Grand Canyon - Day 3

Another sunny day, another hike. Today we hit the Uncle Jim Trail. It is an above-the-rim trail, starting from the North Kaibab Trailhead. The hike actually begins on the Ken Patrick Trail, which is 10 miles, one-way, across the Kaibab Plateau to Point Imperial...that was a bit too ambitious for us. The Uncle Jim branches off the Ken Patrick and is a loop trail out to the rim of Bright Angel Canyon. Most of the hike was through the woods, but we had a good view down onto the North Kaibab Trail as we hiked along the Ken Patrick.

Unfortunately, the Ken Patrick Trail is also used for mule rides, up to the Uncle Jim Trail intersection, so it wasn't real pleasant walking. They don't usually go up the Uncle Jim which made the majority of the walk odor-free (except for the the aroma of pines).

Like many of the trails on top of the North Rim, patches of it were woods that had been burned out in the Outlet Fire of 2000. This was a prescribed burn that was hit be unexpected high winds and got out of control. Instead of burning the understory of 8,400 sq. feet, it consumed over 13,000 acres. It was a very hot fire which basically sterilized the ground, so that the usual regrowth after the fire has been quite slow.

Eventually, we came out at a viewpoint overlooking Bright Angel Canyon. The views across to the south have been very hazy during our visit to the North Rim, this was another hazy one, but the view down the canyon was impressive (what isn't in the Grand Canyon).

The trail looped back along the rim for a short distance, but far enough back that there wasn't much of a view. It was back into the forest to return to the North Kaibab trailhead. Once again it was nearly lunch time and we had brought our lunch, so we sat on the rocks at the top of the North Kaibab Trail, ate our lunch and applauded the rim-to-rim hikers as they emerged from the trail.

The afternoon and evening were relatively uneventful. We did laundry and uploaded photos and Speedy Journal entries, had dinner and I went to a ranger talk on nocturnal animals of the Grand Canyon.