The OTHER Side of the Grand Canyon!

For as far back as I can remember, I've wanted to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Like most people who have traveled much, Jack and I have been to the South Rim (for me, more than once), but at our ripe ages...never have gotten to the North Rim!  Due to it's limited "open time" because of the weather, it's always been a challenge.  Because "we don't do snow" we tend to use a lot of our summer time visiting areas that we can't get to in the winter, thus, it limits us.

This year, because we came back west for a wedding, we were in this area that we usually are not at this time of the year, soooo, yea, we finally had the opportunity to check a couple of places off our bucket list...this one being "the big one"!  ;-)

So, luckily we were able to find a campsite not to very far, in Kanab UT as our home base and booked it for 5 days.  Weather is clear and in the high 80's, low 90's, not bad!  Yea!

Well, off we went to spend the whole day at the North Rim!  Wow, it was wonderful!  I really didn't know what to expect, I knew it would be different, but hadn't really spent any time researching it, and I was glad, as I like to just take it all in.  It was an hour and half drive to get to, but the drive itself was beautiful as well.  I took a dozen pictures before we even got to the gate!  Changing scenery every few miles.

Not even feet from the gate, we were greeted with one of the largest herds of bison we've seen thus far in our travels.  At least one that was all together in one spot!  Hundreds all grazing, enjoying the fresh green grass with their young calves.  Sweet.  Of course there is always the crazy tourist that ignores the ranger's statement not to stop in the road and not to get out of your car and walk towards the bison...jeez...

By the time we made it into the park itself, it was lunch time, so what better place to take a break, than at the Grand Canyon Lodge?  We lucked out and got a beautiful table right at the window with a wonderful view of the canyon, our first real view of it!  What a great way to really start our adventure!

After lunch we walked the short trail to Bright Angel Point and got a really beautiful view.  A nice couple took our picture and we headed on our journey.

Each stop was more beautiful than the next.  As the ad's say, it's not crowed like the South Rim, every stop had plenty of parking spots, the people there were friendly and never got in the way to take pictures.  There never was any "traffic" to speak of, it always seemed like a leisurely drive with plenty of time to get from one place to the other.  The only gift shops, food, etc is at the beginning where the Lodge and Visitor's Center is.  All much smaller than at the South Rim.  There is a shuttle service from rim-to-rim as well.  But that's it.  As you can imagine, I took many, many pictures...I'll spare you here and just give you a small sample...the rest, if you want are in my flickr account!  ;-)

I'm so glad we finally made it, if you haven't been...do put it on your list, you won't regret it!  As you will see in the pictures, it's very different from the South Rim, and so lovely in it's own right.  I'm just so sorry it took us so long to get here...but sometimes good things just take a while to happen...

We have one more adventure to check off our bucket list, and that's happening tomorrow!  Look for more beautiful pictures from this fabulous place!

...kicking back in Kanab,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/