Today was my sightseeing day with a trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Spongy and I were up early. Here's an early morning view of the Glen Canyon Dam area as we left the hotel.
It was a 2.5 hour drive from the hotel to the National Park. Some of the scenery along the way was as nice as any I've seen. Unfortunately the California fire smoke is still in the area and affects all the views and photos!
At one pullover the guard rail was as entertaining as the views!
Along the way we went over the Navajo Bridge. Actually there are two bridges, the original built in 1928 and a newer one to carry the current heavier traffic. The old bridge is now a tourist site which you can walk out onto and view the Colorado River below. I walked out to the middle and found that there were a bunch of personalized locks that have been attached to the bridge.
....and this final note found in the restroom at the bridge. "Don't Use the Floor"!!!??? Wow, am I missing something?
A good portion of the drive to the Park was along the base of the Vermilion Cliffs which is a National Monument and has a lot of off road recreational areas as well as some unusual rock formations. You can see the cliffs on the right of the following photo and then up closer in the next.
Those are some pretty big boulders! Interestingly if you look on the left you see that someone has built a shelter or home around some of the boulders. Here are a few views of those structures.
The second phase of getting to the Park was going through the Kaibab National Forest. The trip before reaching the Park was a nice ride through a conifer forest but after the Park and on the way to St George UT I went through a burned section of the forest. I've been through burned forests before but most were years or decades old. This burn was very recent and you could still smell the char odor in the air. Its a little hard to see in the photo but the trees on the left of the road in the second picture are largely burned and the pine needles are brown.
After arrival at the North Rim entrance there was another 13 miles to the Visitor Center (which was closed). I did the scenic drive on Cape Royal road. Along the drive I stopped at a pullout and was chatting with a couple of guys that were on a 6 week country tour on motorcycles. They had been to the Northwest, had taken US 101 through Bandon and down the California coast. One of the guys was from south New Jersey and the from West Chester PA.
There were three main viewpoints I went to. Point Imperial, Angels Windo and Cape Royal.
First stop was Point Imperial.
Angels Window was the next stop. Here's a view of Angels Window from a viewpoint a few miles away. You can walk out on top of the structure as well!
Here is the view from the top!
Then on to Cape Royal viewpoint.
The trip from the Park to St George was pleasant but not something I took pictures of. My trip tomorrow will head for Carson City NV. It will be a bit long, about 8 hours but that sets up one last 8 hour trip to Bandon.
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