Grand Canyon, May 5-6

After we escaped the arsonist at Marshall Lake, we headed for the Grand Canyon, south rim, since we needed to be home in Ontario by June 15, and we figured the drive home would take about 7 days. That left about a month to explore the Grand Canyon area before heading home.

Drove the 80 or 90 miles from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon, turning off a few miles shy of the Park entrance on a Forest Service road that we'd heard offered dispersed (free) camping. However, access was difficult, turning around awkward, and the sites, themselves, were only so-so. As well, a smoldering fire was smoking, and we didn't want to breathe the stuff...so we drove a couple of miles up the road to an established Forest Service campground, called Ten-X. It had been recommended by a full-timer with whom we'd spoken in the Thousand Trails Road dispersed campground outside Cottonwood. This person's opinion carried weight because she had written a book that was set in the Grand Canyon area, so she'd been there many times to do research. Anyway, Ten-X was nice--and not crowded--it had opened for the season just a few days before we arrived--with new toilets, large, well-separated sites, a helpful campground host, and a $10/night fee ($5.00 for seniors). And, it was only 7 miles from the from the South Rim.

Campsite was quite nice: on the end of a sparsely populated loop, with nothing but forest at our front door. Sorry, no photos of the campsite, but did get a photo of a raven, a very smart and acrobatic one:

Acrobatic raven

As we drove the few miles to the South Rim, we came face-to-face with a native:

"You lookin' at me?"

Grand Canyon...had to try

Even though we had a good time walking along the rim--alone!--, Leah still had the vertigo she developed at Marshall Lake:

Not a total damper on fun...but we thought maybe we were still too high in elevation. So we decided to  pack up and drive to one of our favorite areas: Lone Rock, Utah, maybe a 3 hour drive--and 2000 ft lower.

Next blog post: Lone Rock, Utah

Stay well...