Start:  Zion National Park, UT
Destination:  Grand Canyon - North Rim, AZ
Odometer: 105,719 (start)  105,976 (end) - 257 miles
Date:  Sunday, September 11 - 12, 2011

Our great experience at Zion left us excited to the see the most famous canyon in the world:  The Grand Canyon.  Unfortunately, this ended up being the least enjoyable stop on the trip.

The day started with a nice drive featuring red rock mesas and nice cloud formations, but quickly turned on a bad note right upon entry to Arizona in the town of Fredonia.

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Fredonia is a small town right over the border into Arizona and styles itself as the “Gateway to the North Rim (of the Grand Canyon).  Not having the Grand Canyon however, it seems they still profit from the tourists in at least one way:  speeding tickets.  The main road is part of a highway, and so many people, including myself, didn’t notice that the speed limit was dropped to 35 at some point.  Sure enough, the white SUV that was the only other car on the road at that early hour, going the opposite direction, passed us, made a sharp U-turn, hit the lights, and pulled us over.  Seems I was going 55 in a 35 mph zone.  The officer dropped it to 45, but I was still stuck with both a ticket for $118 and the annoyance/sense of violation of being stopped and fined for a victimless offense (BTW, I recommend people join the <a href="http://www.motorists.org" target="_blank">National Motorists Association</a>, which, amongst other member benefits, has a <a href="http://www.motorists.org/traffic-justice/" target="_blank">program</a> that will cover up to $300 for a ticket if you fight it and lose).  I also learned a few days later when I called Fredonia about the ticket that it seems any speeding ticket in Arizona comes with an automatic 3 points, and that would transfer to Maryland.  Fortunately, I called Allstate and learned they don’t re-check for tickets when renewing their auto-insurance policies each 6 months, so I guess I’ll be staying with them for the next three years (as I was planning to anyway).

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In addition to what I think is a fairly unique/annoying traffic point policy, Arizona also stands out for not following daylight savings time.  As such, for 6 months of the year, they are one hour behind all the other Mountain Time states.  We became aware of this when we saw the ticket was written for 7am, while our clocks said 8am.  It would have been considerate for Arizona to have declared this idiosyncratic time policy to their welcome signage.

The trip to the Grand Canyon was not without its good turn-of-events.  My cell phone’s battery had died earlier in the trip and when I plugged it in to charge through the USB cable connected to my laptop, nothing would happen.  The lights stayed off and it wouldn’t turn on.  In the past, I could take the battery out and put it back in, and somehow there’d be enough charge left for it to startup, at which point I could plug-in the phone to the laptop and it would charge.  This also wasn’t working.  It occurred to me that morning though that the physical power conducting lines should be connected when connected, so perhaps it’s just a software issue that the phone doesn’t indicate that it’s charging.  As such, I decided to connect the phone, and just leave it potentially charging for the ride.  Sure enough, when we arrived, I habitually picked up the phone to turn it on, and voila, the phone was good as new, as if nothing had happened.  Unfortunately, it would seem that the balance would have be restored for this bit of good fortune.

We arrived to the North Rim a little after 9am (Arizona time) and went from one poor customer service experience to the next.  First, we arrived at the entrance gate and were greeted with a gruff ranger who at a minimum, was not excited to see us.  This is in contrast to the other rangers at park entrances who have greeted us with smiles, gave us the park map and newspaper with a friendly attitude, and genuinely made us feel welcome.

Next, we pulled into the gas station because we wanted to check the tire pressure and perhaps add air.  In addition to learning from the attendant that a horrendous storm had passed through the camp last night and that the camp had WiFi, we ended up paying $2 for air - the cost is $1.35 but no change was given/offered for the $2 proffered.  I get that it’s a gas station that targets tourists, but really, let us fill our own tires for free/50 cents or do it for free as part of being welcoming and good customer service.

A little bit down the road after the station we saw the campground registration desk.  Our notes said that registration wasn’t until 11am, but we saw that someone had pulled up and there was an attendant at the desk.  As such, we pulled up as well, Dad got out of the car, noted in a friendly manner that she was there early, that we didn’t expect anyone to be there until 11am, and jokingly asked if she was open to handle reservation check-ins.   The reply to the question, in a serious voice and face:  “Sir, you’re blocking the way, you’ll have to park over there.”  Now, this registration area is its own section of the entrance, with its own parking lot, which was empty, and no one was coming or going.  Again, I get that it’s the start of the workday and sure, under normal circumstances, we would have and should have parked in a proper parking space instead of the curb in front of her teller window, but you’d think the person staffing the face of the park campground would have a friendly enough personality to react with something like “Yup, I’m open.  I’d be glad to check you in, but can you please park your car in a space first.”

We also had less than desirable experiences at the general store and the deli.  The General Store was adequately stocked, though with price markups corresponding to the fact that they are the only town and store within about 60 miles - and that’s to Jacob Lake, which is mainly a park.  The main thing that stood out was the lack of eye contact, cliquish personality, and curtness.  Even when making a point to say hello, goodbye, or generally talk with the staff, they’d always be looking at something else (this wasn’t just with us).  The staff seems more interested in talking with themselves, and the customers just happen to be there.  And when I happened to queue up at what I thought was an open register that had a clerk behind it, a nearby staff person who I think might have been a manager, curtly pointed to a sign out of my view saying that register was closed and I had to go across the store.  Okay, you’re working at a store isolated in the woods where the weather seems to be rather dreary and the main/only community are co-workers, but that’s no excuse to be rude and dismissive to your customers.

Regarding the deli, it had many of the same issues as the general store.  As we’ll get to later, the weather was such that cooking was not to be recommended, so Dad suggested we check out the restaurants at the Lodge.  The main Lodge restaurant was too overpriced for us to justify, so we went to the deli next door in the complex (again, these are the only places to eat within 90 minutes of the park).  The deli wasn’t inexpensive, but it was reasonable given the circumstances.  I was going to get a hot portobello mushroom sandwich and Dad would get some hot dogs.  That was the plan until I noticed that the “hot sandwiches” they offer are simply microwaved.   There isn’t a toaster.  It’s hard enough making a good mushroom sandwich, and microwaving is not a good sign.  We reconsidered and ended up deciding on sharing a 3-cheese pizza.  Now, we were kinda hungry and I wasn’t inclined to wait for the pizza to cook.  I saw that the per-slice display case had a whole cheese pizza, from which no one had yet ordered.  I inquired/requested that we just be served that one, but was told they could only sell us that one at over $3/slice.  They were unmoved when I criticized that policy, so we resigned ourselves to wait.  The staff at the counter at least made eye-contact and were somewhat personable, but I think the appropriate thing to have done here would have been to ask the manager if an exception could be made in this case (I’d think selling an already made pizza that had been sitting around for a bit and wasn’t selling would be an attractive proposition for them.)  We were then told they’d bring it out to our table, and we could pay at the register and get our drinks now.  After processing a few customers before us, Dad’s card was swiped and in the process, the point-of-sale (POS - funny what that acronym also stands for) computer crashed.  Great.  The manager came over, handled the restart, criticized the frequency of the system going down, and was disinterested in making small chat with my Dad during the wait about his son / my brother also being in the restaurant business and the complaints he’s had regarding the POS systems at his restaurants.  On the up side, the card eventually went through, the pizza was delivered to our table as promised, and was good.

On reflection, the best customer service was by the private concession at the Lodge for the mule rides down the Grand Canyon.  Dad really wanted to see the Colorado River, but the guide was upfront that his tour wouldn’t be what he was looking for, and directed us to the appropriate drive from which the river could be seen.  We didn’t make use of his services, but the guy was friendly and helpful, so we’ll recommend that if you still go to the North Rim after reading this blog, consider patronizing his mule rides.

OK, enough about the them, and back to us and the sites.  The campground itself was nice, our campsite was right across from the bathroom, and Dad used the laundry facility without issue.  We also saw a new type of squirrel:  one with dark fur and a bright white tail.  We put the campsite in order and started our tour of the Grand Canyon.

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Our first stop was the visitor center, but on the way we stopped to have brunch at some picnic tables overlooking the canyon.  We could see there was a long way down from where we were looking, but the view was partially blocked by trees, so we continued down the road, past the visitor center, until we came to a clear overlook and a path leading to further viewpoints.

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The size of the Grand Canyon immediately hit us with awe.  It is huge in all directions:  deep, wide, and long.  One really doesn’t know where to start, so we started with just taking in the breadth of the canyon.

It should be pointed out that the Grand Canyon is a collection of canyons.  We’re not sure if this is technically true, but from our perspective it is.  While there is one giant hole in the ground, there are so many canyon nooks, each deep, wide, and amazing in its own right.  Moreover, because the Grand Canyon is so big, the scenes and stops are better understood as viewing points to a few of these nooks, rather than a location where one can view the entirety of the Grand Canyon.

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Despite the grandeur that was before us, we still wanted more, namely, to see the Colorado River running along the bottom of the canyon.  As my Dad put it, it’s not a canyon scene if you can’t see the river running along the floor.  The views from nearby the visitor center did not provide this opportunity, so we decided to drive up to the two main viewpoints:  cape royal and port imperial.  The road to Port Imperial turned out to be closed that day, so we went to Cape Royal.

The road to Cape Royal is a nice, winding road of about 23 miles (without buffaloes).  There are a few stop offs on the way, but the real stop is at the top.  Once at the top, there is a large parking lot and then a hike of about half a mile through wonderfully fragrant flowers and what we think were spice plants.  The view from Cape Royal is truly grand.  You cannot look out at what is before you and not feel the immensity and uniqueness of what has been created.  In addition, we were able to see a section of the Colorado River from the viewing perch.  We’d later learn that the section of the Colorado River and the bit of land near it was the site of many archaeological finds.

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Our stay at Cape Royal also introduced us to the rapidly changing weather patterns of the canyon.  The clouds at the top of the canyon were great, as were the views and wide, colorful vistas that showed the height variations and variety of the canyon better than our view from the visitor center.  It was neat being at or above the clouds and seeing them move and change.  Indeed, when we arrived, it was a bright clear day, but while we were at the end of the trail, a distance from the car,  the storm clouds had formed/rolled in and the rain was starting.  Rather than waiting for the full rain to arrive, we double-timed it back to the car.  Moments after reaching our car, the cloud opened up.  Along with strong rain, there was lightning, hail, fallen rocks in the road, and a fog/mist/cloud that filled the canyon.  We never felt at risk, but were concerned about the tent.

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We arrived safely back at the campsite to find the tent upright and seemingly in good shape.  I went inside to check for leakage, and only found a few drops on the floor.  I wasn’t sure where they came from until I looked up and saw that a pool of water had formed at the top of the tent.  I’m not sure if this is a design feature, a flaw, or the result of something we did or did not do (the lantern did not depress the top further than it would have been without it).  We were able to push out from the inside and drain the water off the top, but I was concerned about what would have happened if the rain had continued longer and the pool grew larger.  Feeling no harm no foul however, our esteem for the tent was not reduced and we went on with our day.

The next adventure occurred a few minutes later.  I decided that before we head out to the General Store to wait out the weather and hangout (I think to the General Store to hang out) I’d go to the bathroom by the campsite.  I was getting my things together from the car and put my camera in the side pocket of my orange hooded-sweat-jacket.  I had thought at the time that it was not a great place for the camera because it could fall out, but figured I was just going to the bathroom, no problem.  Well, there was a problem.  As I was standing up after doing my business, the camera fell out of the pocket and into the toilet!  I immediately pulled it out of the water and used some toilet paper to dry off the outside.  This camera had been through some bad conditions before, so I thought it might have survived this dowsing.  I tried to turn it on, but got nothing.  I recalled that the battery was just about dead, so I took it to the car, plugged it in, and tried again.  No luck.  More drastic measures would be needed in the car.  I got out my mini-screwdriver set, unscrewed the incredibly small screws securing the case and protecting the inside electronics.  I tried drying the insides off manually, but with little effect.  I’d need something better:  a hand dryer.  I recalled that the bathroom by the visitor center had hand driers, so we raced there, I stopped the car in a no-parking zone in front of it while my Dad stayed with the car, and I rushed the camera to the bathroom/emergency room for its potentially life-saving procedure.   After what was at least 10 minutes of drying, I felt the hand drier had been able to do whatever it was going to be able to do to help the situation.  I returned to the car, Dad reinserted the screws, I plugged the camera in, and hit the on button:  nothing.

I have had this camera, a Kodak EasyShare V530 (ADD LINK), since 2005 and we’ve been on many adventures together.  I think I got it for my trip to Israel to replace the last camera I’d had since around 2000.  Now, I knew this camera would eventually have to be replaced and that it had power management issues (I was thinking of getting a new camera for this trip but just decided to buy a new battery), but this is not how I wanted it to go.  Like a valiant soldier getting killed while back-home by a drunk driver, this camera deserved a better end.  I more expected to lose the camera in action by dropping it down a canyon as a tried to get a cool picture.  But alas, here we were.  I had been careless with it one time too many and it finally cost it its functionality.  Let this be a wake-up call to all of you:  appreciate the time you have with your technology and be careful with it.  They deserve a better death than drowning in a toilet bowl.

I had to move beyond the guilt however and deal with the resulting problem:  how to take pictures.  For the short term, we realized we could fall back to my Dad’s iPhone, which he’d been using when he wanted there to be some pictures from our Saturday hikes.  It could take pictures and movies, but the quality was not what we wanted for the rest of the trip.  We thought about going to a nearby town, but that was scratched when, as mentioned before, we learned that Page, AZ is at least 90 minutes away.  We therefore decided to go where we had intended in the first place:  the general store to use the internet.  I’ll spare you the details of the search process, communications, and logistical issues that arose, but we eventually settled on a craigslist offer for a Samsung Digimaz A7 (ADD LINK) for sale in Flagstaff, AZ, which we’d be driving through after leaving the Grand Canyon on our way to Sedona.

By this time, it was getting close to evening and the weather was still cold and damp, with rain a possibility, so Dad suggested we have dinner at one of the campground eateries.  As mentioned earlier, the Lodge restaurant was expensive, so we went to the deli and ended up having a three-cheese pizza.  We used the internet for a bit at the general store again and then went to bed, hoping that the weather would be better tomorrow.

The next morning was still cold and damp, so we went to the General Store and I worked on the blog until late that morning, when the weather had improved.    Our plan that day was to go back up to the top of the canyon and see if we could see what we were unable to see yesterday due to the weather.  Well, on the way up, we saw some good news:  the road to Port Imperial was open.  We took the road and were curious what new scenes would be available at the port.

Port Imperial did provide some great new angles of the canyon, but will be remembered for the clouds that morning and the burnt forest nearby.  The skyline of the Grand Canyon always seemed to be a mix of briskly moving clouds of either the peaceful-white cloud variety or the dark-grey death cloud variety.  That morning, we could see grey rain clouds right at our level, and they were moving so fast, we could see them climbing over the walls of the canyon.  Much of the parks are also home or nearby managed forest lands.  Managed seems to mean burned at regular intervals.  We had seen many burnt out forests on the drive in (it wasn’t a good sign) but now we were able to see one more up-close since it was visible next to the parking lot.

The drive back up the path to Cape Royal was definitely better today than it was yesterday.  We stopped at the “Greenland Lake,” which wasn’t that impressive a site, but apparently is of geologic interest as a sinkhole according to the information placard.

We also stopped at the overlooks that we had skipped previously on the way down.  Again, there were some nice views of the canyon from different angles, but nothing particular new.  We made it to the summit again, but the rain clouds were already there to meet us.  We watched the rain, hail, and lightning storm from the car, both because it was neat to watch and because it was too misty to drive down safely.  We were definitely glad we didn’t go on the mule ride.  The storm eventually lessened (these giant storms come and go and don’t seem to last more than an hour) and we went back to our hangout at the General Store (we were glad they weren’t charging rent to us, and the many others who were taking refuge / loitering there).

Space was a a premium at the store for tables and internet, but there wasn’t much else to do (there was little to no cell service) and we were committed to working on the blog.  What should have taken less than an hour in normal circumstances, took several hours and the rest of the day at the store.  The WiFi was fast at times, but most of the time, the signal would fluctuate between 0 and 4 bars, usually towards the lower end.  We kept our patience though and got done as much as we could.

We took a break for dinner around 6:30 and decided to make our last two ready-heat meals and eat in the car since the weather was still unpleasant.  ADD LINK TO THE MAKER OF THESE MEALS.  Dad had the pepper-steak and rice and had the vegetarian lasagna.  We joked while we ate about the context that these were intended for, e.g. let’s see what spices we’ll have while we wait out the apocalypse in our bomb shelter.

After dinner, I took a nice hot shower while Dad worked on the computer until the General Store closed at 8.  Bored and tired, we went to bed early that night, anxious to leave, pickup my camera in Flagstaff, and enjoy Sedona.

Overall, I’m glad to came to the Grand Canyon, but several things could have been better.  The Grand Canyon is viscerally and geologically impressive, but aesthetically, the canyon’s we’d seen earlier at Zion and Yellowstone, were better.  The Grand Canyon is some ways suffers from what makes it great:  it’s just too big.  We couldn’t really see or get to the floor to fully experience its depth, the rock walls are most of the same color and texture without much diversity or spectrum, and the wall are more like steep hills rather than sheer drops.  I also wasn’t aware of the weather patterns at the Grand Canyon.  For obvious reasons, the picture I’d seen of the canyon have been of a warm, clear, sunny day, and so I figured storms like that we experienced were rare, as opposed to the norm.  The weather did not make for an enjoyable stay at the canyon or the campground.  Also, I figured the North Rim would have a tourist town around it, but it is rather isolated and the people and amenities at the park left things to be desired.    Our desire to see the Grand Canyon though was fulfilled and did lead to many great stories and shared experiences with my Dad, so in the final sum, I’m glad we went.  Your results and reaction may vary.

ADD GRAND CANYON SLIDESHOW