Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Tuesday was a short day. We took the opportunity to drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Most visitors never get to this side of the canyon. Since I haven't yet seen the more popular side, I don't have a basis for comparison though this side was pretty spectacular. We were at Point Imperial, the highest point anywhere at the canyon at 8800 feet. It was seven miles across to the Colorado River. That is seven horizontal miles, no vertical component. Obviously we couldn't see the river. We ate our picnic and then the rains came so we had to head back to the campground.
Dale really enjoyed seeing all the western trees like those he learned at school. There were some monster size Ponderosa pines.
We also got to see more bison. There is a small herd kept in the park on the north rim.
We spent the rest of the day doing laundry and buying groceries, the mundane chores. You can't get away from that stuff even on vacation.
I am adding Wednesday to Tuesday's entry because we had a very short but interesting day. We drove to Cedar Breaks National Monument; another place I had never heard of. The primary feature is a big sandstone amphitheater with similar features to other sandstone canyons we have seen in Utah. The interesting stuff started with the elevation, 10,400 feet at the highest point we visited. I could hardly even get out of the car without huffing and puffing. We took one short flat walk and I had to stop at least three times.
The next interesting feature was the vegetation. There were lots of Englemann spruce (the pathways smelled like Christmas) and bristlecone pine. This is a very long lived pine that grows in twisted patterns, very different. There were also lots of deciduous trees that were all turning color so lots of yellows and oranges. Our picture probably doesn't do them justice.
Lastly on our way to and from Cedar Breaks there was a huge old lava field. Up until this point we though Utah was all sandstone and sand so the pumicey lava was a real surprise.
Tomorrow we move to the Grand Canyon south rim. We will be staying in the primitive campground so no electricity and no wifi unless we are at the visitors center. I probably won't be able to post again until Saturday evening.
- comments
Joyce Wenberg I envy you so much being at the Grand Canyon. Never made it there.
Janice Bielmyer Ervin and I have really enjoyed reading your blog! We are both envious, but happy that you are having such a good trip. Can't wait to read more.