Currently we are in your old haunt of Minneapolis. Luckily it hasn't snowed yet today, and we are enjoying some sunny weather.
So, it's high time that we talked about the Grand Canyon. Is it grand? The short answer is "yes", but it goes deeper than that.
We stayed at the north rim of the canyon, which from what we've heard is much more relaxed than the south rim (the south rim has it's own airport!). If we had to do it all over again, we would have tried to secure some reservations, but everything worked out in the end. A very nice park ranger by the name of Susan Mason took it upon herself to find us a campsite. Luckily someone cancelled and we locked ourselves into 3 nights of canyon glory.
One thing that surprised us was how much foliage is in and around the north rim. Tall ponderosa pines, big meadows of grass and wildflowers, and aspens everywhere. For some reason, I thought we would be in some vast desert that eventually would just end in a giant crevasse. Possibly hollywood movies like "The Mummy" and "Stargate" have done this to me. Yet when we arrived there was no sign of pyramids, aliens, or Brenden Fraiser.
Our first day there, we walked out to Bright Angel Point and then Royal Point, which is an overlook trail on the east side of the north rim. There, flying above us, were two of the largest birds that I've ever seen. I was certain that they were condors, since the wingspan was so huge. After getting back, we actually went to ranger talk on condors. It was there that I learned my folly; clearly these were not condors that we had seen. Instead they were most likely turkey vultures. The big differences, when comparing the two, is that a condor never looks wobbly or "drunk" looking like a vulture does in flight, and condors are even bigger (like 7 foot wingspan), and the white on the underside of the wing is more fore than aft. Furthermore, virtually all condors in the wild have a number tagged on their wing with a gps beacon. This is because at one point there were no condors in the wild and a program at the San Diego zoo had to breed and rerelease them into the wild.
The next day, we hiked a 10 mile hike around the rim on Widforss trail. The trail was named after the WPA artist that had done so many paintings of grand canyon park. I'm not going to lie, we are out of shape. Though the traill wasn't particularly difficult, it wasn't easy either. But it was worth the trek to see the largest ponderosa pines in the park, the lushous groves of aspens and the great views of the canyon along the route as well as Widforss point.
Some other highlights from the stay included the water gun parade on the Fourth of July. Since it is too dry to allow fireworks, they have a huge water-fight parade around the loop at the lodge. All the staff comes out, cooks, cabin maids, rangers, tram operators, and even the mule wranglers. They all have water guns, and every visitor can take a watergun if they want. The parade loops around 3 times and each pass is a dogfight of water. Then, on the last lap, the mules and riders gallop up the steps to the saloon and the riders all drink a beer.
Later that night on the Fourth of July, we attended the "Grand Canyon BBQ". We arrived at a giant tent near the campground via a mock train/tram thingy, and had all-you-can-eat BBQ beef brisket, and many other yummy foods. All the while, we watched the musical and comedic stylings of "Woody and Cleda Jane". It was probably one of the most entertaining Fourth of Julys that I have experienced, and certainly the most delicious.
So what's more to say? We enjoyed our stay at the north rim so much that we would like to go back sooner than later. Next time, we'll actually hike down into the rim. We thought about doing a rim-to-rim hike this time, but apparently you need to get backcountry permits 6 months in advance to do so.
From the Grand Canyon, we drove on to Phoenix Arizona and experienced an enormous dust storm. This time, it actually did look like something out of The Mummy and we did meet Brenden Fraiser. But that's a whole other post...
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
