Grand Canyon North Rim
10/15/2018: A great driving loop to see the Northern Arizona Vermillion Cliffs and into the North Rim of the Gran Canyon. Stop at Lee’s Ferry and put your hand in the Colorado River. This is where rafters launch to do a tour of the river. This is also where Gary and I finished our backpacking Trip of the Paria Canyon.
You can read the full trip report in Joshua tree, Escalante national monument & Whitehouse Campground
Rod’s Ramblings: We drove to Page and ate some breakfast there that included bars and some fruit. We made coffee and tea before we left but we didn’t eat breakfast at our camp. From Page we went to Lees Ferry and Marguerite put her hand in the Colorado River for the first time. And I did too but it was not for the first time. We then drove on to the North Rim and walked around for 2 or 3 miles and took a ton of pictures. The North Rim is spectacular but it was very cold.
We should go back to Page someday because there is an incredible dam at the Colorado River there. There are several things to do and many hikes that you might be able to take. We have brochures.
We took a lot of pictures of the Vermilion Cliffs. Pictures do not do them justice. And I’m sure my pictures did not do them justice either. We drove what we are calling the Lollipop Loop doing 39 or 89 and 89A with the stick of the lollipop being the Grand Canyon route 67 we think.
Last night the folks in the camp beside us invited us over to enjoy their fire with them. We did not immediately take them up on it but we let them use our marshmallows and marshmallow stick. They had a great time eating marshmallows and when Marguerite and I got back from a walk in the moonlight we walked over and talked for a good half hour or so with them. That was very enjoyable. The parents were both environmentalists with majors in biology and studying climate change. They are professors at Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. Really nice people.
It got cold last night and Marguerite’s butt got cold. Tonight, I am going to change sleeping bags with her to see if her butt does not get so cold. We are going to go to Zion tomorrow but not Camp there. We will just play there and then go on to Cedar City where we have hotel reservations. It was a good, long day. Oh yeah, the folks next door left us their firewood which was very nice so we are going to have a fire tonight.