North Rim - day 3: East Rim, Point Imperial, Cape Royal and Angel's Window

East Rim: Starting fresh the next day, we drove the Jeep out of the forest, across the paved road, and back into the forest on the other side to check out the East Rim Viewpoint - that is where the people in the Park Visitor Center had suggested we go. There were LOTS of campsites along this, much shorter, road, and as we got out, even some with views of the canyon! But we weren't going to waste another day moving to a new campsite, and most of these were taken or on roads that the RV wouldn't have made it down. One was definitely a 4wd access road, and had a great campsite at the end with a trail out to a rock overlook of the East Rim - nice!

Point Imperial: Next we drove into the Park and out to Point Imperial - I almost crashed the Jeep when suddenly we had this amazing view open up on the side of the road!! Devin kept saying, "Don't Look!" Ha. At Point Imperial, we realized why this part is a National Park, and the other parts are National Forest. These views are much more spectacular and breath-taking. MUCH more! Most of the Forest views were of side canyons or much farther from the main gorge, and the Park views were like IMAX compared to a home video. Wow!

At Point Imperial, I met a couple and started talking to them about the helicopter we saw in the canyon (no doubt "flightseeing" from the south rim). Turns out the man, Glen, was hiking in the Grand Canyon years ago, doing a long North to South Rim in one day hike, when he came across a man with a helicopter, almost at the bottom. There was a little bit of movie set left, and only this one man, and they'd finished filming for the day, "Brighty of the Grand Canyon"! The man offered Glen a free helicopter ride out of the canyon! He said it was the hardest choice he'd ever made - his heart was set on hiking North to South Rim in a day, but he'd never been on a helicopter before! He chose to complete his hike. Another woman who was listening to the story said he'd made the right choice, because he couldn't do that hike today, but he could take a helicopter ride. He'd just had a hip replacement recently, but I think he may take a few more hikes after it heals. He said his only helicopter ride was in Alaska, going to the Beaufort Sea, flying over pingos (round, ice-heaved hills) - a very surreal landscape. Sounds like he's had an adventurous life, so I suspect there is more adventure to come. But maybe not rim-to-rim hikes.

Angel's Window and Cape Royale: We then drove out to Cape Royale, that has a wheelchair accessible path. I had checked with the visitor center and they said the Segway would be okay to use on this paved path as well. The visitor center loans out wheelchairs for people to take out there if they are not able to walk far, also. Of course, the Segway got a lot of attention, and we spoke to many folks who were very interested in one for themselves or a relative with a disability. We met a woman with Cerebral Palsy out at the main viewpoint who was very interested and Devin even gave her a demo. We seem to be ambassadors for Segway and Jeep wherever we go - ha.

On the way out to the main viewpoint, a wonderful surprise awaited us! There is a narrow promontory of Kaibab Limestone that juts out into the canyon, that has a very large triangular opening in it! It makes a natural bridge, and through the opening, you can see the rose-hued Canyon walls beyond, and in the right viewpoint, the Colorado River. This is Angel's Window, and I'd never heard of it nor seen pictures and it was awe- inspiring! Not only that, but there was a path out onto the top of it, over the bridge and to the very edge! Wow. We decided we had to have a photo of one of us standing out there on it from this viewpoint! But first we went on to the main viewpoint of Cape Royale.

Words can't describe the beauty of these Grand Canyon views, so pictures will have to suffice:

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