SW Trip 2014 - North Rim Grand Canyon

North Rim Grand Canyon, Arizona

May 15 – 19

Picasa web album link:

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Upon arrival at the North Rim Grand Canyon campground, we setup our rig and then headed out for a hike along the canyon rim on the Transcept Trail. We watched sunset from the rim, which was beautiful! The North Rim is much higher elevation than the South Rim and also has about 10% of the visitors. However, the campground was mostly full.  We discovered that the North Rim has many more side canyons, as this side is still eroding unlike the South Rim.

The next morning we hiked the Uncle Jim Trail to an overlook of the canyon. Uncle Jim was an original settler/ranger of the park. This was mostly a hike through the Kaibab Forest, but ended up at an incredible viewpoint of the Roaring Springs Canyon. After lunch back at camp, we drove out to the east side to several overlook points. Point Imperial overlooks the eastern side of the canyon, looking toward the Navajo Nation, Echo Cliffs and the Painted Desert. The pictures of these views do not even begin to show how beautiful the landscape is. We then headed back to camp for the evening.

Cape Royal was one destination the next day, which has a great view of the South Rim and below to the Colorado River. We ate our lunch at the Vista Encantada sitting at a picnic table right on the canyon rim. The Roosevelt Point was the next overlook with views of the Navajo Nation and the Painted Desert. We then drove to the Grand Canyon Lodge to check it out and see the views from there. The Bright Angel Point and the lodge overlook the Bright Angel Canyon. The hike out to the point was pretty scary, with some narrow areas and steep drop offs.

The next day, we drove to the North Kaibab Trailhead to hike down into the Roaring Springs Canyon. Kurt was determined to make it down a 10 mile round trip to Roaring Springs. My goal was to make it to the Supai Tunnel at 4 miles round trip. I made it to the Tunnel then turned around to go back up to the trailhead. It was a very steep and strenuous trail. The park supplied water fill stations at several points along the trail, including Supai Tunnel and Roaring Springs. This was crucial as the temperatures get higher as you go down into the canyon. Kurt did make it to the springs and back as planned. This trail does continue down across the canyon, over the Colorado River and back up the South Kaibab Trail to the South Rim, 26 miles one way with a 5000’ elevation change both ways. We met several runners who came up to the North Trailhead who had completed the whole rim to rim in 9 – 10 hours! Crazy!

Our last day at the North Rim was spent in a relaxed mode. We rode our bikes to the Lodge and had lunch there. We also enjoyed sitting on the back patio and relaxing while looking at the amazing Grand Canyon. Later we prepared to head out to our next destination, Zion National Park in Utah!