From Yosemite to Grand Canyon (with detours)

I was kind of upset to leave Bryce Canyon and Utah. Southern Utah is so beautiful that we will have to devote a whole big trip to just that area some time soon. And we were a little disappointed not to get the moonlight pictures of the arena like we wanted ...

We had covered a lot of terrain in only a couple of weeks. After our Labour Day visit to C´s family in Central California, we traveled from Yosemite Park all the way to Grand Canyon. From one of the oldest and most famous national parks in America to another. Yosemite was declared a national park in 1890 and gets 4 million visitors a year. Grand Canyon has had the status of national park since 1919, receives more than 5 million tourists each year, and is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Maybe it´s no wonder if after all this sightseeing I was beginning to feel a little "blazée".

We took a last peak at Bryce Canyon before we left the park and headed south to Arizona again. We passed a number of undescriptive little Utah townships, but in between them the nature was always awsome. Utah has an amazing concentration of national parks too: Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Cedar Bricks. And the north rim of Grand Canyon is also straight out of Utah. We were gonna visit the North Rim, the quieter, less crowded side of the canyon.

The Grand Canyon is a dramatic 1500 m (5000 ft) deep, 446 km (277 mi) long, and its gorge is up to 29 km (18 mi) wide. Composed of diverse plateaus, towers and hills, it should definitely be one of the world's most stunning destinations. It has fascinating, ancient geological history and must leave anybody in awe. Somehow, however, when I first caught sight of it, it just didn't do all that much for me. My first thought was: "Okey, it´s really big!" But where to take my impressions from there wasn´t clear to me. In the context of all the things we had seen during the previous days, the canyon didn't appeal to me in the same way or give me the urge to stay, to come back or to fantasize on it. It was just there. It´s a crack. In the ground. And it's grand.

I don't know how we always do this, but coming down, we passed Jacob Lake thinking that we might have to spend the night there, outside the park, or camp in the wild in the national forest covering the north rim. We were told the campgrounds had been fully booked two months ahead in time. We thought we might tempt our luck all the same, and what do you know, there was one site available, due to a precipitated departure. We put down our tent and went to explore the rim.

As it happens, the campground was basically at the rim of the Grand Canyon. We followed the rim up to the viewpoint called Bright Angel Point. Walking back we stopped at the atmospheric Grand Canyon Lodge, which indeed offers stunning views of the canyon from its solarium. We hiked back through the pleasant forest. Temperatures were fresh. We did not feel compelled to explore any more and used the time before dinner to get a shower. There was a a campfire with campfire stories after dinner just a hundred yards from our campsite after dinner. Not that we felt like participating. I was ready to head home ...