!
We’re both exhausted. Not so much from the hike we took this morning, as the journey we made yesterday!
After a 0430 departure (EST) we landed in Phoenix by 0900 (MST) and hopped a bus to get to where we could rent a car. The Phoenix airport is phenomenally beautiful! A massive stained glass ceiling sheds rainbows as you take the escalator to baggage claim, passing a life size model aircraft on your descent. Yes, shame on me for not taking pictures. Guess ya’ll will have to go buy tickets to Phoenix now. (nope, they paid me nothing to type that…you’re welcome City of Phoenix!)
After getting on the bus, it took under 10 min to get to the terminal that housed the rental car kicks and garages. My hubby had booked ahead with Hertz because online they seemed to offer the best deal. We were served quickly and efficiently, but they kept wanting to add stuff on. If we had just agreed to what the soft spoken CSR suggested our rental car cost would easily have been over a grand for 5 days. I’m sure there are people who don't bat an eye at cost like that, but the cost we had been quoted for the small car we needed had been WELL under half of that. At the end of the whole deal, we still ended up paying more than the original online quote, even after waiving the walk-away insurance. Ended up feeling taken advantage of and pressured to pay more than we had budgeted (which we ended up doing anyways). So - watch out people. This was my first time renting from Hertz, we’ll see how it ends when we return the car.
Now that we had wheels we started making tracks to the North Rim. That trip was 5hrs 45min on paper. We made a few stops on the way. First stop: Target. Why? Because everyone needs snacks and deodorant. Second stop: Whole Foods. Pizza is ALWAYS a good idea. Especially when you haven't eaten anything more than Chickfila at 1630 the day before. Armed with Chicken BBQ pizza, drinks, and a bag of apples this couple FINALLY headed north.
If you’ve ever visited the Grand Canyon (or looked at a map) you might be wondering, “Why on earth didn’t they fly into Vegas? WAY closer to the North Rim Lodge.” Correct. It certainly is. Especially if you’ve been up since 0300 EST and are operating on 1 hour of sleep (that would be my husband). During trip planning, and plane ticket buying, Phoenix seemed more logical. Especially when your point of reference is the South Rim Bright Angel Lodge. Since we planned to visit both north and south sides of the Grand Canyon Phoenix seemed to make more sense. So I planned on us going straight up and gradually make our way back. I thought riding through Navajo lands and the Kaibab forest would be fun. It may have been more fun if Sam and I hadn’t been traveling since before dawn.
We did make some more stops on the way…
A rest stop gave us a warm welcome, the sign said to watch out for poisonous snakes and insects, with the 2 main culprits pictured below. Sadly, that photo has disappeared. just imagine it …staked into desert like gravel with landscaped bed of cacti surrounding it. Sweet dreams. My current state of mind is “is that a snake?” and *shaking out every shoe and piece of clothing I own* “there better not be a scorpion in here!” Just kidding, I just do double takes on the trails out here. No more than I do at home when I’m creek stomping.
After MANY miles of dirt hills with five-o-clock shadows of scrub, we finally began to see red. Carolinians may believe they have the corner of the market on red dirt/clay. News flash: we don’t. Once you’ve driven though the Navajo area you realize that John Deere isn’t a household name in Arizona for a reason. Red hills upon red plateaus. Every once in a while we’d pass an open air roadside stand selling jewelry and pottery. But aside from wire fencing to discourage ATV enthusiasts there was little to see. Not even a tumble weed.
Eventually we reached the bridge spanning the Colorado and began see the canyons we'd travelled so far to gawk at. It was worth it. So was reading this blog post if you didn’t just scroll past it all to look the pictures!
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| View from Bridge at Vermillion Cliffs Moument (untouched photo take by Alexandria Andrews on a iPhone 6) |
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| Ladies and Gentlemen....The Colorado River as seen for the first time by yours truly! (untouched photo take by Alexandria Andrews on a iPhone 6) |
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| Cue dramatic Ol Western music.... (untouched photo take by Alexandria Andrews on a iPhone 6) |
Once we’d allowed ourselves to be blown away (almost literally…the wind felt amazing after being cooped up) we hit the road AGAIN. The last hour of driving west and then south was spectacular. The day was ending and the sun was slipping. The closer we got to the National Park (Happy 100th Birthday!) the more vegetation we saw.
While we saw signs every few miles warning us of deer, elk, cows, and bison, only the deer came out to greet us. Bill the Bison didn’t come out to play. Meadows and forest spanned both sides of the road as we made our way to the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim. Hoping we get to see some tomorrow when we head out for a mule ride!
Joan at the front desk was super helpful when we checked in! She gave us the times for sure rise and sunset along with tips on where it would be best to view them. Needless to say, we went and took in the sunset right after unpacking in our cabin. Pictures below!
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| View from overlook behind the Lodge (untouched photo take by Alexandria Andrews on a iPhone 6) |
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| (untouched photo take by Alexandria Andrews on a iPhone 6) |
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| (untouched photo take by Alexandria Andrews on a iPhone 6) |
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| (untouched photo take by Alexandria Andrews on a iPhone 6) |
After taking in the views it was time to collapse. With bloodshot eyes, and congested sinuses I wasn’t hungry and promptly fell into bed. Waking to see the sunrise wasn’t gonna happen the next day.
Fast forward past the 12ish hour coma. Woke up to voices in the next room. That’s right people. The cabin is a tiny duplex and we can everything our neighbors say. Even their face-time calls with their grandchildren. Honestly, it was kinda sweet but an example of the amount of privacy those cabins provide.
So we promptly decided to take a hike down the Transept Trail below our cabin along the rim of the Canyon....
Which ended in thunder and lightening at Bright Angel Outlook after a bit of an unplanned trail run. More details and pictures to follow in the next blog post: STAY TUNED!
