First Day at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

The Campground:

Well, to clarify, we aren’t camping at the North Rim. We’re staying at Kaibab Camper Village, which is the closest campground with hookups. It’s 44 miles from the visitor center.

It’s at an elevation of about 8,000 feet on the Kaibab Plateau in the Kaibab National Forest and it has trees; big beautiful Ponderosa Pines! The trees did make situating the trailer and truck a bit challenging but I am so happy to be in trees again. And we have full hookups, cell service and satellite TV.

There are trails here, through the trees.

I found a couple of short loops, one of which passes this old ranger station.

Better yet, there are mule deer and Matey and I have seen them on two of our walks. So, trees for me, TV for Bud, and deer for Matey; all good.

The Canyon:

As I said, it’s a long drive. At least it’s a pretty drive.

And today we saw bison, with calves. That made us all happy.

And then there is the canyon. It is grand. We drove around to several viewpoints.

From here you could look across to the South Rim. We saw a glint which was the sun on some metal or glass at the Desert Tower.

This is the Wedding Venue (permit required). There are log benches arranged to face this little clearing. Those would be some wedding photos.

The guests best not get drunk, though.

We ended our drive with a picnic at Point Imperial, the highest vista in Grand Canyon National Park.

There were stunning views;

including this vista all across the canyon to the Mesa in the east, south of Page, the place we left yesterday.