#401 North rim Boondocking on Forest road 22

We left Kaibab Paiute and went towards the north rim of the Grand Canyon next. We had seen the south rim years ago and that's where all the people go. I heard a friend from Wesleyan Chapel say he liked the north rim better because it was quieter and had fewer people. Just so you know it is a pretty remote area and you got to become pretty committed. You're already way out in the middle of nowhere when you get to Jacob Lake then you got 30 more miles to go. I got pretty excited because they said that the Kaibab Plateau is about halfway down and it’s is where a lot of people see Buffalo. That is probably true but we did not see the 50 or 100 Buffalo I had hoped to see.

We didn't see any but we had followed the prompts from free camp.net and went down a Forest Road called 22 that worked out quite well. It had a pull-out and a place to turn around and sites that looked like the kind you would pay for, really very nice.

This would be our area to hang out while we were visiting the north rim which was another 15 miles down the road. We had seen ads for other camping right on the rim but it seemed more for smaller rigs. I mean a 20 or 25 footer would be better here but still had no hookups and was kind of expensive and reserved for like a year out. It seemed we ended up being the best place ever just so you know. It was like a nature area where we would sit in our beach chairs and just watch the world go by. A lot of people zoomed by in rather large horse trailers riding horse trails up the way.

The next day we rode up to the north rim visitor center. I parked and we had to walk a bit to get to the main village. We were on a trail as we approached and it was beautiful because there was another Canyon that seemed to feed the Grand Canyon. It was like a tributary canyon but it was gorgeous. You get to the Visitor Center and there's a perimeter trail and everybody's right it sure is beautiful. You enjoy all the beauty of the canyon itself but if you pay attention you can realize that if you kind of gaze five miles that way you can kind of see the south rim but there's nothing distinctive that you can pick out you just you know it's there. It's not like you see any buildings or anything significant you just know that this is in North Rim so it's over there somewhere.

What a bunch of eye candy this all was and of course I took a million pictures. India and I walked an asphalt trail along the canyon perimeter. It got to a point where we both were just a little spooked. We found ourselves on a trail section where it's basically like don't fall off the cliff. We just got a little bit creeped out and let it go kind of went back towards the visitor center area. We had seen quite a bit that day and wanted to go to the 4-star restaurant so we just kind of went up there and spoke to the person acting as host. I said we would like to get a table for two and they said well do you have a reservation. I said no and they said are you a guest here at the lodge which is like 300 per night and we said no. We really can't take reservations unless you're a guest here. I noticed it at least half the tables was empty and I said can't we just have one of those. I believe the real answer is that we're trying to practice social distancing. Their answer was a little strange. He said we don't feel comfortable having a full dining room because we don't have enough staff to handle it all. I understand it this place is so remote that it's not easy to get people to work here so they decided that they can only seat a third of the tables because that's the most the kitchen can handle. It just seemed like a bad business model but whahh.

They said something like if you're willing to wait for two hours we might can fit you and that didn't feel like a good idea. They said maybe if you want to get it to go I guess that's a possibility. That would be paying $40 for a meal and they give it to you in a Styrofoam box with plastic forks and you take it out and eat it in your car and so I kind of said I don't think so. It was pretty disappointing but you know sometimes you just got to let things go. I decided the healthiest way to look at it is we didn't come here for the restaurant it was about enjoying the canyon. We headed back to our little abode and that would wrap that day. Next, we went on a drive that seemed to go well. It was a huge National Forest Area so it was just fun to drive around and enjoy the nature all about us. One thing we noticed as we arrived on the main road was there had been a fire here many times and it seemed like what was growing back was Aspen trees.

I couldn't decide if they were naturally occurring or if they had been planted but there were a lot of very juvenile Aspen trees and I mean thousands. They looked maybe 5 years old at the most they were gorgeous and I could only imagine what they were going to look like in the fall whenever they are bright yellow. We went up a dirt road from our place and nosed around and saw there was some dispersed camping there. You would see the occasional RV or tent and this is just a really remote area so you could do about anything you wanted as long as you behave a little bit. We just went down the most pretty little Aspen Grove and I thought I would put a picture here.

I couldn't stop thinking about Buffalo and hoped so much that I would run into some but never did. We went up to the north rim again the next day just because why not. We did another hike that did the perimeter clockwise where eventually it looped back around to where they were cabins were. We headed up a pretty steep hill which was a challenge and got back to the parking lot. We went into the only grocery store and everything was overpriced. You're 30 miles from civilization so if you want it we have it but you're going to pay like $10 for a little frozen lasagna meal or something. On the way back I saw a big brown log along the wood line at one of the pull-out areas. I was going by in about 55 so I said what if that's not a log and I turned around.

We went and found the binoculars and that giant log was a huge Buffalo. It had big old horns and it was just a huge Beast and right as I started noticing it decided to scratch his back in the dirt and do a dust bath.

I took pictures as best I could to capture it but that was such a pleasant thing to see a real live Buffalo being himself and that made it quite a nice end to our day. The only other wildlife we saw was the familiar mule deer but seeing the Buffalo made my day that would be about all we did at the north rim but it was a wonderful visit and now I can say we've been there.