On a sweltering Saturday in June, we loaded up our car (and I really mean loaded -- our 4-door sedan was literally packed to capacity with camping gear) and headed out on a multi-week trip to some of the least-crowded National Parks in the southwest. At least that was the original plan. However, a wildfire on route 89 near Flagstaff forced us to change our route a little and kick off our trip at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon -- usually one of the most popular and busy National Park sites. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that although there were crowds, it was nowhere near as crowded as we'd expected for the middle of summer.
As mentioned, we'd originally planned to drive straight to the North Rim but the Pipeline and Haywire fires forced us to take an alternate and longer route. So we were lucky to be able to reserve a room for one night at the Kachina Lodge, right in the heart of the Grand Canyon Village. We couldn't do any hiking because we'd arrived too late in the day, but we did have a nice dinner on the El Tovar patio and a pleasant walk along the South Rim to enjoy the spectacular views.
The next morning, after a very scenic drive through the Vermillion Cliffs area, we finally arrived at the North Rim. It was much less crowded, and we had no problem finding some lounge chairs on the terrace at the lodge.
We discovered that dining options were much much more limited on this side of the canyon! We stayed in one of the cabins near the lodge and quickly realized that the lodge had only a small deli and the main dining room for dinner options. There was a mini-mart over at the campground, but our cabin did not have a refrigerator or microwave for cooking anything. I had only made one dinner reservation in advance for the lodge dining room, and we were informed that it was pretty booked up for the other two nights. Luckily we were able to charm the host into giving us two other reservations (one very early around 4:30, one very late at 9pm). The food was just so-so for the price, but it was pretty much the only game in town. We did love the views from inside the lodge -- the picture windows in the lounge next to the dining room had expansive views of the canyon.
For our first morning, our number one priority was to get up early and hike a bit of the Kaibab Trail down into the canyon. We knew the trailhead parking lot would fill up so we got an early start around 7am. An added benefit was that the weather was still somewhat cool for the first part of the hike down. We took a brief break at the fantastic Coconino overlook.
We decided to hike down about two miles and turn around once we reached the Supai tunnel. Kevin is in great shape but I am not quite as fit and I wanted to make sure I had enough energy to hike back up!
It is always so much easier hiking down than up, right? Coming back the trail was steep and relentlessly uphill. While we were at the Supai tunnel, we crossed paths with one of the mule trains. As we hiked back upward and the day started getting hotter, I felt a small twinge of jealousy that those tourists got the same views we did with a fraction of the effort!
Over our three day visit, we did a few other less strenuous hikes including Transept Trail (beautiful and uncrowded) and the dizzying walk to Bright Angel Point (not for the faint of heart!). We also took the scenic drive to Cape Royal. It was such a gorgeous drive that we did it more than once! One of our favorite spots was the lookout near Point Imperial. We brought a lunch, our chairs, and our books and just sat for a few hours reading and admiring the view.
There is nothing like the Grand Canyon at sunset. This is dusk at the Angel's Window formation near Cape Royal.
From the Cape Royal viewpoint, we enjoyed watching the Wotan's Throne rock formation change color as the sun slowly set. So beautiful! This was my first time to the North Rim and I enjoyed every moment; hopefully we will be lucky enough to come back up here again someday!
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