Took a vacation: Arizona's Grand Canyon, North Rim (pretty pics)

We took a couple of days last week, picked our sons up in Flagstaff, and drove to the North Rim. The drive takes you to within 30 miles of Page, then you turn west and climb up to the Rim. That is one long drive! The scenery is interesting, passing through Indian reservation, past the Vermillion Cliffs, across the Colorado at Lees Ferry, and then into the mountains. The North Rim is 8,000 to 9,000 ft. elevation.

The North Rim being so much higher in elevation, gets much colder (and sooner). We were there the 1st of October and the temperatures were 60s, but the park closes for the winter October 15th each year.

The evergreens are mostly fir and spruce. The elevation is too high for Ponderosas.

Even though the daytime temperatures were great, the nights had been cold enough to turn the aspen leaves yellow. In the middle of the day, with the sun on the leaves, they were so bright yellow it was if they glowed.

The North Rim park includes a lot of woods, one can backpack or camp in the park.

This is called Angel's Window. You can't tell well in the picture, but you can see the Colorado river through the "window". To give you scale, the little lines up on top of the end of the rock- those are people.

There are only three main areas for viewing the Canyon, at the North Rim. At this one, there is a walk to several points. One of the view areas requires a four-wheel drive vehicle and a lot of time, so we didn't visit it. Another trip.

We stayed in a cabin, right by the Rim and the Lodge. We had two rooms with a 3/4 bath for about what a motel would be. They take reservations a year in advance, but we got in with about a month's notice.

The Lodge has a gorgeous Dining Room, high ceilings and chandeliers, and very good food. It also has patios from which to watch the sunsets (crowded!)

With the North Rim 1,000 to 2,000 ft. higher than the South Rim, there are places where you can see over the South Rim and beyond.

To give you some scale- that part in the middle ground- it is several miles away, even though it looks close.

At one point a helicopter dipped down into the canyon. It looked the size of a bird.

Vacations are good for the soul! I know the economic situation is in melt-down, but I'm very glad we went when we did.