Grand Canyon - North Rim part II

Friday, June 14 – We drove down to the parking area by the visitor’s center and lodge, then hiked from the parking lot out to Bright Angel Point. Wow! What a view.

Steve on Bright Angel Point Trail

There are several points along the way at which you can see down into Roaring Springs Canyon to the east as well as The Transept to the west.

It’s a spectacular panorama, and even though there was considerable haze due to the fires in Colorado, the colors and shadows created by the many sculpted layers make for an amazing scene. Photos really can’t do it all justice, but we tried!

The trail is only .5 mile round trip, but fairly steep in some places. It’s well maintained gravel, so pretty accessible for most people.

The park brochure says allow 30 minutes, but with time for photos, admiring the view, and listening to the cell phone-delivered tour messages available out on the point it could easily take longer. The altitude 9around 8,000+ plus) takes it's toll on one's ability to walk the steep trail too. We stopped frequently to enjoy the view, and to breath!

Looking down into The Transcept

After the hike we explored the Grand Canyon Lodge, which has some really beautiful and interesting details in the architecture. A multitude of Navajo rugs adorn the walls, and there are hand made wrought iron light fixtures in every room, and most of the woodwork is of huge logs. We have always admired the classic lodge structures, so many of them built in the early 1900's. The original building, constructed in 1928, burned to the ground in 1932. The current lodge was built in 1937 and sits on the original footprint. The view from the dining room is spectacular, preserving the "surprise" intended by Gilbert STanley Underwood the original architect. Visitors do not see over the rim into the canyon until they enter the dining room, where it is framed by the large windows. The same view is available from the terrace, but lacking the "frame" of the window it seems to go on forever.

Bright Angel of the Grand Canyon

There’s a visitor’s center and bookstore next to the lodge, as well as a gift shop. Remembering a book I used with reading groups when working in an elementary school years ago, I picked up a copy of Brighty of the Grand Canyon. Though it’s a young people’s story, it’s fun to reread it in this setting. The story is pretty much based in fact, as Brighty (named for Bright Angel creek and canyon) was a real burrow who lived in the canyon around 1892-1922.

His fame has meant a lot to the area, and there’s a bronze statue of Brighty in the lobby of the lodge. It's displayed with a backdrop of photos of the real Brighty when he lived in the canyon. Petting the little fellow's nose is supposedly good luck, and it seems a lot of visitors have tried it as he has a really shiny nose! He’s quite a celebrity in these parts.

Returning to camp after our tour of the lodge it was time to get Shiner out for a little exercise. Dogs are not allowed on any of the hiking trails in the park except the Bridle Trail. It’s easily accessed via a branch trail behind the amphitheater in the campground, so Shiner got her daily outing that way. It’s a nice, level, wide trail, with no evidence of horses. It runs between the lodge and the North Kaibab Trailhead. We didn’t travel the whole length the first day, saving some for exploration later.

You can tell the wildlife here know they are safe. The Kaibab, golden mantle and ground squirrels sit just out of reach near our camp site and tease Shiner unmercifully. We’ve seen several species of birds, and most of them stay at respectable elevations, but the ravens are a different matter - they strafe the camp site like miniature bombers, just begging her to yank out a tail feather.

In the afternoon our friends from Arizona, traveling on their Harley, met us here in the afternoon. They’d gotten a room for the night in the motel that’s part of the lodge complex. We visited a bit in the campsite, then met up at the lodge for the Grand Cook-out Experience. 

Transportation to the dinner from the lodge is by tram, and it looks a bit like an old steam engine. The idea is to commemorate the history of the park’s development by the SP railway. Both lodges, north and south rim, were built in order to entice eastern investors to come to the west and buy land. (That concept worked pretty well it seems.) There’s a recorded narration of the history of the north rim that “entertains” the passengers on the way to dinner. A large tent is erected behind the Sinclair gas station at the entrance to the campground, and once you are inside they do a pretty good job of setting the western theme.  

 A ranch bbq style dinner served by girls in western clothes and the requisite cowboy hat and dinner is accompanied by a musical show. The entertainers vary during the season, and we were entertained by Woodie and Cleda Jane “The Cochrans.” They’ve spent quite a bit of time in Deadwood, with Woodie playing Buffalo Bill, and he’s pretty believable! They were a good act, performing a lot of western standards with good strong  vocals and some very acceptable guitar picking. We picked up one ­of their CDs after the show, and It will make for some fine sing-along music on the road.

We couldn’t call it an evening without a night cap at the Rough Rider saloon, in the lodge complex. So we ordered up a drink and then slipped out to sit on the veranda at the lodge dining room.

The area was busy, filled with people enjoying the play of the evening colors on the canyon, as well as those chatting with the group hosting the star gazing event.

They had some serious equipment available, and several very knowledgeable volunteers to help visitors use it to view the heavens as the stars peeked out one by one. At dark we packed up and headed back to camp, saying goodbye to our friends, as they will continue on with a whirlwind tour before we see them again in Nevada on July 4.
                                       More photos of the canyon in the album.