We’ve gotten lucky and found WiFi nearby at the Kaibab Lodge!
Reluctantly we left Las Vegas. This was the first RV Park where we noticed (Elise too) folks drinking before 10:00 a.m. Mostly malt liquor: Colt 45 and Old English 800, or whatever it is. Ah, how we’ll miss it.
We didn’t make reservations for Grand Canyon and had originally planned to go to the South Rim. Then we realized that it is packed with tourists from May to September. It also necessitates a longer drive up to Kanab, UT, our next stop. So we opted for the North Rim where things are quieter and the drive is relatively shorter.
The drive alone was worth it. We began our day on I-15 heading northeast through Nevada, popping into Arizona, then into Utah and back to Arizona. The landscape became more stunning and more dramatic as we drove. Creosote-dotted desert broken by dark craggy mountains gave way to sage colored scrub on red earth and huge buttes and plateaus of red striped rock. This was complemented by a blue sky and vast fluffy cloud arrays. I’d say this was my favorite drive to date — even better than the drive on Hwy 1 to Monterey.
Las Vegas sits at 2,000 feet. We are now camped in Kaibab National Forest at over 8,000 feet. The drive went up, but in a gradual way, not like the drive to Kings Canyon. The land kept getting wider, more expansive. And greener. Temperatures dropped from the 60s to the 40s.
The North Rim campground in Grand Canyon NP is full. Till October. So we stopped in Kaibab NF at a lovely, nearly empty campground. There aren’t any hookups here, but three nights should be just fine. We are on the edge of an alpine meadow and there’s still snow banks in the shade of the trees. Tomorrow we’ll start exploring.
This is a bag of Trader Joe’s Wasabi Peas. It was puffy in Las Vegas. Now, 6,000 feet higher, it is just about ready to burst!
May 27, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Make sure you have A LOT of bottled water handy for your trek into Moab and Zion. (#1 cause of death in Moab is people getting lost in the slot canyons and having no water). Not to mention lots of sunscreen and a good thick body lotion, like Eucerine. You’ll notice how uber-DRY the air is while hiking in Moab and Zion. I actually broke out in a bad dry-skin rash my first weeks in UT because my skin wasn’t used to how dry the weather is there. Go figure..you’d think living in swampy, humid VA would’ve prepared me for the dry desert!
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