Day 31: The Grand Canyon

James decides to try his luck at fishing in Arizona once more. It didn't go well. I went to a yoga class while James was fishing. As soon as he returned, we got back on the road.

The scenery in Sedona was beautiful, but it was very touristy. We were glad to experience it, but won't likely return. 

Mile 5086: Leave Sedona

On to the Grand Canyon. It's about a 6 hour drive from Sedona, and I wanted to get there before the sunset.  The road was packed with RVs. They are a menace to traffic flow. The scenery was beautiful. More colorful plateaus and mesas. 

Strange painting... there were many stops for native american jewelry and art... not a lot in the way of food

Beautiful scenery

More beautiful scenery

We stop at a scenic overlook at the Colorado River. One side is the Navajo Indian Reservation and the other is Arizona. Please note: you get cell phone reception while on the Navajo side, but not the Arizona side. Additional note: The Navajo observe daylight savings and the Arizonians do not. We crossed from Pacific time into Mountain time, and  then from Arizona to the Navajo Reservation then back into Arizona. As we passed from mile to mile, the time on my cell phone kept changing. It was so confusing. 

Where time changes every couple of minutes...

Scenic overlook. The right bank is the Navajo side. The left is Arizona

The Colorado River. You will need to make this really big in order to see the 2 people fishing on the right bank. That's how high we were. The people were tiny specs. One was wearing a red shirt if that helps you

James wanted to buy a pre-made sandwich for our trip. I am a sandwich snob (I think it's a Philly thing) and can not fathom a prepackaged sandwich as a meal. We do not buy a sandwich. I begin to think James' idea of bringing a sandwich is a good one when it's 3:00 and we haven't found food.

This enticing sign that says "Eat" made us almost drive off the road. We were so excited to see a potential food place. Was it a mirage?

We were the only patrons, but it was 3:00... Or was it? Turns out it was 2:00, but still late for lunch

It was the only option we could find. Our server was very friendly. We asked about the man fishing at the bottom of the canyon we saw earlier. How did he get down there? I couldn't figure it out. The server quickly replied "I have no idea. It's an ancient Navajo secret". I guess we'll never know. 

We split a turkey club. I'm not sure if it was the food, or the starvation, or the elevation, but it was an amazing turkey club. 

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was our destination. We have heard the South Rim is a zoo, so we opted for the quieter side. The downfall is the travel time. It is much more difficult to get to the North Rim. We were really lucky to secure a room at the Grand Canyon Lodge. It's the only hotel in the Grand Canyon Park... and it's a 10 second walk to the North Rim. Some of the rooms even overlook the canyon. I would bet the people that booked those rooms were not traveling hippie style. I checked the lodge's availability every couple of days (starting 2 weeks ago) and we found one night open. Over the last week and a half, we paced our trip around the opening. 

We enter the park

I didn't picture trees in the Grand Canyon National park

Sections still show remnants of an old forest fire

The interior of our cabin. It had rustic charm, and no cell service, TV or internet (hence the late posting yesterday).

The outside of our cabin. We still have not identified the animal that rustled around at 1am. Whenever we went to the window to see what was making the noise, it would stop. Definitely an animal, or maybe a serial killer? Whatever or whoever, it was clever and remained undetected. 

View of the Grand Canton from the North Rim. The pictures don' t  do it justice

James on our short hike around the North Rim

Grand Canyon self portrait!

It really is spectacular- not the self portrait, the Grand Canyon.We watched the sunset over the Grand Canyon. It was amazing to watch the canyon light up.

Grand Canyon sunset

Canyon lighting up at sunset. We had a cloudy day, but it was still amazing

We were lazy about making reservations in the one restaurant option on the North Rim, so we hit the Roughrider Saloon and ate a slice of pizza that had been around for a while. No pictures of the pizza... sorry. 

The bar had a wildly entertaining performer. He was a solid musician, a great comedian and sometimes performs as Wild Bill Hickok. By the end of the night he offered James a job as a bass player and me a job playing the gut bucket. I don't know what that is, but it sounded fun. Our winter gig will be in Vegas... summers at the Grand Canyon.

The entertainment was in the back corner

Tomorrow: James, me and Retirees