 | As we leave Bryce
Canyon, we pass once again through the Red Canyon. The colours of the rocks
do vary with the strength of the sun and are often better in the early
morning and late evening. |
| Whilst not a natural feature, the arch over the road is striking
and helps you to notice and remember the small park. |  |
 | Not surprisingly it
is like Bryce in the structures but on a much smaller scale and in this case
you are at the bottom and not the top. |
| And it has its sentinels watching you as you arrive or depart. |  |
 | And so we were back on
the road heading south. Although not raining yet, the weather was very
threatening and didn't look good in the direction we were heading. |
| The road to Rainbow Point in Bryce was almost closed and the
North Rim of Grand Canyon would be also. We were still quite high here and
it was late in October. All of which meant that the non-coniferous trees and
bushes were well into fall colours. This can lead to some attractive
landscapes. |  |
 | Sometimes the
hillsides in the valleys are covered with colour, predominantly yellows from
the quaking aspens, but with some bursts of red. |
| Another characteristic of the high country as we headed down
towards North Rim is the large meadows at 7-8000 ft, often called elk
meadows because of the animals which may appear at dawn and dusk. |  |
 | And so we
arrived at North Rim and the lodge. The views from the lodge balconies are
spectacular but the weather was quite dull which limited visibility. |
| North Rim is basically at 8000ft, about a thousand feet above
South Rim. Thus (weather permitting) the views cover a considerable
distance. |  |
 | The canyon is 277
miles long and an average of 10 miles wide, but it is the mile deep which
gets you. None of the canyons we have visited so far prepared us for this. |
| We walked to Bright Angel Point close by the visitor centre. To
the west the weather was glowering and we expected it to pour down any
minute. But to the east of the point, visibility was almost nil because of
the clouds which were well below us. |  |
 | There was still
visibility down from the point to the west but nothing to the east, and then
it started raining. |
| From that point it just got murkier with just a small gap between
the mountain tops and the clouds. |  |
 | So we decided to stay
over at the campsite at the rim. In another three days this site would be
closed (the park rangers and lodge staff go home, hoping that the snow will
hold off until they are out), and the next nearest open site is almost 70
miles to the north. Normally the North Rim closes on October 15th but they
had stayed open an extra week because they had opened a week late in May,
because of late snows in the spring. |
| The visitor centre has an excellent wooden mural on the side
which was typical of the sympathetic way in which all of the buildings fit
into their environment. |  |
|