North Rim of the Grand Canyon, AZ

Even though we're in beautiful natural settings with limited internet and phone service, we've always been able to get our morning lattes!  We stayed in Kanab, UT on Tuesday night, and were very excited to try Laid-Back Larry's on Wed morning.  Guess what?  Larry is CLOSED on Wed!  Luckily, when we were walking in Kanab we saw another coffee shop, Linda Lea's.  So, we went there and said "hello" to all the locals hanging out in front, and got great coffee for the road.  Too bad for Larry!

The drive to the North Rim was spectacular - high mountain meadows with wildflowers, and many pine forests.  It was sad to see some large areas that had been burned due to wildfires.  But the growth on the forest floor seems to  be coming back, as it was very green.  We arrived at the North Rim and decided to take the rim trail to become acquainted with the views.  It was an interesting trail, in spite of being narrow, and it had a slow downward grade to the view point.  We began to notice a lot of people on the trail, especially families.  One family came into the view point with a lot of noise.  It was a father and 3 young boys.  Man, they wanted to climb on everything and he was having a hard time keeping them together.  I made a comment to him about having his hands full just as his wife came around the corner and said, "I'm the one who has her hands full, 3 little boys and 1 big one!"  It was pretty funny.  

Dave was taking pictures and I was having fun with my new binoculars locating the river on the bottom of the canyon.  I think the North Rim doesn't have the panoramic views that you get on the South Rim, but it's still GRAND!   As we started back to the trailhead, we really began to notice the grade.  Good thing there were benches strategically placed along the way.  I was starting to feel that I was really out of shape, so it was rewarding when other hikers were stopping too - misery loves company :-)  

When we got back to the trailhead, we decided to have lunch at the Grand Canyon Lodge.  It was about 15 minutes until it opened, and we put our names in for a reservation.  Little did we know that we would have a choice of a table by the window with fantastic views.  We read later that there are only 9 tables that have a good view - well, we were at one of them.  The food was okay, but the ambiance...

From the North Rim, we headed back to the main road and on to Page, AZ.  We passed through Vermillion Cliffs and crossed the Colorado River before arriving.  As usual, Dave took some great photos.  We went to one of the scenic vistas in Page to look at the Glen Canyon Dam.  It was amazing, but the best thing for me was being able to view a Peregrine Falcon through my binoculars.  It was hunting on the cliffs near the outlook, and I was able to see it as it rested on the edge of one of the highest cliffs.  Sweet!