A Year Ago May 31:Grand Canyon North Rim

The Grand Canyon. Really f-ing huge.

Encountering things of such majesty really reinforces the small place that humans occupy in this world.

I suggest more people make a habit out of confronting their idle notions of self-importance

by gazing upon nature writ large and being humbled by their insignificance.

A year ago today we woke up outside Zion, ate a quick breakfast and hit the road. We were traveling back East along the Utah-Arizona border so that we could make it to Paria canyon where we had 2 of the 10 permits allotted for June 1 through 4.

Between Zion and Paria a little to the South is the Grand Canyon. Most people visit the South rim and approach from Phoenix or Flagstaff. We drove in from the North on a road with some of the most strikingly beautiful and varied terrain imaginable. The land around us fluctuated between red and white sandstone, then morphed into scrub brush fields, then descended through thick pine forest. Just outside the entrance to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon there were large meadows with the last (still large) patches of melting snowpack. And then you get to the canyon which is truly magnificent and more than I could describe.

Glen Canyon Dam. Makes me cry for the loss of the American soul.

What really boggles the mind is to consider that Glen Canyon/Lake Powell, Paria Canyon, and Zion are interconnected parts of the same canyon system as the Grand Canyon since they all have such different flavors. (It also boggles the mind that by calling Glen Canyon by that name instead of calling it part of the Grand Canyon system, Americans approved the hydroelectric dam that flooded it and created Lake Powell...seriously disrupting the complex ecosystem for miles in every direction)

The North Rim has a swell place called Roosevelt Point where this snazzy plaque sits. I wish this was closer to the visitor center so that all of the people who don't explore much of the park could see it.

We went for a short dayhike not too far from this point to eat a little lunch. It is truly remarkable how few people leave the visitor center loop. We only encountered 2 people--a nice middle-aged Israeli couple--on our 2 hour nature walk (hike is a bit of a strong word for it).

Jeff and I left the park and re-entered the wonderland that is Kaibab National Forest. Awesome fact: you can camp free of charge anywhere in a National Forest. We did just that.

Dinner: concoction involving 4 tortillas, 1 can refried beans, 1 chicken bag, 1 onion, a splash of olive oil, and half a jar of queso. My notes say it's good basecamp food and that cold beans are NASTY.