Seattle

Another cold, drizzly summer day in the Pacific Northwest. Well, not quite. SeaTac hit 103 late this afternoon, beating the old record by 3 degrees. The Davis weather station at our house reported 105.1 at 4PM. Today, Phantom Ranch was 107, not really all that much different.

Seattle, the new Phoenix!

South Rim

We spent a touristy day at the south rim - eating ice cream in front of the Bright Angel Lodge and staring down over the edge like everyone else (there were lots of everyone elses), checking out the IMAX, and taking the shuttle bus out to Hermit's Rest. We looked for glimpses of the river - from Pima Point we could see the tail end of Granite Rapid and all of Hermit, though they were an awful long ways away. It was neat seeing the Wen, one of the original Nevill's cataract boats, on display at the visitor's center, although I suspect we were mainly remembering riding in the Sandra with Greg during the previous two weeks.

Desert View

We had breakfast at Cameron, then headed into the park. The first view of the canyon was from Desert View, where we could see the broad bends in the river between Tanner and Unkar. I could see a couple rafts with my binoculars. D is not impressed - the distant views and the scenery just aren't the same as being down there.

Cameron

We left the north rim at dusk and drove back to our motel in Cameron in the dark. We stopped at Marble Canyon and walked out onto the bridge and peered down into the darkness at the river (470 feet below). We floated beneath this bridge just over two weeks ago (Navajo Bridge).

The Cameron Trading Post is perched above the canyon of the Little Colorado River, 20 miles or so above it's junction with the Colorado.

North Rim

We looped into Utah and over to Kanab and Fredonia, then back down to the North Rim for dinner and D's first view of the canyon from the top. It's nice to be back in the trees and more pleasant temperatures ( it was over 100 at the Glen Canyon Dam earlier in the day). We ordered pizza and ate it in front of the lodge - the view was better than from the dining room and the line was much shorter.

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After spending two weeks in the Grand Canyon, it is only reasonable to go back to the source - which in this case is the big concrete plug across the bottom of Glen Canyon. The dam is just 15 miles upstream from Lee's Ferry.