Joe & Wilma's Excellent Adventures

 Tuesday, August 6, 2024

North Rim.

Our "unmapped" adventures continue, having found this delightful campground in the Kaibab National Forest at Jacob's Lake. We did decide to stay another day.   I walked over to the office about 7:45, thinking it was 8:45 and had to wait 15 minutes for them to open (at 8:00, Arizona time).  While I was sitting on their patio, I saw a Kaibab squirrel. My picture of the squirrel isn't very good because it was quite a ways away, but they are black with a white, bushy tail.

 I added a day to our reservation, and I went back to the RV, fixed a cup of coffee and sat outside at the picnic table, waiting for Joe to arise (with a little prompting from me). He asked me what time it was, and I told him 9:30, but I didn't tell him that it was 8:30 Arizona time.   I had two hummingbirds attacking me right away and they continued to visit me. 

 We talked to a lady fellow camper last night and she told us about a scenic drive along the north rim -- sounds like our kind of adventure. 

So we gained back our last hour of our travels, and we’re now on Arizona time.  We started today’s adventure about 10:15.  It was 80 degrees.  The temperature range today is 71 to 81.

We did see one deer on our way to Angel Trail, where we arrived about 11:30, and walked just to the beginning of it. The trail itself is closed, but we didn’t go far enough down to see where they had closed it. However, we did stop at one of the Visitors Center Overlooks and got a couple pictures.  I'm just going to post a bunch of the canyon photos at the bottom, without regard to where they were taken.

We drove past the lodge and cabins.  It must have been shift change -- we saw 4 park rangers walking together by the cabins.  

Gas in the park was $3.71.  Joe filled up the jeep outside before we came into the park for $4.89.  Fortunately, we only needed 3 gallons.  On our way back from Bright Angel to the scenic drive -- Cape Royal Road --  we found the mule corral.  It looks like they were all settled up and ready to go.

 

Then we turned on the scenic drive our camper lady told us about.  Cape Royal Road,  23 miles one way.   With our ailments and as tired as we are, this 8000 foot elevation makes every short walk difficult. At the Wahalla overlook, Joe walked down a little ways to a second overlook, but I didn’t, my knee was hurting. 

The next stop was Cape Royal where the Angels Window Lookout is. I got a picture of the window just before we got to the lookout. I started to try to walk it. It’s 100 yards approximately, but I didn’t make it very far. I would like to have gone to the end because when we got out of the car,  a Ranger walked with us carrying a guitar.   I would’ve loved to have seen him play.  Joe walked out there a  little further, but I stayed with the jeep.  When Joe got back, he said it was a good decision on my part. He only walked partway to the first lookout, which was probably the hundred yards.  The Window was quite a bit further.

There are some magnificent views on this road, especially toward the end of it. Our last stop was Imperial Point. It’s breathtaking. I got to sit on the bench while Joe went to the bathroom and just soak it up for a bit. I know there are people who think they have seen other canyons comparable to the Grand Canyon but I really think this is one of a kind. 

I saw this van in the parking lot and loved the painting on the side.  This may be my next vehicle.

This wore us out and we headed back to the RV about 3:30, 137 miles in.  After a rest and dinner, we decided to take a little drive.  We wanted to see Jacob's Lake, which is not much more than a mudpuddle right up the road.  But of course we continued on forest roads to see what we could see.  The forest here suffered severe forest fire a few years ago, which is always very sad.  But what hadn't been involved in the fire is very clean.  We saw a total of 10 deer on the drive.  And only drove 33 miles, which made 170 for the day.  We got to watch this deer for a little while.

     PICTURES   OF   THE   NORTH   RIM

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This is my panromantic picture.

Well worth the time and effort.  It is only our second visit to the North Rim.  There are not as many overlooks here as on the South Rim, but they are spectacular.