Road Trip - Day 30 & 31: Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon was the perfect last adventure on the road trip - we still have Tucson and LA, but this felt like the last real part of the road trip. I've hiked the Grand Canyon as a kid, but had never been to the North Rim, neither had Chris. So we took our last shower for 3 days and hoped in the car at 7 AM.

Warning, this is going to be a longer post because we saw so many cool things, (bison, deer, California Condors) but it will be mostly pictures.

Night one we camped in Jacob's Lake - its about 45 miles from the North Rim in the first come, first serve campsite, we were thrilled to get a spot!  Then we explored around Jacob's Lake.

I am beginning to think Chris is not actually afraid of heights, he's 90 feet up on a rickety fire tower

Our campsite day one and the beautiful Arizona sunset!

The next morning we woke up, packed up camp to move to a closer campground, De Montte, which is about 20 miles from the north rim. As we drove into the park this is what we came across....

Well hello, Mr. Buffalo

And then we got to the canyon. WOW! The North Rim is much different than the South Rim - there is much more detail and it way less crowded (its harder to get to, we added 3 hours to our drive each way for North v. South Rim). From the South, I remember the canyon looking very wide, just massive. The North is 1,000 feet higher and I am no geology expert, but I will try - this side has receded more due to more rain and snow creating more "stuff" to see in the canyon. Pictures just don't do it justice, especially ones I take.

We drove 45 minites to the tip of the North Rim stopping along the way for hikes, this hike was a 4 mile loop 

   Before the storm, you could see the mountains of Flagstaff 66 miles away 

The window rock, you can walk out on it

View down from right on top of the window

South Rim is across to the right of the storm

On the way out of the park that night we saw more buffalo. We saw them outside of the park about 2 miles from our campsite, which is apparently rare. There have been recent car accidents killing the buffalo, so Arizona is trying to separate. We also learned that buffalo are not native here, they were brought in by someone in the early 1900s to breed with cows, when it didn't work they sold them to the state of Arizona who now owns them.

There were so many - look in the background

Some up close with the babies 

While we were in the park we went to a ranger talk about the California Condors. If you don't know the story of the condors, I'll give you a re-cap. They were almost extinct, there were 19 left in the wild. A conservationist group worked to capture the 22 birds and breed them in captivity. To make a long story short, it worked. There are now about 400 of them total and 230 in the wild. They are the largest bird in North America, they have a wingspan of 9 feet! You can learn more about them here: Peregrine Fund

We also learned that there is a popular nesting area on the way out of the canyon on the Navajo bridge, they hang out on the getters of the bridge, so we decided to stop to see if we could see some....and we did! We saw 5 birds total, it was pretty cool! You can also look them up by number online.

See, not afraid of heights

Its also a beautiful area - there is a driving and walking bridge

This is F1, 30 and 54. We thought F1 was a juvenile, but according to the internet it was born in 2007. At one point F1 was flapping its wings and 30 got closer and closer....until it basically attacked it and then it flew off the bridge. We thought it was the Mom encouraging the baby to fly, but we were wrong (they are all males), no idea what was happening.

In order F1, 30 and 54.  

Close up, you can see the numbers

This is where it was flapping its wings, 30 was quite interested

This one is H9 and we definitely thought is was a juvenile since he has a black head, which is what the babies have according to Ranger Charlie. But online it says he was born in 2008....I think something is off, because we also saw 77 and online it says he is dead.....

He is super tiny! 

The Grand Canyon North Rim was awesome - definitely go if you have the chance!