DAY 13 – Grand Canyon North Rim to Page (125 miles driven, 4.33 miles walked)
We left our cabin at the Grand Canyon and travelled back through the beautiful and smouldering Kaibab forest. I have no idea how they control the fires and prevent them decimating the forest but I guess they know what they are doing!
The journey to Page, Arizona today was another flat, wide plain with high sided hills either side. Today those hills were the Vermillion cliffs which looked very attractive. Turns out that some film director thought so too and had closed the road so that they could film a classic 50’s car on the back of a trailer driving past them. We were held by the police for 15 minutes while a pass was made. In total there where three police cars managing the traffic for this and while it didn’t really impact us I can’t help thinking that their time might have been spent better elsewhere.
Without one major destination or park in Page we did a number of smaller trips starting with the Najavo bridge apparently one of only seven bridge crossing over the Colorodo river which is pretty incredibly given it’s length. Once again we found ourselves looking down over a deep drop and wondering if it was such a great idea holding my phone over the precipice in order to get the best shot.
Next up was Horseshoe Bend (shown above) which is a pretty incredible view as the Colorado does a 180 degree turn as it winds its way to the Mexican border. Horseshoe bends were on the curriculum for Geography when I was at school and I vaguely remember being taught how these would, over time, flood and cut off the corner and eventually take the most direct route but somehow I cannot imagine that happening here any time soon!
After a mediocre lunch at a Taco Bell (to be fair I hadn’t been one before and I won’t be making the mistake of going again) we visited the Glen Canyon Dam. It was another long drop to look down but at least this time it was from the comfort of the visitor centre and behind a large glass wall. It was an impressive structure but less impressive was the amount of water in Lake Powell behind it. Lake Powell is an artificial lake created by flooding the Glen Canyon. There didn’t seem to be a way to drive along the lake so we moved on to our final destination.
Our final stop was the Hanging Gardens a short distance from the dam. As we walked the rough path to the destination there were a number of puddles of water on the ground which seemeed a little odd as the temperature was touching 30 degress – you would have thought that it would have evaporated off pretty quickly. It was perhaps more clear when we reached our destination and saw lush green plants at the bottom of the cliff. These are fed by springs running down the rock fack which the plants make use of.
It was an interesting visit but by now the heat was too much for us and so we retreated to our hotel which must win the prize for the most agressive air conditioning!