North & South Rim Grand Canyon and Williams, Arizona

After 3 nights in Utah we made our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. On the drive you can really see in the distance the "Grand Staircase". In Utah there is a National Monument called Grand Staircase-Escalante. It is 1.7 million acres of geologic features, a ranger in Zion National Park said to consider Bryce Canyon at the top of the staircase and the bottom of Bryce Canyon (geologically and elevation.) is the top of Zion Canyon and the bottom of Zion is the top of the Grand Canyon. Pretty Cool! From the picture you can see different color cliffs in the distance showing the geologic and elevation changes.

Unfortunately there wasn't a KOA at the North Rim so we stayed at the National Park campground. The campground was nice but the showers were not and they closed at 7:00pm, too early for us to take showers at night. The campground was a few minutes from the rim and the lodge. As soon as we arrived at the campground we set up camp then headed to the rim for dinner and to watch the sun set. Earlier we went to the lodge to look around and checked to see if there were any available reservations for dinner at the restaurant, we were in luck, one was free for 7:00 that night. The next available reservation wasn't until 8:00 3 days later. Dinner was delicious!!! Josh had meatloaf with a merlot-demi glaze that was to die for!!!

The lodge sits on the rim on the canyon and has great views. People gather at the lodge to watch the sun set and hang out in the large lounge area. It is full of leather chairs and couches and has 3 huge picture windows looking out to the canyon. Sunset is beautiful, the canyon displays many different colors that you don't see during the day and with the shadows you stand in awe of what God has created. The great thing about the lodge is you don't have to be a guest to feel welcome. Anyone visiting the North Rim is able to roam through and hang out at the lodge. It also has 2 huge porch areas with rocking chairs and tables to sit at and enjoy the view.

The next day we headed out to the rim to hike around and relax at the lodge.  We hiked out to Bright Angel Point, which gets you better views of the canyon.  Abi actually fell asleep in the baby bjorn while we were hiking.  Early in the afternoon we decided to head back to the campground to see if Abi would take a nap, we had to luck, so Josh decided to drive her around a bit so she would actually get some sleep and be plesant to be around later in the evening.

To explain the pictures above:
The Moon: Josh spent some time the second night we were there taking some pictures of the moon
Abi sleeping: also the second night abi was soooo tired, she fell asleep on the way from the lodge to our campsite, even when I took her out of the car she was still asleep, and even stayed asleep while I sat on our bed and went outside to take pictures. I placed her on the bed and she was still asleep!!! Poor thing!!!
Abi eating cheerios: just a cute picture
Strange furry creature: well, at first we had no idea what it was. Is it a squirrel or a rabbit? After reading the map of the North Rim we learned that it is a squirrel, the Silver Ghost of the North Rim or also known at the Kaibab Squirrel. The only place in the world this squirrel is found is at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Abi In her suitcase: Abi was "helping" pack up before leaving, well maybe helping unpack.
Tree: an example of the beautiful fall colors that were beginning to appear on our trip, soooo pretty!!!

The second night we also spent at the rim taking more pictures of the gorgeous sunset. The sky looks painted! The fun part about taking pictures that night was that it was sooooo windy. The rangers had told us that morning that the winds were going to pick up and that we should put anything in the tent or car that could blow away. Winds were expected to be around 30 miles per hour and continue throughout the day into the night. We had no idea how windy it actually would get!!! During the day it was windy but tolerable and during the night. . .well. . . it was like a freight train running through your campsite or as Josh put it, like a rocket taking off and flying over the site. The wind blew the entire night and shook the tent violently!!! Abi only woke up a few times and put herself back to sleep, which we were very thankful for, but Josh and I were up most of the night. Every few minutes the wind would come through, we would hear it coming through the trees before it reached our site and would then shake the tent for 30 seconds or so. Just when we would fall asleep the wind would come and wake us up. In the morning we asked a ranger if he knew what the wind speed was over night, he said about 50 miles per hour!!!! WOW!!! We packed up in the morning, which was not fun, the tent almost blew away and Abi was totally over the wind, way too much for her.
So off we went, headed to the South Rim. The sad thing is the South Rim is only 10-12 miles away from the North Rim but you have to drive 8 hours to get there. I think someone needs to build a bridge across the Grand Canyon. On our way from the North Rim we spotted a heard of bison in a meadow. Josh had never seen wild bison so it was neat for him to see a whole heard.

The wind continued on our drive and made crossing the desert real fun.  Luckily the sand storm we went through wasn't too bad on the highway but definitly worse off in the distance.

We drove along the South Rim instead of driving through Flagstaff.  This gave us the opportunity to see parts of the canyon that we wouldn't have time to see the next day.  The first place we stopped was the Watchtower.  We stopped at a few others on the way to Williams where our campground was but spent most of our time at the Watchtower.  The Watchtower is a tower that was build in the 30's as a re-creation of towers found all over Arizona and New Mexico.  The tower serves as a great lookout over the Grand Canyon.  We climbed to the top and was, once again, in awe of God's awesome work.

After driving along the canyon for a bit we headed to Williams, about an hour south, where our KOA campground was. The whole time we figured that we would again be tent camping, when we got there we reconsidered. Once again weather.com was incorrect with the temperature and the lows were expected to be in the mid-20's and the wind still hadn't died down, we were going to be in for another cold night if we didn't decide to forgo the tent and pay a little extra for a cabin. This way we wouldn't have to set up the tent again, we would be able to stay a little warm and we could relax the rest of the night. The cabin was great, just beds but it did have a heater!!! This KOA had burned down a few years ago and had been completely remodeled, everything was so new and clean.

Our full day at the South Rim was great, very busy, but we got to see all that we wanted to see.  We noticed the day before that the visitor center parking lot was under construction so we knew we needed to get there early to get parking, not knowing if the other parking lots in the park woiuld be full or not.  There were shuttle buses that run along the rim so we just parked the car and rode the buses all day.  We did a few short walks/hikes to lookout points along the rim.  Of course the views were beautiful!!!

Along the South Rim there are a few lodges, museums, and shops.  We found a nice bench to have our picnic lunch out of the wind.  It was a cool day but with the wind it was pretty cold until the afternoon.  Where we ate was a pretty busy area and lots of other families were eating lunch too, and Abi loved to people watch and squirrel watch.  One thing we noticed around the South Rim was Bible versus posted at certain lookouts, very cool (see upper right picture below)!  By the lodges is the Grand Canyon Rail Station, Josh loves trains and we would have loved to take the train from Williams to the canyon, but it was way more money than we would have wanted to spend and it takes too long.  We would need to spend another day at the canyon to see everything because the train takes more time than driving.  The next time we go we will take the train.

After lunch we got back on a shuttle that takes us along the rim where cars are not allowed through. From the first lookout we got a great view of all the lodges that are along the rim. We were not planning on getting off the shuttle at that stop but we saw on the side of the road a few elk. Josh was able to get pretty close to them and take some great pictures.

The last stop we made, which is also at the end of the road, was Hermit's Rest. From here you can see the Colorado River the best compared to other lookouts. We met this couple (bottom, second picture from the left) that were on their honeymoon and they live in Spain and was touring California, Nevada and Arizona. At each destination they have someone take a picture of them and they put on these t-shirts for each picture. The front says "USA 200" and the back says, well you can see for yourself. Soooo funny and creative! We also met, or Abi met, this little girl at the beginning of the day named Emma. She is 16 months old and super cute, they liked "talking" to each other. We ran into Emma and her parents quite a few times throughout the day on the buses and viewpoints. At Hermit's Rest the girls had a few minutes to play together and Abi made friends with Emma's mom, my little girl can be shy sometimes but not that day.

On our way out of the park we had to stop at the sign to take a family picture. This time Abi WAS NOT being cooperative. She didn't want to sit in my lap and wanted to sit by herself, priceless!!! She was probably thinking "my parents think they are sooo cute and I don't want to have anything to do with them!".
We headed back to Williams to get the car packed and ready to go for the next day. We were not going to drive all the way home in one day, that would have taken 9 1/2 hours and that doesn't count any stops. We decided to stay in the lovely town of Barstow. It only took us 5 hours to get there, despite wanting to sleep in our own bed it was better for us to relax and stay a night half way home. Before reaching Barstow we stopped for lunch in another lovely town, Needles. We had lunch at Carl's Jr, and had a great experience. The woman taking Josh's order couldn't figure out how to change the order and had to call the witch to help her, yes she called her own co-worker a witch in front of Josh. Josh agreed that she was a witch and decided not to complain too much about the order being wrong. Then we enjoyed a guy talking to himself while he ate, then I got to hear all about the witch in the bathroom. Two employees were talking in the bathroom complaining about the witch, while I was in there! Then a third employee came in with a cordless phone saying one of the girl's mom was on the phone, and the girl gave her the phone while she was going to the bathroom. . . .needless to say we had a very interesting time at lunch. Don't go to the Carl's Jr in Needles, go somewhere else!!!

We got back to Fresno around 2:00pm 2 weeks after we left. Wow a long trip and totally worth it.

Here are a few closing thoughts or a few things i forgot to mention in other posts:

Don't try to go out to dinner in Utah on a Sunday night, NOTHING is open!
While driving through the small towns in Utah we noticed that there were mannequins sitting in old police trucks or cars to keep people from speeding, only works once!

We liked the freeways in Las Vegas, they were laid out really well and easy to follow.

We were disappointed when the power was out while camping in Glendale, we couldn't take showers and our internet didn't work :-(

What is the difference in signs that say "Falling Rock" or "Falling Rocks", we couldn't figure it out?

All over Utah we saw signs for "bumps" when there wasn't a bump and when there was a bump there was no sign.

We determined that the "spark" does still exist between Josh and I, there is A LOT of static electricity in sleeping bags and we kept shocking each other.

Traveling and camping with a 1 year old wasn't too bad, took a lot of planning but so much fun to travel as a family.

The list of all the animals we saw while on vacation:

4 dead deer
1 fox
1 wild turkey
a herd of long horn sheep
lots of live deer
1 donkey
lots of horses and cows
1 tarantula
herd of bison
chipmunks
North Rim Squirrel
6 elk