![\"grca-n-rim-angel-pt.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/grca-n-rim-angel-pt.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis part of the park has a couple of paved roads that wind out to fancifully-named points and overlooks: Cape Royal, Cape Final, Point Imperial, Vista Encantada, Walhalla Overlook, etc. \u00a0 To me, the names evoke the early days of the canyon’s development in the 1920s and 30s when Union Pacific’s subsidiaries were busy trying to make the canyon into a world-class tourist destination. \u00a0 Each overlook has its own distinct view, sometimes canyons, sometimes the Colorado River, sometimes the lower plateau of the Navajo nation to the east.<\/p>\n
Don and Daisy are work-camping here in the park, but mostly because they want to spend a lot of time on the north rim. \u00a0 With employment by the park’s concessionaire, they can stay six weeks or more in the employee campground with full hookups for a mere $5.50 per day. \u00a0 Usually they just volunteer; this is the first paying work-camping job they’ve accepted this season. \u00a0 With weekends off, they’ll have lots of time to explore before the north rim shuts down on October 15.<\/p>\n The north rim shuts down because of the heavy snows that blanket the Kaibab Plateau. \u00a0 The road coming into the park goes above 9000 feet, and keeping it open requires massive equipment. \u00a0 As far as I know, it has been closed each season since the lodge was built. \u00a0 The campground and lodge are about 8200 feet and I was told that last winter 14 feet of snow fell here.<\/p>\n Even now the chill is starting to creep in. \u00a0 The campground’s checkout time is 10 a.m., but at 6:30 the tenters are all up and pacing around, or making fires for breakfast. \u00a0 They start packing up early, and by 8 a.m. the campground is mostly empty. \u00a0 But still the campground fills every day, and it seems it will do that until sometime in October.<\/p>\n We have to leave today. \u00a0 No spaces are available to extend our stay, and I’ve got work to do on Monday anyway. \u00a0 Our plan is to drop into Page, AZ for a couple of days to get things done before heading into the Navajo Nation, and over to Canyon de Chelly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We left a few easy things for Saturday so we could have a relaxing day with Daisy and Don. \u00a0 For the most part, our plan was simply to drive out to the east end of the developed part of the North Rim and peer over the edge. \u00a0 We walked no more than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Of course we dropped in on a ranger talk along the way. \u00a0 Emma got put to work, grinding blue Navajo corn the old-fashioned way.<\/p>\n<\/a>When we went by the Visitor Center in the late afternoon to get Emma’s Junior Ranger badge, we spotted a Grand Canyon Pendleton blanket hanging on the wall, and loved it. \u00a0 Ever since Fred Coldwell wrote an article about Pendleton’s national park blankets in the Spring 2007 issue of Airstream Life<\/a>, I’ve been looking for one. \u00a0 So we bought it as a late anniversary present to each other (we had our 15th anniversary earlier this month). \u00a0 This one will keep us a bit warmer while at high elevation, but mostly I am looking forward to having it on our couch back at home base this winter.<\/p>\n