Something Different

Of all things to know about the Grand Canyon's North Rim, two facts outweigh all others. First, it's a much better point to access the Grand Canyon in summer than the better-known South Rim. And second, despite the aforesaid advantage, only 10 percent of the five million people, who visit Grand Canyon National Park in a year, set foot on the North Rim. That allows much more elbow room to those of us who do.

The reason so few make it there is geographic. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, and although the specific locality called North Rim is only 10 miles from the more crowded South Rim, as the crow presumably flies across the great chasm, it's more than 200 miles around as the earthbound motorist would have to drive. So the mostly undeveloped Arizona Strip north of the canyon, and even the community of North Rim with its park-sanctioned facilities, remain practically a preserve for those who live in Utah and Southern Nevada.

My 21-year-old daughter, Olivia, was on break from college and helped me enjoy that relative roominess earlier this month. We found much more to do here than merely taking in famous views. By the end of our trip we had seen rare wildlife, hiked uncrowded trails, mountain-biked many miles and took an adventurous four-wheel-drive excursion to remote Point Sublime, which offers one of the finest panoramas in the park.

Just getting to the North Rim, via the 45-mile access road from Jacob Lake, is one of the visit's highlights. The Kaibab Plateau-North Rim Parkway has been recognized by many agencies for its stunning scenery and has been designated a National Scenic Byway, National Forest Byway and Arizona State Scenic Byway. We found a spectacular display of wildflowers along the entire length of the road and I can only imagine how it looks during fall foliage season when the aspen are at their peak color.

Without belittling the canyon's South Rim, it's fair to say that the North Rim is the better choice to visit all summer and through mid-October. The elevation is about 1,000 feet higher, providing wonderfully pleasant temperatures; daytime highs in August average in the 70s, and nighttime lows in the 40s. The North Rim also receives twice as much precipitation as the South Rim, making the area lush with vegetation. Here you will find wide open green meadows, small lakes, aspen groves, and thick forests of ponderosa pine, white fir, Englemann and blue spruce.

Although a variety of lodging options were available, including cabins directly on the rim, we chose to enhance our visit by camping. To add to the experience we decided to bypass the area campgrounds in favor of camping on our own, outside the park boundary in the Kaibab National Forest. Called dispersed camping, it is our favorite way to camp as you can pick your own spot and have more of a wilderness experience. Our site was about five miles from the park entrance, in a forest of fir and pine with stands of young aspen trees.

During the early morning hours of our first night we were awakened by loud scratching and after shining a flashlight we found the culprit, a badger. He took off when we shined a light on him. But hours later when we got up for the day we saw him cuddled up underneath the front tire of my car. In the morning light I saw what I had not in the dark: Each paw was equipped with claws like a handful of steak knives, and I was glad I hadn't tangled with him. With some loud talking we got him on his way back into the trees and saw him no more.

On our first morning we headed out on the paved scenic drive to Point Royal, stopping at the different viewpoints and taking short trails out to the canyon's edge for a different perspective. We also found plenty of interesting places to explore away from the rim, including two often overlooked trails, Cliff Spring and Greenland Lake.

Cliff Spring Trail leaves across the road from an unmarked pullout then heads down into a vegetated canyon about one-half mile, past a well preserved prehistoric food storage granary and down to an enormous overhang complete with seeps and a spring. This would have made an excellent place for the ancestral Puebloans to take shelter, as they are known to have lived on the North Rim between the years 1050 and 1150. The park has about 2,500 documented prehistoric ruins.

After taking in another viewpoint we stopped at another small parking pullout that serves as the trailhead to a short stroll down to Greenland Lake, a lovely little water body perhaps 40 yards across, which formed in a sinkhole. A quarter mile trail takes you around it into the forest and to an abandoned log cabin. Here within the woods we got our first glimpse, on this trip, of the unique Kaibab squirrel. This squirrel is found only on the North Rim and in the surrounding Kaibab National Forest of northern Arizona. These squirrels have tufted ears, dark bodies, and black bellies, yet the tail looks as if it had been dipped into white paint. The one we saw headed out of sight up a large ponderosa pine, peeked around to see if we were still watching him, then continued upward and out of view.

Even if you choose to camp during your trip it is well worth the time to stop in at the Grand Canyon Lodge. The original lodge, built in 1927-28, was destroyed by fire but was rebuilt and reopened in 1937. The lodge has an enormous dining room and living room, both with clear views down into the canyon and across to the South Rim. Outside there are also roomy patios with comfortable chairs to just sit and enjoy one of the world's most famous views.

We wanted to enjoy that view at sunrise, so we resolved to set an alarm for 4:30 a.m. to have plenty of time to drive down to the rim for the spectacular sight. It seemed awfully dark for just 45 minutes before sunrise, but off we went. When we arrived at the rim it was still pitch black and we realized we were an hour early. Summer travelers in this area must remember that Utah is on Mountain Daylight Savings Time, but most of Arizona uses Mountain Standard Time all year. We remembered that; but our cell phone, doubling as an alarm clock, did not.

Up so early, we decided to hike the nearby Uncle Jim Trail. The five-mile hike takes you through the forest and then around a loop trail to Uncle Jim Point. Along the way we were startled by a bird that resembled a small turkey. I believe it was a ruffed grouse, which was displaying his full fan tail in defense of his territory.

As we made our way around the loop, we stopped for about one half hour at the prominent point. This afforded us a stunning bird's eye view down Roaring Springs Canyon and the switchbacks at the top of the North Kaibab Trail. We watched hikers and mule trains taking the half-day round trip to Roaring Springs or the full day trip down to Phantom Ranch and the Colorado River.

The North Kaibab Trail winds 14 miles, one-way, and descends nearly 6,000 feet before reaching the river, so the trip takes plenty of preparation. Many people have lost their lives trying to do both legs in one day, mostly dying from heat exhaustion. The park makes about 250 rescues in the inner canyon each year. Surprisingly, most victims are young and healthy individuals who just weren't prepared for the harsh conditions.

The Uncle Jim Trail is named after Jim Owens, game warden in the early 1900s for the U.S. Forest Service at Grand Canyon. Back in the old days when predator species were not protected, Owens' management plan was to kill mountain lions in order to protect the area mule deer. He admitted that he had killed more than 500 cougar. This in turn allowed the deer population to soar, resulting in thousands of deer starving to death.

Fortunately, even Uncle Jim Owens couldn't wipe out lions completely, and the population made a comeback.

Olivia was hiking alone, some distance ahead. Another hiker and I were following the trail along an embankment when we heard a very loud noise below us, but out of sight. I can't remember the noise well enough to describe it, but it was unlike the normal noises of tree branches falling, or rocks. When we looked over we saw a cougar about 40 feet away, turning and fleeing uphill from the spot my daughter should have been. My first thought was that the lion had pulled Olivia off the trail, and my heart was in my throat as I called her name. What a relief when she answered! She was just ahead, unhurt and unaware that the lion may have been following her.

Other than a young cub that visited my campsite in Utah a few years ago, this was the closest I had seen a cougar in the wild. Unique sightings such as these should be reported to the ranger at the visitor center, which we did. They note the time and place of the sighting and any details of the animals actions. In this case, despite the cat's curiosity, it had exhibited no inappropriate behavior, so all was well.

Our next stop was about one mile away on the Widforss Trail. We had heard that along that trail we could visit the cave where Uncle Jim himself had once lived. Finding the cave proved difficult but with some persistence we spotted a very faint trail across the nearby Harvey Meadow that led to the base of some cliffs. About thirty yards up the cliff face we could see an old wooden door in a rock wall improvised to close off the natural hollow beneath a big rock overhang. Peeking through some broken planks in the door, I could see a flat-floored room perhaps 20 feet wide by 10 deep. Pretty compact living quarters, but two stovepipes made me think Uncle Jim had plenty of heat for the cold rim-country winters.

This meadow was once used as a tourist camp and mule-train staging area. We watched a turkey hen make for the woods, leading her four poults. These are wild Merriam's turkeys, found primarily in ponderosa forests.

That afternoon we headed out to Point Sublime, the western-most of the North Rim viewpoints. Just driving here is an adventure, for the 17-mile road is a primitive one requiring both high clearance and four-wheel drive. We found it in terrible shape; it required about one-and-one-half hours to negotiate the loose rocks and the ruts, one way. Out of the car we walked out to the point and were treated to the best panoramic view of the canyon we had ever seen.

We weren't there more than a few minutes when we heard thunder and saw a lightning bolt. We immediately abandoned our plans to stay, jumped back in the car, and headed away from the rim. As we slowly made our way back, the rain became a torrential downpour and within a few minutes the road turned into a flowing creek. This was a scary experience, and would have been scarier had we not known that our emergency supplies were ample if we had to find high ground and wait it out. With some good fortune on our side, the storm passed on by, the water receded and we made it out and back to our high and dry camp a couple of hours later.

One of the most interesting and rare birds found in the park is the endangered California Condor. It is the largest flying bird in North America with a wing span up to nine- and one-half-feet and can fly up to 55 mph. In 1982, only 22 of these condors were known to remain.

Captive breeding programs and reintroductions into the wild have been very successful in re-establishing the condor. In May 2008, the total population had climbed to 332 birds, with 152 living in the wild. More than 70 of those fly free in the Grand Canyon region, and the North Rim is one of the best places to see them.

As I drifted into sleep in my tent on my last wonderfully cool evening on the North Rim, I pondered upon Las Vegas' good fortune to be so conveniently close to a natural haven still undiscovered by most Americans. For this place to remain so would be asking too much of heaven; but as captain of your own fate, you can be among the next to discover it.