What a beautiful day it was! We got up at 7:00 and the temperature was 53 degrees! We got ready and headed to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (40 miles away) and by the time we got there it was in the 60's. It was sunny but very windy all day. I think the high was around 75!
We planned to go to the Grand Canyon Lodge first and have a big breakfast, however, we got sidetracked with the beauty of the canyon and ended up going to Bright Angel Point first. By the time we got to the restaurant it was 10:30 and found that they closed at 10:00, after breakfast, and were not going to open for lunch until 11:30! So what's new...a day in the life of the Davises! We decided to walk around the lodge and go to the Visitor's Center and Gift Shop until 11:30...always fun for us! At 11:30 we started walking toward the restaurant and...just our luck...a tour bus had arrived and there was a very long line coming out of the restaurant! Oh well, we decided to stand in line because we really wanted a good meal and not "fast food"! As a result, we met a very nice couple from New Hampshire, Roy and Connie Raven, in line behind us and ended up having lunch with them. They have done a lot of traveling over the years and were delightful!
Now that our tummys are full, it's time to do some hiking! We start out at North Kaibab Trailhead, a 14 mile (one way) hike to the Colorado River. Don't get too excited and think that we have become super fit! We were only going to hike a few miles in to several of the scenic views and then hike a few miles back. Well, the first part of the hike was easy (and we knew it would be because it was downhill) but we didn't realize how steep it was until we got started! We didn't get too far (maybe 1/2 mile) when we decided that, since it's going to be a long, uphill climb back to the rim, we would turn around and head to some of the other scenic trails that weren't so strenuous! This was also after we had passed several couples that were struggling to get to the top!
It was a good decision because we ended up doing some short hikes to some very beautiful views of the canyon...and lived to tell about it! We left the North Kaibab Trailhead and went to Point Imperial, the highest viewpoint along the North Rim (8803 feet), Vista Encantada, Roosevelt Point (Teddy, of course), Cape Final, Walhalla Overlook, Walhalla Glades Ruin, and Cape Royal...all the "high points" without hiking down into the canyon. It all was breathtaking and we met some very nice people along the way. Such a good day that we barely made it back to the campground before dark!
Click on the two links below to see today's pictures!
https://picasaweb.google.com/104959812223133937279/August312011GrandCanyonNorthRim?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJ3QmvSCmNbAMA&feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/104959812223133937279/August312011GrandCanyonNorthRimGlenn?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJOHi4vXs6G6-AE&feat=directlink
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