Leaving the North Rim

We started the day by going over to the registration building at 8am to see if we could get a site at the campground for one more day. We wanted to hike the Widforss Trail, a highly recommended hike on the North Rim. Our luck ran out. There have been multiple cancelations each day for the last week, allowing people like us an opportunity to just drive in and get a campsite, but not this morning. The ranger suggested that we try again around 11 am, when everyone has checked out. So, we went for a hike.

The Widforss trailhead is a bit of a drive from the campground, including a bit of gravel road, but we had packed up to leave our site anyway, so we were ready to go. This is a hike mostly along the rim of the canyon, at least the part we did. Unlike yesterday, there really were a lot of terrific views. The complete trail is 5 miles long (10 miles round-trip), but the last half of the trail goes off into the woods, so we only did the part that went along the rim.

Like the other hikes we've taken while on the North Rim, there were few other hikers. Part of the reason was that we got an early start this morning, but it meant that we had each viewpoint to ourselves. A morning of quiet contemplation, with spectacular scenery.

The first half of the trail is also a "Nature Trail", meaning that there is a guide and little marker posts along the way indicating features that are described in the guide. One of the features was a big Ponderosa Pine, probably the largest tree in the park. While it is not in the same class as an old-growth Sequoia or New Zealand Kauri, at 13 feet in circumference and about 500 years old, it was still impressive.

At the point where the trail headed inland, we walked down a short side trail. It went out to a point on a small fin overlooking the canyon for one of those unimpeded sweeping views. As we headed back, the rock looked pretty lumpy with small nodules. As closer look showed that some of them were fossilized seashells at over 8000 ft. That sea has come a long way.

After walking out, we returned to the campground for a couple of more tries for a campsite. No luck before lunch and no luck after lunch, so we were on our way. Initially we thought that we might drive out to the National Forest campground at Jacob Lake, 47 miles away, where we turned onto the road to come into the park. When we got there, it was still very early and the campground wasn't particularly appealing, so we decided to continue on to Page, AZ and Lake Powell.

The appeal of Page is that it has a supermarket. The only one anywhere near our route to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, where we are to meet our friends, Harry & Sally on Tuesday. It was about 40 miles out of the way, but Lake Powell is in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and there is a Park Service campground on the lake...with hot showers. Off we went.

It was a long way down on route 89Alt and very twisty. We were driving off of the Kaibab Plateau, at over 9,000 feet down to the Colorado River at Navajo Bridge,near Lee's Ferry, at about 3,500 feet. The road descended onto the floor of a plain between the Colorado and the Vermillion Cliffs, a long strip of the Grand Staircase in brilliant red (and vermillion) layers of sandstone. It is a National Monument in its own right. It is also the site from which California Condors are released into the wild.

At the bridge there is a small visitor center. It is at the border of the Grand Canyon National Park and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The bridge itself is actually two bridges. The original span, which you can now just walk over, was built in 1929 and was an engineering feat at the time. The new bridge, built in 1995, looks very similar, but is much wider.

The visitor center is important because Ellen saw a scarf there in 2010 that she liked, assumed it would be available at the big Glen Canyon visitor center, but wasn't. So, we stopped to see if they still had them, two and a half years later. They did, but not in the color she remembered. She bought one anyway, along with a copy of Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang", which is another classic, set in this area.

Onward, we continued to Page. We were now on the Navajo Reservation, traveling south along the base of the Echo Cliffs, following the other side of the Colorado River. Page was in the opposite direction, but road had to follow the river until there was a way to get over the cliffs. Finally, there was a gap and the road turned north and climbed again, up to about 6,000 ft and back down a bit to Page, 20 miles further.

We found the Safeway, loaded up with fresh food and drink and went in search of the Wahweap Campground. Jill, the voice of my Garmin Zumo GPS got a little confused near the entrance to the campground, which is in a marina complex, so we went around in circles a bit until we found the entrance road. We checked in, had dinner, watched the light fade over Lake Powell and the lights of the houseboats out on the lake, then called it a long day.

Widforss Trail Photos