Moving North

For reasons undetermined, I associate visiting the Grand Canyon with mule riding.  Due to the last minute nature of our trip, most tours are long since booked.  Early Sunday morning, we made one last, valiant attempt at calling the North Rim tours directly and asking about openings for the next day!  Not only was a tour available, the staffer shared some 'flexibility' with a pesky regulation on which we were balanced like a knife edge.  

In order for our mule riding adventure to began with check and weigh in Sunday afternoon, we first had to move about 11 miles north.  This 11 mile distance, however, is blocked by a little something called the Grand Canyon and Colorado river. In order to avoid this pesky detail, we took the long way around .... a 4:59 drive.  

After parking and getting prepped for check in, we approached the North Rim visitor center along the way hearing someone call out Wifey's name.  Apparently some friends from church were also at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon that afternoon preparing for a rim-to-rim hike the next day!  Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world.

 

Check in went smoother than we could imagine, with our knife edge issue being a non-issue in the end!  Leaving check-in we celebrated with a quick dinner at the only restaurant open for 60 miles north of the Canyon, the Roughrider Saloon.   

Due to COVID, only to-go dining was available, so we took our Burger, Pizza, and Chili back for an in-car picnic! 

      

After dinner, we checked into our hotel for the night at the Kaibab Lodge.  The North Rim is less frequented than the South, and has far fewer amenities available.  Our options for North Rim lodging were essentially to stay in the park and pay around $300 a night, stay at the Kaibab for $106 a night and drive 18 miles (26 minutes) back and forth, or to stay at Jacobs Lake, 44 miles (53 minutes).  

The Kaibab is ... rustic.  No Wifi.  No cellular service.  No TV.  Yes incredible view out the cabin door:

If you look right in the middle of this picture, you can barely see Kaibab Lodge.  

Our cabin - on the right side with the door open! 

View from the front door looking in: 

And the first view of the bathroom, straight on back:

And last, a view of the opposite side of the room while standing in the bathroom door facing outwards:

The night we stayed at Kaibab we were pretty tired and actually fell asleep around 7:00 pm, leaving early the next morning ... for our mule adventure!