Bonus Chapter 5: The Road Less Traveled
I’m moving right along to the next chapter, mostly because my kids are bugging me to finish off this TR so I can start writing about our Disney trip. It’s like they’re not interested in seeing their parents having fun without them for some reason.
After leaving Bryce Canyon, we had a 3-hour drive ahead of us. We drove south for about an hour on Rt. 89, at which point we reached the turn for Rt. 9 in Mt. Carmel Junction.
Sadly, we passed it by. Rt. 9 takes you west to
Zion National Park, and it’s a spectacular drive through red rock canyons and a
tunnel that was blasted and dug way back in the 1920’s.
We’d visited on our 2014 trip and seen some amazing views along that road.
For this trip, we’d made the tough decision to skip Zion. Not only had we already visited, but Zion is one of the most crowded national parks in the summer. Temperatures routinely climb up to 100 degrees in the valley there, and that combined with the crowds makes it less-than-ideal in the summer months. However, if you’ve never been there, then you need to go, crowds and all. It’s a beautiful place.
We kept on driving south, crossing the border into Arizona and then climbing out of the desert onto a forested plateau. Eventually, we reached the town of Jacob Lake.
In 2014, we’d driven past this very spot and made the decision not to turn south. We had been on our way to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, which was a 5-hour drive, and we had an 8-month-old baby in the car at the time. We’d decided to keep moving in order to minimize the amount of time we had to be in the car.
It had torn us up to do so, though. Rt. 67 heads south from Jacob Lake to the
North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is the only road to the North Rim—42 miles one way. The National Park Service estimates that only 10% of visitors to the Grand Canyon each year visit the North Rim—most head to the more accessible (and crowded) South Rim. Those numbers are affected by the fact that the North Rim is generally only open to visitors from May through November (the lodge closes on Oct. 15). The road is covered in snow the rest of the year.
A 42-mile lonely road in the middle of nowhere? A rare site that only the most determined travelers get to visit? This might sound like torture to some of you, but it appealed to the spirit of adventure in us. We hated to pass it by in 2014. This time around, we made sure we wouldn’t miss it.
We also filled up with gas at Jacob Lake, because you can’t be too careful in these remote areas.
The drive winds through the Kaibab Plateau, covered by (naturally) the Kaibab National Forest. There are huge meadows along both sides of the road for at least 20 miles. Every meadow features signs informing drivers that it is unlawful to leave the road and drive through the meadow. And you know what they say: if they have to put up a sign…
Anyway, we managed to reach the park without taking any shortcuts off the paved road.
I felt it was extremely thoughtful of the park to send out the welcoming committee just past the entrance station.
We hadn’t expected to see a herd of bison this far south, but…there they were. Always a majestic sight.
Several miles later, we arrived at the massive North Rim parking lot. One parking area serves both the lodge and the visitor center. It was here that my heart sank a bit.
The parking lot was almost completely full.
When I’d heard “only 10% of visitors make it to the North Rim”, I’d expected peaceful quiet and solitude. But apparently the entire 10% had decided to visit over the 4th of July holiday. The lodge felt packed with people.
Ok, fine. None of those people showed up in this photo. But trust me, it was crowded. I wouldn’t lie to you. Except about the exploding helicopters.
We checked in and got the keys to our rustic cabin. It’s here that I have failed you, loyal readers—apparently I failed to get a single photo of the cabin, either interior or exterior. I will now hang my head in shame.
The cabin was much more basic than the one we’d occupied in Bryce. This was just a simple structure with a “double” bed and another single bed in a dark room, plus a bathroom. The “double” bed was maybe 18 inches wider than the single bed, and Julie and I got a good laugh from trying to see if we would actually fit in it together. It felt similar to when your kid invites you to sit at the play table in his pre-school classroom and you spend 20 minutes trying to figure out how to fit onto the tiny bench. There was just no way.
We took a walk to explore the North Rim visitor area. The visitor center itself was fairly tiny, with only two rooms—one for exhibits and one for the gift shop. There were several walking paths that led to various viewpoints.
This is actually Bright Angel canyon, a tributary of the Grand Canyon. One thing we noticed was that there was more color on this side of the Grand Canyon. Much more green due to the forest on the plateau.
This was our first view of the Grand Canyon, near Bright Angel Point.
Looking back up, you could see that the Lodge was built for maximum viewing pleasure.
Being suckers for old National Park lodges, we fell in love with the main building fairly quickly.
We wandered inside the
Grand Canyon Lodge. It was originally built in 1927-28 by a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad and was a huge, majestic building in the same spirit as the Old Faithful Inn. However, a fire in 1932 destroyed much of the lodge and it was rebuilt a few years later on a much smaller scale. Dozens of small cabins surround the lodge and serve as the primary rooms for guests. The lodge building itself contains a lobby, sitting room with a magnificent view, dining room, and meeting room. Here’s the sitting room and viewing area.
When I’d reserved the cabin, I’d also made a reservation well in advance for dinner in the main dining room. I figured we needed at least one “nice” meal on our romantic getaway. Plus, we’d had crappy pizza for lunch and I kind of owed Julie at that point.
We were seated one row away from the windows, which gave us a decent view. I didn’t take a photo, though, because there were other people at the table between us and the window and nobody wants to have their meal disturbed by other people’s flash bulbs.
We got our food, and then I took photos of our plates for my faithful Trip Report readers, which means I was disturbing other people’s meals with my flash bulb. Julie ordered a chicken alfredo dish, which she reported was “decent.”
I kept things simple and ordered a strip steak. It was pretty good.
We figured the lodge must have gotten an extra shipment of snap peas, since they were being offered with every single entrée. I’m happy to report that I was able to successfully shove all of the snap peas to the side of the plate while I ate the rest of the meal.
The food was fine, nothing spectacular. When you’re in such a remote location, dining choices are always going to be limited and you don’t always get what you pay for—the price of having to ship the food in from long distances is built into the menu. But it’s the only game in town, so you get what you get and you’ll like it!
Afterwards, we went back out to the overlook to watch the sunset. The colors in the sky weren’t all that great to the west, but there were some nice shadows over the canyon itself.
I’ve said it before, but it’s just impossible to capture the scope of the Grand Canyon in a photograph. You can see the jagged slopes and the amazing colors, but the sheer size and expanse of it is something that needs to be seen in person to be appreciated.
We had hoped to spend the evening hanging out on one of the two outdoor verandas on either side of the sitting room/viewing area of the lodge. Unfortunately, both areas were packed with people. There wasn’t a single available seat—I think most people had staked out their spot and claimed it for at least a couple of hours. Note to self: get to the veranda early if you want a coveted seat.
Coming Up Next: I speed through our final day at the North Rim so I can hurry up and get onto the Disney World TR. There, are you happy, kids?!?!