Lee's Ferry to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

From Page, we headed south along the Vermillion Cliffs and Lee's Ferry to Jacob Lake and down into the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The cliffs are bright red from iron oxide and blue from manganese and were established as a national monument in 1984.  The drive is just spectacular.  We had no idea what to expect.  There is literally nothing but beauty for miles-no gas stations, no signs, no restaurants, nothing but beautiful country that leaves the low lands and goes up for miles to Jacob Lake.

Part of the vast Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs National
Monument

As you come into Lee's Ferry, there are a few
jewelry stands and, of course, I couldn't resist.
This lady sold me a pair of wedding basket
beaded earrings.  I need another pair of earrings
like a hole in the head, but she and her work
were irresistible.

The Colorado River, where it begins its
journey to the Grand Canyon.

The Navajo Bridge over the Colorado.

This was the put-in site for river trips through the Grand
Canyon.  It looks pretty calm from here.  This used to be a
very popular crossing for Indians, pioneers, miners and
tourists in the late 1800s.  John Lee established a ferry crossing
here.  He was later found responsible for the Mountain Meadows
Massacre which led to the deaths of 120.  He was eventually
executed for his role in that violent event.  His wife took over
the business of operating the ferry.

 We drove through some gorgeous country on our way to Jacob Lake to begin our route into the North Rim.  The Colorado Plateau, along Route 89, gently gains elevation until you reach Jacob Lake at 8000 ft.  I can't tell you how wonderful it was to be out of the heat of the lower altitudes we'd been experiencing for weeks.  The town is very, very small--one restaurant, a gas station, a gift shop and a wonderful visitor center is about all there is to it.  One remarkable thing about the restaurant:  fabulous cookies which you just can't leave without.

At the end of the road, is the Grand Canyon Lodge.  We parked and walked
through the hotel and out around the grounds.  It is a spectacular location,
as you can see.  This was our first glimpse of the canyon.

Boo was a little scared.

What a vantage point this was. The Lodge
sits right at the rim and has cabins in back.
You need to make reservations a year ahead!
I can't imagine being that organized.

The lodge

The cabins

You could walk down to that overlook below
and take in the wonder of it all.  Not a good
spot for those of us with a tad of vertigo.

Our plan was to boondock for a few days at Locust Point, which I had read about in one of my books on the area.  The views were to be spectacular.  We inquired of two different rangers and both thought that we would be fine going into that area in Maxine.  We were told that there was a small fire burning nearby, but that it probably wouldn't bother us at all.  Luckily, we bought a (very expensive) map of the Kaibab National Forest at the Visitor's Center in Jacob Lake.  It became absolutely essential.  This area is really remote-in fact, so is the whole North Rim area.  It is almost the exact opposite of the South Rim which is very commercial, loaded with tourists and not very peaceful.

When we pulled off the road in Demotte,
we knew immediately that this was going
to be an adventure.  It was a dirt road with
many potholes and washboards and there
were many other dirt roads that went in all
directions.  It would have been very easy
to get lost without that map!

We started to smell smoke after we made
the turn off to one of the roads leading
to Locust Point.  Pretty soon, we were
in the middle of a forest fire.

We actually saw all kinds of flames and a hot shot fire crew fighting the fire
who really had no idea where they were either.  We decided to turn around
and look for another boondocking site called, Crazy Jug, which, unfortunately,
was many more miles back to the main bumpy dirt road and then about
another 20 miles.  We grit our teeth and kept going and hoped we would be OK.

And OK we were!  We arrived at sunset and this is the  picture
I took of our view from the door of Maxine!  It was everything
we hoped for and more!

 The next morning, we woke up to this site of the smoke from the fire on the rim to our east.

Try to picture having your coffee sitting right here, just the
three of us!  It felt pretty darned good to sit, as when you
stood, you were so close to the edge, that you could easily
get vertigo, let alone go sailing down for god knows how
many miles.

This was the turn around area right below our campsite. 

I still haven't mastered panoramas, but I'm trying.  Why is it so skinny?

The master griller
We were so happy to be here!

Still more smoke the last day

 We should have stayed longer because it was just so spectacular but I was a little nervous about the roads and what might be happening with the fire.  I've made a deal with myself not to let those concerns make me leave a fabulous place again.  The road turned out to be fine because a man was grading the road right in front of us by a mile or two, making the trip out that much more pleasant.  The Kaibab is so green and full of beautiful wildflowers.

Boo loves it when we go slow enough that he
can hang his almost-whole body out the window
to catch the breeze.  I swear he really likes the
views, too!

And, who wouldn't?

 We decided to take the circle trip through the Grand Staircase to get back to Page and head on out to Colorado.  Our first stop was Kanab.   It is a tad commercial but we found a few interesting things like this old western movie set.  Can you tell that I am trying to get Boo's face in the hole on the left?  He would have nothing to do with it.

So I finally gave up and put his head where mine had been.
He was OK with that.

Looks familiar-lots of John Wayne movies were made in this
area.

And, we decided to splurge on a full hookup with air conditioning,
water and sewer.  We found a great Mexican restaurant that
was Boo-friendly and relaxed in the coolness while it got up
into the 100s.  I did the laundry, which, luckily, was right
by the swimming pool.  So, I'd throw in a load, hop in the
pool, hop out and put a load in the dryer and on and on until
finally, it ALL was done.

We drove Highway 89 the 72 miles from Kanab to Page, through the Vermillion Cliffs and the Kaiparowits Plateau.  The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was established in 1996, long after we had been coming to this area.  It was BLM's first national monument.

It was so hot and we had been to the Paria area before, so we didn't stop to hike, but we did stop at the BLM Visitor Center at Big Water, where they had a great display of fossils and dinosaur bones.    The Visitor Center is built in a spiral design to represent an ammonite, an extinct sea creature that was well known to exist in this area.  This area of the Grand Staircase focuses on paleontology.  We want to come back again when the weather is more conducive to hiking and exploring.  One of our favorite hikes of all time (possibly, THE favorite hike of all time) was in this area:  Buckskin Gulch. We will be back!

We leave this area with  a picture of these beautiful  pink flowers.
Anybody know what they are?

We are off to a night or two at Navajo National Monument and then into Colorado for a few weeks.