Chillin' Out on the North Rim

Saturday June 30

Upon leaving Page, AZ we headed towards Lee's Ferry. Lee's Ferry is about 15 river miles downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, but about 45 road miles away. We crossed the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River and descended to Lee's Ferry. At ~3000', Lee's Ferry is very hot in late June. The forecast there for this day was 110' and I believed it. Lee's Ferry lies at the break between Marble Canyon (the upper Grand Canyon), Glen Canyon and Paria Canyon, providing the only relatively easy access to the Colorado River for many miles in either direction. The Navajo Bridge, opened in 1928, made the ferry obsolete. Lee's Ferry is most famous now for being the put-in for all Grand Canyon float trips. There were a number of float parties, both private and commercial, setting up to put in the next morning. I had a grand time chatting with the river rats and really hated to leave. But we needed to find a place to camp, and we were burning daylight.

Our objective that evening was to get as close to the North Rim as we could. We left Lee's Ferry hoping to get to the Kaibab National Forest Visitor Center at Jacob Lake before they closed at 5:00, but it was going to be close. From Lee's Ferry we gained altitude steadily as we crested onto the Kaibab Plateau. The Kaibab Plateau ranges in elevation from about 7000' to almost 9000'. Kaibab is a Paiute Indian word meaning "mountain lying down". The Kaibab National Forest was a stark contrast from the desert environs we had been in for the last week or so. It is heavily forested with spruce, fir and aspen and was green and lush. It also contained a number of beautiful meadows along the road. The campground at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was booked solid until the end of July. There was a possibility that we could get a site due to a cancellation, particularly if we got there in the morning, but we would arrive after 6:00. (or 5:00 or 7:00, I don't know.) Our fall back position was to try to get a spot at DeMotte CG in the Kaibab National Forest. We arrived at the Kaibab NF Visitor Center one minute after they closed, and the doors were locked. We lurked outside until one of the staff came out, and then grilled him about camping in the NF. He couldn't tell us about the availability of camp sites at DeMotte CG (this is the beginning of the 4th of July holiday week), which is just 8 miles from the entrance to the North Rim, but he said we should be able to find some nice places off the highway if we wanted to experience "dispersed camping". When we arrived at DeMotte there were plenty of sites, so we set up on No. 2. The first thing we noticed was how cool it was. We were now at about 8800', almost a mile higher than we had been the night before. By the time we went to bed the outside temperature was 47 degrees. The low for the night ended up being 31 degrees. We had gone from 110 degrees to 31 degrees in just under 12 hours.

Sunday July 1

In 2005 the Grand Canyon National Park received 4.6 million visitors, but only 10% of those people went to the North Rim. In spite of that, it still took us almost 20 minutes to clear the entrance gate. The parking lots at the Visitor Center and lodge were nearly full. We attended a ranger talk on the California condor. The number of California condors once dwindled to 22, but, thanks to captive breeding programs, now number 300+. There are ~70 in the Grand Canyon area, including one which has been perching on the North Rim Grand Lodge. There is a release site nearby on Vermilion Cliffs. We did a few easy overlook walks and then drove out to Point Imperial, at 8803' the highest point on either rim. The north rim is about 1000' higher than the south rim and about twice as far from the river. Since it slopes down to the south, it experiences more erosional forces than the South Rim and has receded away from the river more quickly. Tomorrow we plan to do some longer hikes. We would like to catch some more ranger talks, but they start at 7:00 and 8:00 and that is a little late for us since we are staying outside the park.

Monday July 2

Today we arose early for a hike into the canyon. When we got up it was 32 degrees. We hit the North Kaibab trail head about 6:45 for a walk to Roaring Spring. Roaring Spring is about 5 miles and 3005' down from the North Rim. It is the source of all the water used by the North and South Rim and is the headwaters to Bright Angel Creek. The walk down was very pleasant. We soon shed our jackets, and we arrived at Roaring Spring in about 2 1/2 hours. By then the temperature had risen significantly. We cooled our feet in the stream, ate PBJs for lunch and started the long trek out of the canyon. The hike out was reminiscent of a backpacking trip we did from the South Rim in May 1998. Hot, dry, steep and long. We finally made it out of the canyon and bee-lined it to the lodge for some ice cream. We then enjoyed a very entertaining ranger talk on Grand Canyon geology.