Day 11: Grand Canyon

After a filling breakfast at the Grand Canyon Lodge Diningroom with Mitch and Jessica, we headed off to do a hike down the North Kaibab trail. This is part of the trail that goes all the way across the canyon from the North to the South Rim. The hike we selected to do was down to Roaring Springs, and it was 5 miles each way and 3000 feet of vertical. Here's a good shot from the first overlook. We are headed down to the farthest part you can see in this picture.

Lydia especially wanted to do this section of trail because there is one tunnel and a lot of other spots where the trail is carved directly into the rock of the canyon walls.

Above is just one of those sections that had to be carved into the steep cliff walls. All along the trail we could hear and see these collared lizards scampering around. Lydia cornered one for a photo.

I tried a number of times to get good shots of how far we'd come from the bottom, but without a wide angle lens this was the best I could do. The overlook in the first picture is way off at the top.

And finally, here's a shot that shows one of the roaring springs in the distance and a giant flowering Yucca in the foreground. This particular Yucca must have been 15 feet high.

We're going to have dinner at the lodge tonight, then pack up and hit the road tomorrow for Flagstaff, AZ, then the Petrified forest and then hopefully cool off with some Kayaking near Taos. Sore legs out...