USA 2019: Page to Kanab via Grand Canyon North Rim

Today saw us leaving Page and heading for our next stop, Kanab, via the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We visited the South Rim way back in 2001 and it will be interesting to see what we think of the North Rim. Reputedly, it has all the views and 1/10th of the people. An interesting route that took us over the Colorado at Navajo Bridge and through the Vermillion Cliff State Park, that had lots of cliffs that were coloured, mmm, vermillion. After that, we started climbing into the Kaibab National Forest to reach a plateau at around 9000 feet. At Jacob's Lake (nice place for breakfast there), we took the 45 mile spur road to the North Rim entrance gate and lodge.

A few views of the Grand Canyon from its North Rim. In my humble opinion, the views from the South Rim are a more spectacular introduction to the Grand Canyon. Not to say that the views from this perspective aren't worth seeing. They are.

A note of heresy. On our trip, we've seen many canyons at the various National Parks and I think we are reasonably well palced to make some comparisons. Against Bryce and Canyonlands, the Grand Canyon is, at one level, just another collection of canyons. Does it sound travel weary to say "been there, done that"? If I had to visit just one National Park, I'd put Bryce ahead of the Grand Canyon. Bryce is truly unique, the Grand Canyon isn't.

The views are still good, though. It's not always as clear as this so we had a good day with panoramas that extended for some 70 miles. One thing we did not expect was having to drive along such a long spur road before getting to the views. The route was interesting as it took us through forests and high-altitude pastures. Because this area is under snow for at least 6 months of the year, the Rim is only open for the summer months. There was still snow on the ground in places and, much to our chagrin, the road to one of the primary viewpoints was closed due to it being washed away fairly recently by a snowfall.

From the North Rim, the Colorado River is not visible, whereas you can look down on it from the South Rim. But there are plenty of side canyons to admire.

One of the main viewpoints at the North Rim is Bright Angel Point. Getting there involves following a fairly vertiginous trail which, when we were there, was lined with people clutching for their lives on anything by the side that they could. I think we will always remember it as Great Big Huge Farty Point after an unfortunate episode with a lady in front of us. Was she suitable abashed? Not a bit of it.

As with almost all of the scenery we've driven through and seen, the scale is amazing. You want wide, open spaces? The Arizona and Utah are the places to come.

As an alternative to walking the Rim, we did a 2 mile stretch of one of the trails through the forest. Tranquil and great to be amongst the trees.

in 2006, many, many acres of the Kaibab Forest was devastated by a lightning-strike fire. We saw lots of burnt stumps and, for some miles, the scenery was one of scorched earth. Apart that is from the regrowth of Quaking Aspens. They were obviously the first tree able to recolonise after the conflagration. It's a fascinating tree and, because I know my readers share my love of botany, here are a few facts to delight and inform you.
One aspen tree is actually only a small part of a larger organism. A stand or group of aspen trees is considered a singular organism with the main life force underground in the extensive root system. Before a single aspen trunk appears above the surface, the root system may lie dormant for many years until the conditions are just right, including sufficient sunlight. In a single stand, each tree is a genetic replicate of the other, hence the name a “clone” of aspens used to describe a stand. Older than the massive Sequoias or the biblical Bristlecone Pines, the oldest known aspen clone has lived more than 80,000 years on Utah’s Fishlake National Forest. And that's why it can survive fierce forest fires and spring back to life ahead of anything else.

Mrs P exercising her photographic skills once again. With her new found knowledge of Depth of Field, the best ISO setting to use and the difference between JPEG and RAW formats, she'll be asking to use my camera soon. Am I ready for that? Of course, I am.

We dropped off the Kaibab at 9000 feet down to around 5000 feet and the part of the state known as the Arizona Strip. So called because it is the part of Arizona lying north of the Colorado River. The difficulty of crossing the Grand Canyon has caused and still causes this region to have more physical and cultural connections with southern Utah and Nevada than with the rest of Arizona. The largest settlements in the Strip are Colorado City (which has a notorious past, more of which in the next post) and Fredonia (a ghastly looking place, that seemed to be completely without merit).

A notice that greeted us at our AirBnB. Well, that put paid to a very mellow evening. We made do with a microwaved parmesan risotto instead.