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| Grand Canyon's Point Imperial on the North Rim |
Road trippers, buckle your seatbelts: National Park
facilities on Grand Canyon’s North Rim are due to open next week. (Officially,
the park’s North Rim is open May 15–October 15, but Mother Nature has the final
say.) This news is sweet relief for desert dwellers. Phoenix temperatures are
expected to top 100 again by the end of the week, while on the North Rim it’s
30 degrees cooler.
Higher than the South Rim by 1,400 feet and shaded by
boreal forests of spruce, fir, and aspen, the North Rim can receive more than a
100 inches of snow each winter, forcing the closure of State Route 67 and park
facilities. By mid-May, the snow is gone, meadows and aspen are greening, and
Grand Canyon Lodge throws open its doors to welcome visitors.
Only one out of ten park visitors make it to this side of
the canyon. Though it’s only 10 miles away from the South Rim’s Grand Canyon
Village as the raven flies, to get to the North Rim takes five hours by car or
shuttle or at least two days of hiking.
For the lucky few who venture here, that means natural
quiet, fresh pine-scented air, and a relaxed pace. Many of the North Rim’s
scenic highlights are strung like gems along the paved Cape Royal Road, which
travels 20 miles across the Walhalla Plateau. Even along this
popular scenic drive, trails are seldom crowded. (One of my favorites, short
but sweet Cliff Springs Trail, starts near the end of the road.)
The North Rim’s most popular trail, the North Kaibab,
leads into the canyon. Several other trails wind through rim-side forests,
where wildflowers linger through summer. If you plan to explore beyond the pavement, you’ll want a
high-clearance vehicle and a good map. Be aware that gravel and dirt roads in
the neighboring Kaibab National Forest can be muddy into June. Check weather
and road conditions before starting out. For the latest announcements from
Grand Canyon, visit the park service’s web site.
Welcome to Grand Canyon’s wild side!
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