Day 41 - Grand Canyon - The Uninhabited Side

If you can describe the North Rim as less crowded, the drive to Point Imperial and Cape Royal is practically deserted!  It takes 50 minutes to get from our campground to the Visitor’s Center.  Instead of going back there today, we turned off to take a scenic drive out to some famous overlooks and a couple of hikes.  From the point where we turned off, it was probably another hour into the park on a curvy, windy road.  The views were spectacular.  No less amazing than yesterday’s.

Point Imperial is toward the northeast side and the highest point on either rim at 8,300 ft.  This was just a stop with an overlook and picnic area.

Then we went on back south toward a different section.  We stopped at Roosevelt Point (a viewpoint), and the Wallhala Glades (an ancient Puebloan historical area).  We went a little farther in and stopped to hike Cliff Springs Trail.  Audra declared this her favorite hike so far.  The rest of us put it way up there.  It went 1.5 miles through a dry forested area, a wet forest type area, and out onto the edge of the canyon to a natural spring seeping out of the cliff.  It was a unique hike.  Very cool.  We met two couples hiking out right as we started in, and never saw another person.

We finally made it to the end of the road at Cape Royal for a picnic and sunset hike out to Angel’s Window and Cape Royal.  Just beautiful.  I can’t think of a better word.

Carmen wanted to star-gaze, so we drove the hour back to the Lodge and got some coffee and hot chocolate and waited for dark.  We decided to drive on out toward the meadows of the Kaibab Forest to get away from the Lodge lights and get a little closer to camp.  We stopped and saw a few stars, then felt/saw a bat fly past our heads and we all jumped back into the truck pretty fast.  That was enough stars (and bats) for one night.

Late night, good day.

GC Day 2