Movin' East - Day 56

Wednesday, October 29, (Happy Birthday to John Borsetti) Day 56 - the Grand Canyon, North Rim. Another beautiful day out here in Arizona for driving out to the Grand Canyon. We departed Page, AZ shortly after 10AM, destination, Bitter Springs, AZ. Our plan was to park the motor home somewhere in Bitter Springs, but when we got there, we discovered that there was no place to park this behemoth! So, we drove the motor home as far as Jacob Lake, where we found a place to park. We loaded the doggies into the car (against their wishes), and made the drive, some 45 miles, into the National Park. As the sign below will attest, we made it!

As we drove the last few miles into the park, we decided that it reminded us of Yellowstone, because of all the trees and open meadows we passed on the way in. However, once we arrived at the North Rim Visitor Center, and began to walk out to the Bright Angels viewpoint, we knew we weren't in Yellowstone. Be sure to check out the web album to see what I mean.

After leaving the North Rim, we headed south toward Flagstaff, AZ. We hoped to find a campground along the way, before we got to Flagstaff, which was still 110 miles south from Bitter Springs. We began calling several different campgrounds, but they were either full, or closed for the season. We could not find a campground along the road, so we had to settle for one in Flagstaff. We found the Woodlands RV Park, just west of Flagstaff, on "Route 66!". We programmed the GPS to take us there, knowing that it would probably be dark when we got there. The manager told us that he would leave the information on the door if we arrived after 6PM. We finally arrived at 7:15, and it was pitch dark. There were no lights in the park, so finding our site was going to be a chore. I got the information (a map of the park, showing where our site was) off the office door when we arrived, and we entered the campground. After trying, for at least 30 minutes, to find the site we were assigned, we both decided that even Wal-Mart would be a better choice than this place, because it was all DIRT! There was NO GRASS, nothing but DIRT! So, we reprogrammed the GPS to find us the nearest Wal-Mart, which she did. It was only 1.7 miles from the campground. So, we are camping out at Wal-Mart in Flagstaff, AZ tonight. Tomorrow, we'll find a better campground and head out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the photos and details of our trip out to the South Rim. We actually took 97 pictures today, but I only uploaded the best 28. Enjoy!

Here's the link to today's web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TheTripDay56TheGrandCanyonNorthRim?authkey=in43FMjyQns#