August 5, 2012

North Rim Adventure Continues....

On my last blog, I contemplated which pictures of rocks I should include in my next blog and I decided that people are much more interesting.  So these pictures are of us during our car drive tour of Point Imperial,  Vista Encantada, Wallhalla Overlook and Cape Royal Point.  As I believe I said in an earlier blog, we wanted our first day to be rather easy to help us acclimate to the higher elevation.  One thing I will say about being at a much higher elevation is that the sun feels more intense.  I know, most people would think that the sun in Phoenix would feel more intense, and the heat IS more intense there, but it seems brighter in the Grand Canyon.

One thing I love about kids is how inventive they are.  At Point Imperial, they found a grove of Ponderosa Pine trees with lots of exposed roots and started playing a game involving jumping from root to root without touching the sandy soil. You might see an occasional adult in the background




While the kids played, Eric took pictures of lots of rocks.  And I took a picture of him taking pictures of rocks with rocks as the background.  If you click on the picture for a closer look, you will see people on the white outcropping jutting out behind him.  The trail led to that overlook.  


At Vista Encantada, a Ranger was very nice to point out some rock formations with names which I have since forgotten.  He also took a picture of our group of two families, though most of us had our faces shaded by hats.



The kids played on a rock at the end of the trail and became quite rowdy until some other visitors asked them to be quiet.  


At Cape Royal, I insisted that Eric and I get our picture taken with Angel's Window in the background as we kissed.  

We headed back to camp to cook dinner, play games, wash up and collapse in our tents from our first day's excursion.  The next day, our plan was to hike down the North Kaibab Trail, at least to the Supai Tunnel, which would be about four miles round trip.