Grand Canyon from the North Rim

October 8, 2015
We have had quite a trip over the last few weeks as we’ve been making our way around the national parks in southern Utah. Even though the Grand Canyon is in Arizona, not Utah, it was definitely one stop we couldn’t miss.

We found a National Forest campsite just outside the entrance to the Grand Canyon North Rim area called Demotte Campground. It didn’t have hookups so we got to “rough it” for a couple days. It got down to 46 degrees F each night we were there which was the coldest area we’ve been in since starting to live full time in our 5th wheel. We stayed warm enough, but the furnace was kicking on every 20 minutes or so all night long. We’ll have to look into methods for keeping the heat in a little better as we start to hit colder weather.

Our day at the Grand Canyon did not disappoint. It is a spectacular place to visit. We hiked along the rim near the Grand Canyon lodge, then took in a 20 minute ranger talk about Brighty the Burro and some of the history of the park. Brighty was a famous donkey that lived in the park in the 1920s and helped a little boy carry water each day to service the tourist tent camp his parents founded. There’s a children’s book by Marguerite Henry called Brighty of the Grand Canyon that made Brighty famous.

Brighty of the Grand Canyon (Marguerite Henry Horseshoe Library)

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We spent the rest of the day driving to Cape Royal and stopping at vistas along the way. Next visit, we’ll have to stay longer and try to do a hike down into the canyon or even do a river float down the Colorado in the bottom of the canyon.

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