Honeymoon Day 2: The Grand Canyon!!

We woke up around 7am and drove one hour to the North Rim!!  For breakfast, we opened our box of Cheerios from Walmart and ate it right out of the box in the car, and drank some coffee that we'd grabbed to-go at Jacob Lake Inn. When we arrived at the North Rim, the park ranger told us that the previous night had been really terrible, and someone's tent had even inverted from the force of the rain. So... thank goodness we stayed at Jacob Lake! The first thing we did was check out was the AMAZING view that was just beyond our campsite. After soaking in our first glimpses of the Grand Canyon, we set up our tent right (including a tarp lean-to, since more rain was expected later that day), and then we went to explore! We decided to take the Transept Trail which goes along the rim the whole way and spans the 1.5 miles from our campsite to the North Rim Lodge (closed for the season already). The hike was AMAZING. The views were spectacular the whole way. 

The view just a 10 second walk from our campsite!!  Amazing. 

Kevin setting up our tarp... You can see the Grand Canyon just beyond those trees!! 

Our little tent, all ready for the storm!  There's a tarp underneath too. 

This is a better view of our campsite. It was pretty spacious!!  

Part of the hike! 

My handsome husband looking out over the canyon on our hike. 

When we reached the North Rim Lodge area, we went in the Visitor Center to get a bit of trail advice, and we decided to take the Bright Angel Point Trail which has absolutely jaw-dropping views. While we were out at the point another storm started rolling in, so we put on our rain gear that we'd packed in our daypack. We headed back towards the lodge area, and sat in the rocking chairs on the porch of one of the empty cabins (closed for the season), and watched the impressive storm over the even-more-impressive Grand Canyon. 

Views from the hike to Bright Angel Point: 

Here's me and McGee at the point! This was after we'd put our rain jackets and rain pants on over our clothes... A nice woman took this picture first, and then her husband was like, "Take it from the other angle so you see more than just the storm in the background!"

So then we were cracking up and she took this picture from a different angle. 

This was our view from the uninhabited cabin's porch! It was a GREAT view, and we loved the rocking chairs. 

Here's my handsome husband in one of the rocking chairs! 

 

Here was the storm a little later, and you can see the downpour of the rain in the distance from that massive cloud! 

Once there was a break in the storm, we started the hike back to our campsite. Towards the end of the hike is when a frickin MONSOON hit, so when we arrived at the campsite we decided we needed to sit in our car to wait it out. We were both QUITE hungry by this point (we'd only had Cheerios and protein bars that day), so as soon as there was a break in the storm we jumped out and set-up our little camp stove by the car (we used the car as a wind break, because the wind was intense) so we could make mac-n-cheese. By the time we were finished eating our mac, the frickin monsoon returned!  So, back in our car we went. It was raining SO hard, and the lightning and thunder were right on top of each other so we knew the storm was right on top of us. We were sitting in our car for awhile, and then we started noticing that our campsite was massively flooding, and there were huge rivers forming all over our campsite.  So... we both looked at each other with a very sad look in our eyes, and we realized there was no way we could camp. We could sleep in our car, or we could head back to Jacob Lake Inn again (which would actually put us 1 hour closer to our next day's destination). So... after calling Jacob Lake to make sure they could reserve a room for us, we scrambled outside to take down our tent and tarps (and we stuffed them in garbage bags because they were all soaking wet). 

Views from our hike back to camp! 

Incredible views, and it actually looks really cool with the clouds everywhere... even though it was raining... 

McGee!! :)  You can see how wet his hood is on his jacket... We were pretty drenched (thank goodness for rain jackets and rain pants!!). 

Look at that big ol' cloud in my way! It was really cool how close all of the clouds seemed. 

Our mac-n-cheese lunch-ish meal

This is us sitting in the car... This is close to the time we realized we wouldn't be able to camp that night. Can you see the sheeting of water on the windshield? It was SO much rain... Everything massively flooded. The firepit almost completely filled with water! 

When we arrived at Jacob Lake Inn we draped our soaking wet tent, tarps, rain gear, etc all over the room so it could dry overnight, and then we had dinner at the restaurant again. So, we didn't get to camp at the Grand Canyon!!  It just really wasn't meant to be though... There was no way it would've worked either night. We're already planning another trip back though within the next 5 years, and we want to see the North Rim AND the South Rim next time.