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It's time to move on, but before we leave Jacob Lake I have to mention the Jacob Lake Inn, which is one of three businesses in town--the other two are a gas station and the campground. The Inn has rooms, a gift shop, a restaurant, and a bakery. Now I'm not sure I'd drive up there just for a cinnamon roll or peach pie, but boy if you're going through make sure to stop and have a bite. Today we're headed off the Kaibab Plateau to Fredonia, AZ then on to Kanab, UT and finally to Glendale, UT where our next few days will be spent. We chose Glendale because it's somewhat centrally located between Zion Natl. Park and Bryce Canyon Natl. Park. Also because the RV Park there is small but rated very well, and is next door to the owners cattle ranch. We arrived and immediately liked the place. It's family run and the tree's and grass reminded us of spring in Indiana. There is a big field in back of us that's inhabited by a horse, two miniature donkeys and an alpaca. We've managed to coax the donkeys up to the fence so we can pet them, but the horse and alpaca are not playing with us yet. We unhooked the trailer and decided to head back to Kanab to get a couple of things that we had forgotten. While there we shopped and looked at a couple stores and even found the only antique store in town. On the way back to Glendale we found the foundation that operates an art gallery and the artist cabin of Maynard Dixon (I'll bet you've seen Maynard Dixon art as he was an iconic American West artist. Look him up on the internet) We of course stopped and Betsy and the gallery owner hit it off right away. We told him we would like to tour the cabin, but not that day since we were tired from driving. He said to come back anytime and also invited Betsy to bring her art supplies and she could paint up at the cabin. How exciting is that? The pictures are of our new neighbors.
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.
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