We woke up early and broke down camp. We weren't sure if the other campground we wanted was full or not so we thought we'd pack up just in case. It takes about an hour to get from Jacob Lake to the entrance of the park. On the way we drove through lots of meadows. After we got into the park we saw more meadows, one with bison in it! Apparently, Bison are called "bison" in the US but should be referred as "buffalo" if they're in Asia or Africa. We wanted to stop to get more pictures but didn't think we should. Later in the meadows we saw deer (not sure if it was common deer or mule deer) that started prancing. They looked just like Bree's parents' dog, Zoey when she prances. The main park road splits into a Y shape, off to the West is the main lodge and off to the East are some view points. We went to the lodge first, the Grand Canyon Lodge at the North Rim reminded us of the Ahwanhee hotel at Yosemite National Park. People that stayed there wanted paved trails and access to gourmet food. We visited the Visitor Center to buy postcards and get our stamp and to check about trail conditions.
We decided to take the Bright Angel Point trail, only about a half mile but nearly straight up along a rock outcropping from the point the lodge was on. It was pretty steep, although short. It ended right on the edge of the rock. We saw one tourist climb over the fence to go a little bit farther out to pose for a picture. Silly people. We took pictures and took the other half of the trail back to some other fenced outcroppings below the hotel. They had some great views of the canyon. From there we headed back up through the lodge towards the car. There was a bronze statue of "Brighty" the donkey. Apparently, Brighty was a donkey at the Grand Canyon that was popular with children and tourists, met the President and a children's book was written about him.
We went back to the car and headed back up the road to check in at the campground to see if they had any space. The ranger didn't quite laugh at Bree when she asked but apparently it fills up way in advance. So we continued on the road and Mike found a 4x4 road he wanted to take out to Point Sublime. Usually, we check with the Rangers for road conditions, suggestions, and to see if the Subaru can make it. We didn't because we didn't know it existed until after we left the visitor station.
The first portion was just unpaved, any car could have made it. Then we hit a sign that suggested only 4x4 vehicles with high clearance should continue the next 18 miles of the road. Bree was hesitant, Mike wanted to go. It was a great ride, up and into the forest. At times the road was only as wide as the car. We traveled from open grassy meadows to dense pine forest mixed with aspen. The aspen is called Quaking Aspen and is so named because with any wind the wide leaves move and make the trees look like they are shaking. The road went up and down many hills and we reached a total elevation of 7400 feet, best we can estimate. The road wasn't actually shown in its entirety on the park map so we had to look over some satellite photos and an offroading site to try and find the point. It was way out there! The road was technically very difficult and Mike had some trouble. There were quite a few points that Bree was sure we'd get stuck on. The road was rough and rocky, with large boulders to maneuver around while going up a steep grade. But we finally made it and Point Sublime fit its name. It was totally isolated and we had the whole point to ourselves. It was very high up and gave a great view. We wandered around and had lunch out there at a picnic table. Someone before us left an entire 30 pack of Coors Light Beer up there. Mike said it was water and wasn't worth taking. We headed back down the road, which was a lot easier when Mike let a little air out of the tires. It ended up taking about 3.5 hours by the end of it to go 36 miles of rough off-road.
When we got back to paved roads we continue to the Y-intersection and headed the other side of the north rim. It took about 45 minutes to get to the end of that branch of the road. It dead-ends at Cape Royal, where we took another short hike. It was only 0.6 miles round trip and paved. Still, we heard tourists (the same ones that had climbed the fence at Bright Angel actually) complain that this was how trails were supposed to be, not like that dirt trail they took earlier. Along the trail there were several spots to go right up to the canyon edge for viewpoints. One of the best was of Angel's Window, which is an easily seen arch in the park. The trail continues so that you can walk out on the rock that Angel's Window is in. Along the way there were several explanatory boards for the flora and fauna of the area.
We got back in the car and headed up the way just a little bit to take a short hike to Cliff Springs. It was a mile roundtrip, straight down there and straight up back up. It was nice and cool because it was into a smaller canyon. You end up walking under some overhanging rocks to the spring. As soon as you step onto the rocks there was a large sign that warned against damaging the rocks, marking them or moving them in any way. We wondered why until we got to the spring. Apparently, visitors like to grind up some of the red sandstone, get it wet and use it to make red handprints on the lighter colored sandstone above their heads. The whole spring area is now covered in red handprints. We walked around for a little bit before heading back up the hill. We continued on the road back towards the Y and stopped at a few overlooks on the way, including a short road up to Point Imperial. "Point Imperial, the highest point on the North Rim at 8,803 feet, overlooks the Painted Desert and the eastern end of Grand Canyon."
From there, we headed back to the Y-intersection and towards the park entrance. We had done everything we could for the day. Most hikes are either super short or super long. It was way too late in the day to start a long one. As we exited the park, we saw Bison again. About halfway between the park entrance and Jacob Lake was another Kaibob National Forest Campground called the De Motte Campground. We wanted to camp there for the night so that it wouldn't take us so long to get back to the North Rim in the morning. Luckily they had room, same set-up as last night so we picked a spot and got set-up. We made macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for dinner which was quite yummy. Mike read and Bree played Scrabble on her DS before it got too cold and she went into the tent. We went to bed early because we had a mule ride early in the morning!
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