The Grand Canyon - North Rim

This morning we all woke up bright and early to spend the day at the Grand Canyon. We had been to the South Rim back in January, this time we explored the North Rim.
The North rim is much harder for the regular tourist to get to and is closed during the winter (for about 6 months). Consequently it only receives 10% of the visitors compared with the South Rim. Suits me! Today we found out that the North Rim is by far the more spectacular of the two aspects. We had flown over it in a helicopter back in January, but today we had a closer look from the ground.

Bright Angel Point.

We started at Bright Angel Point near the visitor centre. You will notice that the nearby ridges are very close giving a much better feel for how deep the canyon really is.

For some reason Kerri (in particular) and Julie felt the need to find dangerous overhangs and climb out to have their photos taken. This was the first one in the Grand Canyon. Kerri had started the trend upstream at the Glen Canyon Dam viewpoint.

It is worth noting that the North Rim (2300m) is further above sea level than the South Rim (2100m). Despite that fact, there seems to be taller and more dense forests on the North Rim. There are exceptions and the trees closest to the edge of the canyon are beaten up the most (above).

Vista Encantada

This lookout point is called Vista Encantada. Back in January from the helicopter, we saw the Battle Ship covered in snow. In mid summer it is a very different look with the white ship sitting on the red rocks contrasted against green trees and blue skies.

At Vista Encantada, this guy was painting the spectacular view and doing a pretty good job too. He had quite an audience.

There's a road that runs along the North Rim for about 20 kms and along the way there are a number of view points to stop at (Vista Encantada is the first). A season or two ago, a wildfire ripped through a large part of the national park. The forest is just starting the long process of recovery. It made for a cool photo with the black, green, orange & blue.

Walhalla Overlook

This was another opportunity for Kerri to scare her mum. It was another of many beautiful view points along the way to Cape Royal. You can see the Colorado river in the background some 1.8 vertical kms below.

Cape Royal

Cape Royal was totally worth the drive. We spent quite a long time just sitting and admiring the view. This photo is only about a quarter of the panorama.

Angel's Window

 Yet another strange formation in the Grand Canyon National Park. Angel's window almost looks man made.

Point Imperial

Heading off in a different direction from the Cape Royal road, we came to Point Imperial. From there you can see across the plain toward Page and the upstream part of the Colorado River. Just in front of the lookout point is Mt Hayden (centre). Unfortunately the light was poor at that point because a serious electrical storm had just passed over. It had been a pattern for the previous few days. From lunchtime the clouds would build up amd then late in the afternoon a wild electrical storm would hit and dump a nice quenching dose of rain on the parched red countryside. It was just like summer afternoons growing up in Brisbane.
The Grand Canyon is one of those places that you really have to go and see before you "Check Out" of this world, but given a choice, go to the North Rim.

Vermilion Cliffs

On the way back to Page we descended the escarpment to the plain below. The photo above shows the view from about a quarter of the way down. Across the plain was part of the Vermilion Cliffs. It's one of the escarpments of the Grand Staircase that covers most of Southern Utah. The Vermilion Cliffs is the second bottom step and the Grand Canyon, the bottom. Tomorrow we are going to another step, Zion National Park.

Marble Canyon

Up at 2300m the thin air was relatively cool. By the time we had descended back down to the plain below, the ambient temperature (as shown by the gauge in the car) was close to 40C.
We had to cross back over the Colorado River at some point. The area is called Marble Canyon (below). At the narrow point there are two bridges. They are the old and new Navajo Bridges. The old one is to the left and had to be replaced because of the increase in traffic over the river. Part of the increase was heavier trucks. It's not exactly steeped in history, but cool looking bridges all the same.

It was a long day and by the time we finally caught sight of Page again, there wasn't much daylight left.

Monument Valley

Arches National Park

Park Avenue

This morning the stifling heat had thankfully subsided. Our Arches park pass was still valid so we went back to the southern section to walk along Park Avenue.

The Park Avenue walk follows a ravine for about a kilometre. I can see why they call it park avenue because it is though you are walking down a street with sky scrapers on both sides.

At the end of the avenue (and across the real road) is the Courthouse towers (middle of the photo above).

The last spires on the avenue are the Three Gossips facing off against Sheep Rock. The morning light was much more friendly for photography than yesterday.

On the opposite side of the avenue from the Gossips is this massive sheer wall. I just can't reconcile how nature manages to produce these structures.

The structure in the foreground is called the Organ Pipes.The Courthouse Towers behind.

Once again, the Courthouse Towers. We had to get going because we had lots of driving to do today.

From Moab, we made out way south and into the south east corner of Utah with the main focus of the day being Monument Valley. Along the way there was a lot of scenery similar to the photo above of the Valley of the Gods.

The only significant civilization between Moab & Monument Valley was Mexican Hat and that only has a handful of buildings. The town gets its name from the balanced slab in the photo above.

Monument Valley

After much driving & seeing distant shapes on the horizon, we came up over a rise & there it was. Monument Valley. Most people wouldn't know of Monument Valley if asked, but every one would recognize the landscape. It featured in just about every western film shot in the 50s to 70s. It's pretty impressive when it appears out of nowhere like that. After the great view of Monument Valley we continued along the road to the entrance to the Navajo Indian Reserve.

This patch of Southern Utah & Arizona is pretty much owned by one Indian Tribe (or Native American or First Nations People) or other. Most of the land is useless desert or arid farmland so the "Locals" aren't interested in it because it's too much work.Wherever they think they can gouge the unsuspecting tourist for a few bucks, it's suddenly 'Sacred Tribal Land'. (Just like back in Oz with the mine sites in WA.) Monument Valley is no exception. The cheeky sots charge $15 US to drive onto the site to take a closer look at the natural rock structures. The roads that they claim to charge us to maintain are in dreadful condition. Lucky we had a near new 4Runner that handled the conditions just fine & even let me have a bit of fun.Above are the left & right mittens. The movies I mentioned before were shot in & around these spires in particular.

Other features include the Three Sisters;

The Totem Poles;

Merrick Butt;

And John Ford's Point is a great place to take in the whole area.

Artist's corner is another very good outlook point in Monument Valley. You can see most of the main features from one point.

There was one odd structure in the middle of nowhere. I can't quite work it out but I wasn't too sure what a fire hydrant was doing 10km from anything in the middle of the desert. Them Yankees are crazy!

Arizona

After the Monument Valley visit, we drove (well I drove & the girls slept) for a couple of hours across fairly featureless country to Page just over the border in Arizona. It was just me & the GPS telling me "How much longer on the screen" & the occasional voice saying "Turn right in 500m". About 100km short of Page, we stopped at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. There was a nice view of a butt, but not much else. There were a couple of roadside sellers trying to flog us junk trinkets.

It took me a good five minutes to work out what was rustling around in one of the shrubs. It took another twenty to get a photo of it. Chipmunks never sit still for long.

The plan was to go to a crack in the sandstone called Antelope Canyon. I had done some research and it looked like a brilliant place to visit. Nice idea, but again the Navajo wanted a crap load of money to go in and it needed clear skies and the right time of day to get the nice lighting for photos. By the time we arrived, the clouds sky was threatening an Electrical Storm and it was well past the time for taking nice photos. So we decided against it and headed for Page.

Page, Arizona

Page is a town that sprung up from a construction camp for the Glen Canyon Dam. The Glen Canyon Dam blocks the Colorado river to form Lake Powell (below), a huge water body that spreads from the dam wall near the AZ/UT border, far into southern Utah.

Having already seen the renowned Hoover Dam and being a bit underwhelmed (I think because the wall's obscured by power lines & transformers), the Glen Canyon Dam is way more interesting and impressive.

In the photo above, you'll see the Glen Canyon Bridge that runs neatly across in front of the dam.

The Glen Canyon Bridge is a key Colorado river crossing because the next one north is a few hundred kms drive back near Monument Valley somewhere. To the south you have to drive for an hour and a half to cross the same river on the way to the Grand Canyon. The next one after that is the Hoover Dam half a day's drive away.

Horseshoe Bend

About 5kms SW of Page there's a huge loop in the Colorado River called Horseshoe Bend. It was hot and the walk to it was sandy, but it was totally worth it. The pictures tell the story. This same photo is on a wall of just about every hotel, shop and restaurant in Page {Edit: and now in our Dining room}.

The photo above was pretty tricky to take (below). It is nearly a mile from the edge of the cliff I'm lying on, straight down to the Colorado River. As always with landscape photography, the lens is never quite wide enough.

We are staying in Page for two nights. It isn't a bad town and there were plenty of options for food at night. There didn't appear to be much in the way of nightlife, but after a couple of full on days of travel, none of us were in the mood for late nights anyway.

The Grand Canyon - South Rim

 

We woke up the next morning in our little cabin to -15C! Ouch! The 2100m above sea level in the middle of winter tends to make for some low temperatures.
After breakfast we had a bit of a look at a couple of view points near the village & took a few photos.
I soon learned to use the camera with gloves on.

Yavapai Point

Yaki Point

Helicopter Flight

We had booked a helicopter flight for 11am & headed off for the airport. It was the first time I'd (we'd) been in a helicopter so it was all very exciting. Notice the large "Vista" windows in the aircraft. It turned out to be a great advantage when looking down into the canyon. The 50min flight cost about $180CAD all up & as well worth it (I would almost call it a steal).

The first part of the flight traveled across the forest to the Canyon Rim. The Grand Canyon National Park forests are different to any that I've ever seen before. The trees are all so much shorter than the tall forests of Alberta. The trees all seem stunted & are quite well spread apart. It means that the light comes through to the ground easily & reflects off the snow. It's hard to take a photo of, but believe me, its worth seeing, particularly from the ground.

This is about the best view of the Colorado river we had & I can't tell you how awesome it was to see it from the air. This photo was taken from the North East section of the main part of the Grand Canyon.

One thing you notice from the helicopter more than by driving, is the variety of geological formations in the Grand Canyon.
This ridge caught my attention & kind of reminded me of a dinosaur.

This is one of a number of similar sharp peaks in the canyon. This is Mt Hayden & can be seen from the North Rim by road. The North rim is actually closed to cars in winter as the roads are snowed over.

Here's Mt Hayden from a different aspect. Again, I can't stress how awesome the view is from the helicopter.
The snow made for a nice touch & looked like someone had sprinkled the Canyon with icing sugar. It showed up the layers & ridges nicely.

This peculiar formation is called Brady Peak, also known as The Battleship.

Desert View

After our thrilling helicopter ride, we headed along the Eastern Rim road out to a place they call Desert View. Some years ago the Americans (in their infinite wisdom) built this replica Indian watch tower. A clever plan since it is really an excuse for a merchandising store / tourist trap.

In the end, it's built on my vote for the best view of the canyon on the South rim.

Lipan Point

Remember the watch tower? Well that's it just right of centre of picture, perched up on the ridge. It really puts the incredible size & depth of the Grand Canyon into context.

View Point 

Grandview Point

Thanks to the high altitude (2000m above sea level) & the lack of mountains near by, the trees get hammered by high winds & cold air. On top of that the lack of oxygen makes for a fairly hostile climate for plant life. Consequently the trees are typically short & twisted like this one, particularly where they're exposed to the winds from the canyon.

Grandview point is one of the more trafficked view points on the South Rim. Not bad, but I preferred Desert View.

This is just one of those Rim viewpoints, but I quite liked it. I managed to get my camera & tripod to play the game as well & the result speaks for itself. This photo has been stitched from two photos.

This rock formation was popular with the resident crow. I call it 'Bird's View Point'. From it's perch, the crow could overlook the Grand Canyon to the rear & keep an eye on humans bringing potential snacks to the front. There were many other similar stop points with wonderful views of the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Railway

No trip to anywhere in North America is complete without the obligatory train shots.
There are a small number of passenger trains to the Grand Canyon that run from Williams (the hicksville town 90 miles to the south of the Grand Canyon) & Flagstaff. There's even a steam train that runs from Williams sometimes.