(c) 2010 Lydia Hinshaw
Happy trails. . .ORMOND BEACH, FL -- In about a month, Prince Charming and I will pack up and head west once again, this time for summer jobs at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
We'll be living somewhere along the horizon in this photo, shot two years ago from a trail just below the South Rim.
We've never visited the North Rim, but we've heard only good things. We'll be an the end of a dead end road, 130 miles from the nearest chain-store civilization in St. George, UT. There is just one lodge and limited other tourist facilities. The concessionaire employs 230 people, a tiny community compared to our past two seasonal jobs in Yosemite, CA, and Denali Park, AK, where the employee numbers were in four figures and the tourist numbers off the charts.
It promises to be a completely different atmosphere from the South Rim, the Canyon's main tourist area, where there are multiple lodges, restaurants, gift shops, art galleries, a train station and acres of parking lots, and that's just inside the park -- outside is even more stuff.
The North Rim is at 8,000 feet, and is open only in summer. Right now it's buried under quite a bit of snow, much of which should be gone when we arrive May 10.
We have engaged a house-sitter, and done some mental packing. After spending nearly 23 months in Florida, including dreadful heat last summer followed by the coldest winter in more than 50 years, it will be great to be on the road again.
We'll be living somewhere along the horizon in this photo, shot two years ago from a trail just below the South Rim.
We've never visited the North Rim, but we've heard only good things. We'll be an the end of a dead end road, 130 miles from the nearest chain-store civilization in St. George, UT. There is just one lodge and limited other tourist facilities. The concessionaire employs 230 people, a tiny community compared to our past two seasonal jobs in Yosemite, CA, and Denali Park, AK, where the employee numbers were in four figures and the tourist numbers off the charts.
It promises to be a completely different atmosphere from the South Rim, the Canyon's main tourist area, where there are multiple lodges, restaurants, gift shops, art galleries, a train station and acres of parking lots, and that's just inside the park -- outside is even more stuff.
The North Rim is at 8,000 feet, and is open only in summer. Right now it's buried under quite a bit of snow, much of which should be gone when we arrive May 10.
We have engaged a house-sitter, and done some mental packing. After spending nearly 23 months in Florida, including dreadful heat last summer followed by the coldest winter in more than 50 years, it will be great to be on the road again.
1 comment:
I've been to the South Rim four times, but in 2006 I made the effort to get to the North Rim. It was not easy to get too and on a cold day in late October I got the mirror view of the canyon I had seen several times before. Even though everything was closed it was nice to see things from such a quiet uncluttered perspective. I look forward to your posts this summer.
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