Yesterday 2/8/11
More piles of rocks and dirt, yes our third day of canyons, mesas, monumental valleys and Navajo Indian country. And we are loving it. We arrived this afternoon at the north rim, very different from the much visited south rim. I have visited the south rim twice, once in '86 when so much snow at the top prevented me hiking, and the second time in '88, where I scrambled down the Kaibab trail, and huffed and puffed my way up the Bright Angel, down taking about 2.5 - 3 hours, up about 8 unrelenting hours. Anyway back to now. We just got back from a short hike, the north differs as there are lovely trees - pines and shrubs everywhere at the rim making the hot summer sun tolerable. It is just over 8000ft which has made me huff and puff again. We also did another short walk, and in the morning we will head to some of the other shorter hikes. I don't think it's worth busting our balls on a full day hike as we would not get to the bottom and having done it previously things start to look pretty much the same on the way down. And up is he'll and I did it in winter! We finished off our hike with a beverage at the lodge on the vast balcony - very civilised. The present lodge was built in 1938 and is a gorgeous example of wilderness-lodge architecture. We are also in for dinner later and fortunately booked a while back so we are staying here too.
Yesterday after leaving Chinle headed to northern Arizona and parts of southern Utah where we visited the Valley of the Gods, the Goosenecks, and the sublime Monument Valley. All being absolutely breathtaking. I also tried Navajo fry bread - yummmm, it came with my delicious green chile stew, while Rob had Navajo style tacos, too big for him to finish - something I rarely see.
The natural wonders of this country are truly spectacular, and sometimes overlooked for the Disneyland's, shopping malls and cities. So I'm glad we chose the north rim of the Canyon for this trip, the crowds are smaller due to it's location, and it is so beautiful. Put it on your map if you plan visiting stunning Arizona any time soon.
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