This morning I woke up at about 6AM on the Forest Service Road about 50 miles from the Grand Canyon. I slowly made my way to the North Rim Entrance of the Grand Canyon for the seasonal Spring/Summer park opening at 8AM. When I arrived around 7:00 AM, there was a line of about 30-40 cars at the main entrance. By the time they started letting people in at 7:30 AM, the line was about a quarter of a mile long.
After entering the park, I drove to the visitors center for advice on “12-15 miles of hikes that would show me the best scenery in the park.” The ranger suggested that I start hiking down into the canyon starting from North Kaibab Trailhead until reaching Roaring Springs. The round trip would total about 9.4 miles, classified as strenuous, and an estimated hiking time of 6-9 hours. These 9.4 miles were on the Rim-to-Rim trail, but we would an out-and-back hike. Additionally, she suggested that after the hike I can drive through the main roads of the park to Point Imperial and Cape Royal, which would take an additional 90 minutes total.
For the past day, I had been debating whether to hike the 24 mile Rim-to-Rim trail, which descends all the way to the Colorado River and back up to the opposite rim of the canyon. Unfortunately, this would also have required a 4 hour car shuttle back to the starting point or retracing the 24 miles back to the starting point the next day. Because of expensive hotels at the South Rim and the inconvenient shuttle schedule, I wasn’t able to hike Rim-to-Rim, and was therefore a bit disappointed during the beginning of the hike. However, by the end of the hike I was exhausted after just 17 miles and was glad with the day hike.
About 4.7 miles into the hike at Roaring Springs, I hesitatingly decided to continue on lower into the canyon. The reason I hesitated was because I was low on food and the visitors center highly recommends not hiking down past Roaring Springs because of the difficulty in completing a 10+ mile round trip, high temperatures, and elevation gain needed to return to the North Rim. After Roaring Springs, the trail became a slightly downhill slope following a flowing river. Hiking about 4 additional miles past Roaring Springs, I arrived at Ribbon Falls which made all the additional mileage worth it. Ribbon Falls is accessible via 1/4 mile side trail and was an unexpectedly beautiful waterfall in the desert. I spent about 30 minutes exploring the area under, around, and behind the falls and enjoyed the beautiful view. After Ribbon Falls, I completed the round trip back to the North Rim, enjoying the physical/mental challenge. The total hiking time was about 7.5 hours (from 8:30 AM until 4PM).
After the 17 mile hike, I proceeded to drive on the main road in the park to Point Imperial, the highest point in the park. Point Imperial has beautiful views of the Canyon and also of the flat, green mesa on the opposite side of the canyon.
Between Point Imperial and Cape Royal, I stopped at Greenland lake, a glassy, shallow, muddy lake on the side of the road.
Another viewpoint between Point Imperial and Cape Royal was the Walhalla Delta. Native Americans previously lived on a small delta inside the canyon, constantly moving between the delta to the rim at the beginning/end of each season.
The Last stop on the drive was Cape Royal. According to the park ranger, Cape Royal is the only point on the North Rim where the Colorado River can be viewed. Cape Royal consists of several viewpoints/lookout areas which can be accessed through a .8 mile round trip paved trail. There is an arch/window through a rock formation ( named “Angel’s Window”) where the Colorado River can be seen through the window.
Another viewpoint from Cape Royal looks out to geological “temples,” land islands that are created through erosion of the surrounding land inside the canyon.
After visiting the North Rim, I started driving toward Salt Lake City. After about an hour, I became extremely tired and couldn’t continue driving. At that point, I stopped at a gas station/motel, showered, and slept in the RV.
Recent songs heard on the radio:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0x1yBiFiUw&w=420&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E58qLXBfLrs&w=560&h=315]
