Grand Canyon National Park

Once again apologies for the lack of updates. I have hardly any downtime to write these posts and realistically I don’t think I’ll catch up any time soon! I'm posting this from New York City which is three weeks ahead of where I'm up to. Oops...

We left our waterless mountain (Jacob Lake) early in the morning and drove into the Grand Canyon National Park North Rim. We had about an hour’s drive to get there through pine forests and meadows. There were signs saying that a controlled forest fire was underway but sadly we didn’t see it.

Kaibab National Forest covers much of the North Rim

The Canyon itself is immense and there are two very different sections to the National Park. The South Rim is more famous and is busier, with a hot desert environment that most people associate with the Canyon. The North Rim is much quieter and is significantly higher in elevation. Because of this the temperature is cooler and there is a lot more plant life with pine forests growing right up to the canyon edge.

We arrived at the North Rim village and came across the Canyon via the North Rim Lodge. It’s hard to describe just how huge the Canyon is. It was literally breath taking as it came in to view. We walked along a path to a lookout with very sharp drops on either side. At the very bottom of the deepest part of the canyon is the Colorado River but this was so far down that we weren’t able to see it.

The lodge is perched right on the canyon edge

As we returned to the car I manage to drop my phone on the pavement and completely shattered the screen. Often phones will still work with a broken screen but mine did not respond at all to any touch on more than half of the screen. I got over it pretty quickly but it would prove to be a major hassle replacing it.

Mobile phones are sold in a very different way in the US with almost all phones being sold by networks directly. It is very uncommon to buy a phone of contract that has no connection to one of the carriers. Phones also seem to be quite expensive in general and the selection available in many shops is limited. Because of this is took me nearly two weeks to get a new phone which I’ll describe in a later post.

We decided that our first walk was too short and chose another hike that took us down into the canyon. The hike was called the Kaibab Trial which travelled from the rim right down to the Colorado River far below, a multi-day hike but we were only doing the first few km. The hike was long and hot but the views were nice. We walked to the first major stop and had lunch. On the way back up we had to step aside repeatedly to let gangs of mules past which made a bit of a mess on the trial.

Our goal for the night was a campground in Monument Valley, a three hour drive away. The scenery was interesting as we drove but the real highlight was a huge thunderstorm that rolled in right on top of us. The lightning was flashing every few seconds and the thunder followed only seconds later. We had to drive up onto a plateau which made me a bit scared but we managed to survive. Keep in mind that we were in a desert here and the rain was constant.

The Colorado River a bit further up stream of the canyon

Gloomy skies

We made a stop in Page, Arizona for food and groceries. Page is located by the Glen Dam and next to Lake Powell, which is filled by the Colorado River. This dam is similar to the Hoover Dam further downstream. The thunder and lightning continued as we huddled in Taco Bell (I know…) as we tried in vain to connect to the free WiFi.

We arrived in Monument Valley as the sun was setting. The valley is located within the Navajo Indian territory. I should explain now that Monument Valley is the famous quintessential western backdrop with large stone mesas and a very dry, brown landscape. What we found was different. The landscape was lush and green with only the mesas staying true to our expectations. As it turns out this year has been incredibly wet so the plants are much greener that normal.