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Two Great Northern AZ Things To Do

On our drive between UT and Mesa, we decided to take an extra day so we could bop over to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Aspens were just glowing in the sun as we made the drive to the park entrance. We hadn't been here in decades and it definitely sparked our interest to return again for more extensive hiking. We've done the Southern Entrance down to Phantom Ranch and really loved that experience so it would be fun to do more in this part.

In the couple of hours that we had we hiked around the Bright Angel Point trail and a little bit on the Transept trail. The sun was shining straight at us so our pictures aren't great at capturing the colors so next time we hope to stay here overnight so we can come out in the morning!


 

Then we made our way to Marble Canyon Lodge where we stayed for the night, stopping to catch the amazing golden hour lighting against the rocks. It's an old school simple motel but worked for us as a stopover for the night and the location is about five miles from Lee's Ferry, the popular launching point for Colorado River fun.

The next morning we walked on the old Navajo bridge where we had been told we might get lucky and spot Condors. Sure enough there were several! Some on the rocks and others on the girders of the bridge. This was the first time we'd seen these in the wild and they really are prehistoric looking birds that resemble vultures. Since they are endangered each one was marked with a number and tracker.

As we were watching them we discovered one below us on the bridge so I leaned over (with Jordan holding on to me) to aim the camera down. Soon a second one joined and they had a bit of a argument with one flying off. It was so cool to see them that close and we were amazed at how large they were as they flew across the canyon. Their wingspan can reach 10 feet across!






2 Comments


Lee Bennion
Lee Bennion
Oct 20, 2022

You got some great photos of the condors! And I am glad that you got to take a little time at the North Rim too! What a wonderful couple of days. And Marbke Canyon Lodge us just right😊.

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alison Udall
alison Udall
Jan 02, 2023
Replying to

I was so happy that the condors were there like you said they might be! It was wonderful to get to spend a couple of hours in the park and such a fun day.

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