Sometimes You Just Have to Be Lucky


Monday, June 24, 2019

Five days ago, we were planning our strategy for our visit to the Grand Canyon.  We were pretty sure our odds of being able to camp anywhere remotely close to the Park were ‘slim to nil’.  All campsites at both the North Rim and the South Rim are reservable a year in advance.  As a ‘lark’, Sue brought up the reservation website for the North Rim Campground.  To our astonishment, one site was available for 2 nights and the timing worked beautifully.  We suspect that it was a cancellation.  So here we are at the Grand Canyon North Rim Campground.  The setting is spectacular.  Our site is huge.  It sits under large Ponderosa Pine trees, the largest trees we have saw since probably back in New York State.  Some of the campsites back onto the canyon.  Our campsite is not one of those…our luck only goes so far!

Without realizing it, I think that I was looking forward to seeing the Grand Canyon more than anywhere else that we have traveled so far.  I could hardly wait to set up the tent trailer so that we could go catch a glimpse of the canyon.  I am sure that it went up in record time.  We were then able to take a short hike out to a point to get our first glimpse of the canyon.  It is spectacular!!!  Tomorrow, I am sure, we will get an even better sense of its magnitude.

Distance Traveled = 277 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Stellar Jay, Turkey Vulture (soaring over the canyon just waiting for some stupid tourist to take a swan dive into the canyon), Raven (apparently they are the biggest menace in the campground just like our raccoons are at home), Black-throated Gray Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon version).


Our first glimpse into the Grand Canyon


Looking out into the canyon from Bright Angel Point


Driving into northern Arizona....hard to believe this is just north of the Grand Canyon!


Bison grazing near the north rim of the canyon

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