Abbey's Road

I had only been to the South Rim before so when I heard the North Rim was opening on the 15th I couldn’t pass it up. I was able to get reservations in the campground for a couple of nights. I drove up to Lee’s Ferry on Sunday, the 14th, and went the rest of the way on Monday. Since Abbey wouldn’t be able to hike with me in the park I stopped in the Kaibab National Forest for a short hike before going into the park. It was pretty cloudy that day and I had already done 2 hikes with Abbey so we just did some sightseeing from some of the viewpoints. The North Rim is much farther from the Colorado River and there is only 1 spot on the rim that you can see the river from. As a matter of fact, much of what you see from the north side are actually side canyons of the main canyon. The views are still pretty spectacular though.

There is only 1 trail down into the canyon from the north side and it is quite a bear – the North Kaibab trail. It is 14 miles down to the river, but they strongly urge you not to do it in one day. Like I was even thinking about it! Since I couldn’t camp down there and leave Abbey in the RV alone overnight, my only choice was to go down part way and come back up. They recommend you get an early start so I got up at 5:30 (good thing I’ve been used to getting up early since the sun rises so early here) and took Abbey for a walk first. I made it to the trailhead by 7:15. At first I was bummed that it was so cloudy figuring that the color, and pictures, wouldn’t be too good, but later decided it was much better being cloudy and cool than sunny and hot. I took the trail down to Roaring Springs which is a mere 3000 ft. below the rim and 4.7 miles down the trail. It didn’t seem too bad until I had to turn around and come back up. I didn’t stop much for pictures on the way down figuring I’d be stopping a lot on the way up. It was good thinkin’ on my part as my legs were really hurting the closer I got to the top. For some reason one of my knees tightened up, which hasn’t happened in a long time, and it was definitely a hard climb back up. People on the trail kept saying “Good Morning” and I was thinking it’s gotta be afternoon by now. It sure felt like I had been up half the day by then. I was amazed at the age of many of the hikers. I saw 3 women who had to be in their mid-60s who were backpacking down to the river. They were going to camp down there for 3 nights. They weren’t the only ones. There was one big group of seniors who were spending the night at Phantom Ranch, a 14 mile hike in, though they only had daypacks. I keep seeing people in their later years still out hiking and backpacking which gives me hope that everyone in this country isn’t getting obese.

After a looong rest, I checked out some more of the viewpoints, but only the ones with very short trails from the parking lots. I tried to take Abbey for a walk around the lodge, but just as we got up to the lodge we heard thunder and that was enough for her. So I figured it was a good time to get a drink, sit on the porch of the lodge and watch the storms brewing over the canyon. I was pretty excited when I saw the saloon had Irish Coffee on special. So I got one to go and found an open spot on the sun porch and had a front row seat for the spectacle. Ya can’t beat that! I started talking to a group next to me and found out that they had hiked down to river from the South Rim, stayed the night at Phantom Ranch, and hiked up to the North Rim the next day. They were supposed to turn around the following day and do it in reverse again, but their bodies thought better of it and their minds agreed. There were actually 2 people in their group who did do it, and, believe it or not, they were the 2 older ones – in their 60s! I felt like a wimp only going part way down and back, but luckily I had Abbey as an excuse. But doing that hike, at least in one direction, is one thing that I’ve added to my list of things to do before I get too old. I think hiking just one direction, though and taking the shuttle back will be good enough for me. Wouldn’t want to get bored seeing the same thing twice.

Today we headed out of the park and back into the Kaibab NF. My knee was still sore and I wanted to get Abbey out some more. I did manage to get up at 6:30 to take Abbey for her morning jaunt. She seems to do much better in the morning. We ran into the 3 rim-to-rim hikers I met on the porch yesterday so they got to meet Abbey and see that I wasn’t lying about my excuse for not doing it too. On the way looking for a campsite this afternoon I saw a small pond off the side of the road. It looked like a good spot to take a break and eat lunch so I let Abbey out and she made a beeline for it. She finally came out of the water about an hour and a half later.

She didn’t even notice I ate my lunch. I felt like it made up for her being in all day yesterday. I found a decent place to camp for the night, and it turned out a few other people liked the spot too. There was plenty of room for all of us. It feels good to be boondocking again and not staying in a campground. Besides, it’s free. Tomorrow I start heading to LA. I am planning to arrive on Friday to see an old friend from college, John Daegele, and his family.