The storms of yesterday had passed, leaving a hot, sunny day. We started off a couple hundred feet from the Colorado river – at 3500ft elevation and were headed to Jacob Lake – a a town near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at 7900ft. The two are only forty miles apart so despite the elevation gain the day was to be on the shorter side.
The magnificent cliffs of Vermilion National Monument accompanied us for the first twenty miles of the day, as if providing a physical barrier between us and Utah to the north. Soon, we could see the plateau holding the North Rim in the distance, with patches of snow still visible on the northern sides of some hills. The wind played nice and with the gentle grade we made good time to the base of the plateau. Here, the red cliffs abruptly stopped and green rounded hills began as we entered Kaibab National Forest and the steepness of the road increased significantly.
The road wound up and up through the mountains as the desert turned back into dense pine forest and the temperature dropped. A heavy storm had swept by these mountains earlier and we were lucky to have missed it.
A couple more hours of hard work put us in the small town of Jacob Lake at the high point of the highway. A bit of a short day but our legs definitely feel the effects of all the climbing.
Notes from Donald: “I think all the different changes in terrain we got were cool.”
Today’s mileage: 41 miles
Total: 692 miles
The red rock and the clouds are spectacular! Will be at north rim in a few weeks and glad to see the snow is cleared!