Day 75 - Horseshoe Bend, Navajo Bridge & Grand Canyon North Rim, AZ

Today we left Lake Powell for the final time and followed the Colorado River to the Grand Canyon North Rim. Most tourists go to the South Rim, we chose the North Rim as it is quieter and it is somewhere we have not seen before. 

We kicked off our journey with a stop at Horseshoe Bend, a meander in the Colorado River which is horseshoe-shaped. It is located just outside Page and only took us about 15 minutes to get there. For such a big attraction, we were surprised at how underdeveloped the site was. There was a small car park for cars only and an area for coaches to offload, a dirt trail about a mile long up and down some steep terrain where you reach a viewing area, and there were a couple of places with safety barriers but mostly you are on a cliff edge. There was no visitors center, gift shop, official personnel telling you to stick to the paths or info stations. For a National Parks-run monument, this was odd. We did see some construction work so maybe development is in progress. For such an undeveloped site, there were a huge number of tourists, coaches were dropping hundreds of people off each hour alongside people who had turned up in their own cars or RVs. We ended up going off the beaten track a little to get a good view of the river away from too many people although this did involve some rock climbing! 

Once we left Horseshoe Bend, we continued to follow the river until we crossed at Navajo Bridge. A lot of the time we couldn't see the river as it was deep down below us; all you can see is an opening between the flats. At Navajo Bridge, we stopped and stretched our legs with a walk across the bridge and to read the information stations about the Navajo Nation. We hadn't realised just how big this tribal area was or that it covered 4 states. We left Navajo Bridge and also the Navajo Nation and followed the road that went along Marble Canyon before climbing. At first we just went to the top of the canyon but then as we climbed higher and higher sandstone canyons turned into lakes, green meadows and thick forests. 

We arrived at the North Rim with enough time to pitch and then explore! We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon taking Fin along the 23-mile Cape Royal Scenic Road. This road travels along the North Rim and has a number of short trails, scenic lookouts and interesting roadways which provides you with a fantastic view of the Grand Canyon. We had a lot of fun doing this drive. All the hikes were short, a mile at most for a return journey and all the terrain was flat. The best part was the view you were rewarded with at the end of the hike, it felt like you had cheated to get a reward.  

We enjoyed Cape Royal Scenic Road so much, we ended up getting back to the campsite after the sun went down meaning we had to cook in the dark. With our headlamps on and a good fire going, it wasn't too bad, at least there weren't too many biting bugs at the Grand Canyon compared to other campsites. Lee cooked us a fantastic steak with fresh salad and corn on the cob, yum yum! 

After dinner we headed to bed and we had a lovely peaceful night's sleep, just what we needed!