Saturday June 21, 2014

 

Non-Travel Day

 

Our destination today was the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which took us south on US 89A and AZ 67 to the park entrance . Traveling over 89A was through a desert environment of sand and sagebrush but as we moved higher in elevation the shrubbery turned into Pinion Pine and Utah Juniper and eventually higher up into lush forests of Ponderosa Pine and Aspen. Just before the park entrance the forest opened up revealing extensive meadows of lush grass land. Immediately after entering the park we encountered a herd of buffalo grazing along the roadside, it was a beautiful sight. As we got nearer the canyon the road descended and the lush forests disappeared revealing the smaller Pinion Pine and Utah Juniper, the altitude change was apparent in the trees and shrubbery. While driving through the park we noticed areas of extreme fire damage, some with substantial regrowth while other areas are just starting to regrow. The views of the canyon from the north rim are fewer and different than from the south rim, but they are just as dramatic; with sever drops into the canyon below. The North Rim offers a different prospective to the forces that shaped the Grand Canyon. 
The north rim is 1,200 feet higher than the south rim which results in the north rim getting almost twice the amount of precipitation per year as the south rim, which results in a greener environment; this additional precipitation has caused additional erosion on the north rim with the result that the north rim is 7 miles from the Colorado River while the south rim is immediately above the river. The views were fantastic and just as from the south rim they are to awesome for either words or pictures. This is truly a grand canyon.