Bottom of the Canyon

With Beth affirming her fear of heights over the last few days, we didn't opt for a hike to the bottom of the canyon. We are headed to the north rim and crossing the Colorado at Lee's Ferry.  Temperature differences here in Arizona surprised us. We left Canyon View at 7:30 in a comfortable 64 degrees.

Descending by road, we were distracted by the Cameron Trading Post. Located at a crossing of the Little Colorado River, the post is celebrating 100 years in 2016. The old suspension bridge still exists, spanning the gorge where only a small stream of water trickles towards its larger sibling.

By 8:30, this lower elevation is 78 degrees.

The hotel and shops at the trading post had well-maintained stone walls, but I liked this old stairway best.














This lizard, hanging on a vertical wall, was different from the ones we find at home.

The fastest route to the North Rim passes over the Colorado River on the Navajo Bridge, 467 feet above the river. Navajo artists sell crafts on one side of the bridge and there is a visitor's center on the other with a small museum. The old bridge, built in 1927, is only open to pedestrian traffic.

Beth didn't want to walk the old bridge, so I took the opportunity to capture her bringing the van across.

The view really is worth a stop.

California condors are released here as they are being reintroduced to the area after almost becoming extinct. We didn't see any, but met a birder that had seen a couple pairs earlier in the morning.

Signs welcomed us to the Navajo nation. Another mentioned the two statutes that made jumping off the bridge illegal.

Not all of the shops and housing along the way were as nice as the trading post and park at the bridge. Life in this desert area is probably hard for those without connections to services and jobs.

By lunchtime we reached the river at Lee's Ferry and the temperature had climbed to 92 degrees. Boats launch here for raft trips down the Colorado.

A short trail took us to remains of the Lee's Ferry settlement.

We pulled over to look at some rock pedestals near Lee's Ferry.Sure wouldn't want one of these falling into the road anywhere near us!

One of the rocks looked a little like a giant dinosaur skull. 

And there was this one, that someone had used as an impromptu roof.

Roadtreks and Pleasure-Ways are both built in Canada. We parked next to this silver twin at the Jacob Lake Inn where we had been told to stop and try the fresh cookies. The cookies were indeed fresh and we purchased a few to carry us through the next several days of our adventure. Oh yes, apple turnovers too.

The Kaibab National Forest has a campground and visitor center at Jacob Lake. Having secured a  primitive site for the night, we went off on a bicycle ride to explore the nearby forest.  We didn't get very far before it started to rain, but we did learn there is a full-service campground behind Jacob's Lodge if you need electric and water hook-ups.

The increased elevation and overcast skies have the temperatures back down to 59 degrees by 2:00.

One of our campground neighbors had a unique 4x4 Sprinter 2500 van. Not being able to resist walking over to visit, we noticed Swiss license plates as we were introducing ourselves. Despite our lack of german language skills, they showed us the conversion they had done themselves and politely conversed with us in english. Real adventurers, they shipped the van from their home in Switzerland over to Baltimore so they could explore the US and Canada.