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Wednesday, October 12, 2016
We had breakfast at the Lodge again. The service still glacial.
Then we walked back to room to change our shoes. Today's plan is to hike part way down the North Kaibab Trail, as far as his leg and my knees would allow us to. Back when I was planning this trip, we were going to try to make it a day hike to Roaring Springs, about 4.5 miles one way. However, our maladies will limit this hike...
We drove the car to the North Kaibab Trailhead. The parking lot is full... It's not a very large parking lot. So we wound up parking down the road about 1/3 mile and hiked back. We were soon on our way down the trail.
These three photos were taken on our hike down the trail. The photo on the left shows part of the side canyon that the trail travels through. Mt. Humphries (just outside of Flagstaff) is visible in the distance. The center photo shows me at one of our rest stops. The photo on the right shows some of our trail.
This photo shows another part of the side canyon. If you look closely, you can see the North Kaibab Trail zigzagging waaaaaaay down there.
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My knees made it as far as the Coconino Overlook, 0.7 miles from the trailhead and about an 800 foot elevation change. We spent about 15 minutes resting at the Overlook before heading back up. Down took 45 minutes. Up took 1.25 hours.
The photo on the left shows Carl arriving at Coconino Overlook. The center photo shows the view from Coconino Overlook. The photo on the right is a closer look at the patterns in the canyon walls visible here.
The photo on the left shows Carl relaxing in the shade at Coconino Overlook. The center photo shows some of the colorful aspens that lined our trail on the way back up. The photo on the right shows Carl adding a rock to a cairn that occupied one switchback corner. We assume the pile of rocks were for luck on the trail ahead.
After a pitstop at the trailhead, we went back to the car and drove back to the room.
We cleaned up a little and back to the Lodge for lunch. We got the same waiter as Monday. In my mind, I called him Eeyore... He's from Iowa, but is moving to Texas for the winter, so he's been practicing his drawl and his moseying... Wish he wouldn't.
After lunch, we went by the Gift Shop and the Visitor's Center. One trail that I've thought about doesn't sound as bad as it looked from the road, so we may do that one tomorrow.
Then we went back to the room and to collapse for a while...
After resting most of the rest of the afternoon, we walked back to Lodge for tea and cocoa. We also listened to last half of the condor talk. It was interesting.
They wound up having an absolutely glorious sunset after all. I misread the clouds and had left the camera behind. However, I considered this evening's wonderful sunset as a scouting mission on good spots to set up a tripod. Found a couple...
Dinner was back at the Saloon – pizza slices with beer (and tea for me). Something had upset my stomach today, so I kept away from the beer tonight.