If one thing could sum up the tour of the canyons, it would be everything is different, so so very different The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is about 18miles (29km) as the crow flies, or 300miles (~480km) as the car drives, from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The North Rim is also about 1000ft (300m) higher in elevation. It is completely different!. On the way from Kayenta (Ken's well chosen overnight stop - it had a great swimming pool) to the Grand Canyon we passed Glen Canyon, once a spectacular canyon now filled with a lot of water.

We wanted to see the notable bridges which cross the canyon. First was Glen Canyon Bridge and Dam, and spent some time admiring the engineering feats that they are. We have heard on KPCC our local National Public Radio station that due to the current drought there are side canyons which are spectacular and have not been seen since the dam finally filled in the late 1970's. The next bridge was the Navajo, and was actually a pair, the old bridge built in 1927-28 and was not wide or strong enough for the traffic of the highway. The new bridge was built next to the old one and in the same style. The canyon below was beautiful with great reflections on the still water.

We then drove on to the North Rim. And it was different. The drive was through forests of tall trees, and grassy meadows. The North Rim was closed, in terms of the accomodation, Ranger stations, toilets, even running water. This is the quiet side of the park, partly due to being closed due to snow during a lot of the winter months. It looked like a great place to say - there were log cabins, and a restaurant with a great view, and a huge fireplace. We went for walk out to Bright Angel Point, and it was a narrow walk - definitely no Dogs! The trail went out to a point in the canyon with sheer drops on both sides, and there were similar drops on the sides of the trail a lot of the time. Jenny rode in the pram or held onto (was held onto) someone all of the time - there was very little separating us from a long long drop (which would be spectacular on the way down before the inevitable bottom). From Bright Angel Point there was a great view up one side canyon, and across the canyon itself. What made it more spectacular than the South Rim was that there were ridges and valleys stretching for miles, and one could nearly grasp the enormity of it. We also viewed the canyon from another lookout further south, and then watched the sunset from the deck of the restaurant.

Once the sun had set we had a picnic dinner under a street lamp in the car park. It became cold quite rapidly but we had fun as the last people left in the park in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. When driving into the park we had seen lots of signs warning of deer on the roads, and then when driving out of the park we saw all these eyes peering out of the darkness. There were deer lining the edge of the road - it was remarkable that none were on the road, and so many right next to it. We tried slowing down to take a photo, but they scared immediately. It was one very memorable experience!