North Rim Open!

Little bits of snow remained at the edges of the forest on the drive south from Jacob Lake.  Based on discovering that the next available reservation for a north rim campground in the park isn't until the end of August, we stopped at Demotte Campground in the Kaibab National Forest and paid for a site. With that out of the way, we decided to investigate the nearby forest service roads just to see what free camping spots might be available for another time. We'd read on Mike Wendland's Roadtreking blog, that there are good disbursed camping sites in the area.

With spring just having arrived, the roads weren't in the best shape. We ended up having to stop for a tree fallen across the road, but there are some interesting spots.  Deer and squirrels were in abundance.

We found evidence of larger mammals. We suspect these were left behind by Bison.

Today is the first day the North Rim of the park is open for the season. Temps range from 37 this morning here, to a high of 94 later today down on the Colorado River.

We arrived just in time to hear a ranger talk about the history of the  Grand Canyon Lodge. Held in the sitting room, the panoramic view of the canyon was a perfect setting.








The lodge was great, but given a choice, one of these cabins with rocking chairs on the edge of the cliff looked wonderful.

The Bright Angel Point trail is an easy walk out to a windy point that rewards you with an almost 360 degree view of the canyon.

Beth found a camper that would be better than ours for exploring back roads. This could be our next Mercedes ;-)

A short scenic drive from the lodge, Point Imperial is the highest elevation along the canyon. The view was spectacular and the edge nicely defined, so those with a fear of heights could be comfortable. I left Beth on a bench and enjoyed the trail out to a wonderful overlook.

As the sun approached the horizon, we headed back to Demotte where we were greeted with a "Campground Full" sign. Very happy to have reserved our site earlier in the day, we made dinner and settled in for a relaxing night. Answering a knock on the door we found another couple had paid for the same site, and they weren't happy to find us here! Luckily they were tenters, so we compromised and they set-up their tent in the campsite while we stayed in the driveway. The campground host apologized profusely and refunded our $18 fee.  We split the refund with the tenters, made new friends,  and everyone had a good night.