May 23 and 24, 2011

Well gang, here we go again. Starship Avion is ready to blast off on "The Escape the Heat Tour 2011".
To escape we have to follow rule number 1 which is go north and that means Flagstaff or more accurately Munds Park which is about 20 miles south of Flag. There's a nice RVpark there. So it's up the mountain we go, which seems to get easier each time we do it. I now hyperventilate when we hit the downhill portions only.
Tuesday, May 24--we didn't start to awfully early because we only have a couple hundred miles to go.
The object today is to reach Jacob Lake, AZ and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We've been to the South Rim a couple of times but have always wanted to see the north side of the canyon which is said to be higher in elevation and even more spectacular. There's only one minor problem--while the distance between the rim of the south side and north side is only 10 or 15 miles as the crow flies, the drive from one rim to the other is about 170 miles! As we used to say back in Indiana, "ya cain't get thar from here". About half of this drive we had done before when we visited Monument Valley so it wasn't all new to us. We arrived at Jacob Lake about 1:00 PM and found the RV Park we elected to stay in.
As we were pulling in Betsy and I looked at each other and said "do you see what I see"? The object was to escape the heat but it was now spitting ice pellets! Luckily the little squall didn't last long and there was no accumulation, but it sure got us thinking about the clothing we had packed. We dropped the trailer, hooked up to the water, electric, and sewer and headed for the North Rim which is about 45 miles away. I've read that the Grand Canyon gets about five million visitors annually but only 10 or 15% visit the North Rim. All the guide books we read were correct--it's higher, and more spectacular.
For our first visit we hit the visitor center area which seems to be the hub of activity. And there is one above rim trail where dogs are allowed. There really aren't words to describe what you see here.