The Better Rim

8/12

I checked the trap this morning and sure enough, Mr. Mouse was hanging out in there munching on some sunflower seeds. He seemed pretty chilled out, so I opened the lid of the trap and slipped him a grape and an ice cube. I'm not a monster, you know, and Mr. Mouse was pretty cool once he got over his foot fetish.

I decided to name him Petri, as in "petri dish" - because everyone was telling me how he would likely give me every disease known to man. I figured that I probably already had all of his diseases from our interactions yesterday, so I didn't worry about it too much. Can't hide from everything in life, you know.

With Petri set for a ride in the passenger seat, well-provisioned with ice and a grape and sunflower seeds, Jane and I took off from St. George to head further south. Let me tell you, life is a lot less stressful when you're not expecting an imminent nibble.

The plan was to head to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for a lazy afternoon of hiking and hanging out. But first, I needed to find Petri a new home! I figured that he probably wouldn't do so well in the super hot car ride through Texas, especially if he's from Reno. Higher elevation and cooler temps and all that.

Fortunately, I planned on camping for the night in Jacob Lake, which is just north of the Grand Canyon. It's a little town - well, more like a crossroads - situated up in the high country forests, which has the benefit of being about 20*F cooler than St. George. It's also far, far away from any of the normal summer tourism crowds, with the exception of those heading to the North Rim. In other words, an ideal place for me to camp and an even more ideal place for a little traveling deer mouse!

I stopped off at the Jacob Lake Campground and set up camp, reveling in the nice cool temperatures, the rustling of the trees, and the heady vanilla-pine scent of Ponderosa pines. Heaven! It's always a huge relief to get back into "the wilderness" (rather, anywhere that's not a city) after the insanity of Hot August Nights. The Jacob Lake campground is great because it features very large campsites so you're not cramped up against your neighbors.

With my campsite set up, it was time to let Petri free. I figured this would be a good spot for him - a nice combination of forest and grassland with plenty of cover and little nooks and crannies to hide in. Plus, the climate is approximately similar to Reno's, and I checked and deer mouse populations are pretty abundant around here. So I set the trap on the ground and pulled the lid off, ready to give Petri his freedom (and trusting that he wouldn't immediately re-ensconce himself in Jane).

Problem is that he didn't really... go. I kind of expected that even though he wasn't scared of me, he would still probably want to be out of the box, so he would bolt as soon as I pulled the lid off. But nope, apparently he didn't mind the box, and he wanted some extra time to wander around and lick grapes and chew on bits of seed shells. So I took the opportunity to take a million photos of him, of which this one is the best:

Fearless, cheeky little bugger! Eventually I decided it was time for me to head on, and there he was still sitting in his box. I kind of nudged him and he just looked at me, so eventually I had to resort to tipping the box most of the way over to spill him out. At that point he just kind of wandered around inspecting things close by, not even giving me a second look. What a bizarre little mouse.

Finally, he meandered off in the direction of a meadow, and I felt that my obligation to the plucky little guy was finished. I loaded Jane up with my pack and hiking boots and set off for the North Rim, a leisurely 45-minute drive away.

Mostly the road winds through mixed forests and beautiful vibrant meadows like this one.

I paused briefly at the Entrance Station to talk to the entry ranger and a random Romanian guy who was in the car behind me - they both wanted to chat with me about Jane, of course, and the strangeness of finding a vintage Mustang from Texas in rural northern Arizona - but for the most part just enjoyed a nice slow cruise. And in that, I would like to point out the first major difference between the North Rim and the South Rim: NO CROWDS.

Sure, there's plenty of tourists, but not an overwhelming number. It feels like a perfectly manageable number, in contrast to the dense (and quite frankly dangerous) hordes found at the South Rim. It makes for a much more enjoyable experience when you're not stuck bumper-to-bumper in a line of RVs and autos stretching the entire length of the road. And it's certainly much more enjoyable when you can get out of your car and take in the scenery without hearing the low roar of several hundred other tourists talking within a 50-foot radius of you, and without getting jostled by various people trying to get photos or... you know, whatever people are doing when they invade your personal space.

It's a problem that the majority of the National Park Service has to deal with these days. How can you deal with an overcrowding issue? On the one hand, overcrowding ruins the experience for everyone, and has the potential to ruin the very thing that the park was established to protect. But on the other hand, reducing visitation and increasing restrictions excludes a lot of people from parks - and that's not right either. These parks were established for every American to enjoy, to preserve the most valuable parts of the country for future generations to come. So how do you balance this? No one has arrived at a good answer yet, to my knowledge.

But as for myself, I've got it all figured out: the easiest way to avoid overcrowding on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is to simply go to the North Rim instead. It feels like a well-kept secret, and maybe it is (and maybe I'm ruining the secret). But man, the Grand Canyon is so much nicer to visit when you don't feel like 50 people are about to jostle you right off the side of the canyon.

I parked down at the lodge and wandered through the trails there, waiting for sunset. One thing is always true, no matter which side of the Grand Canyon you're on: it is a truly awe-inspiring feature. For all that it is touted as "America's largest hole in the ground" - and yeah, technically, it is - I would be shocked to meet someone who could see it and not feel... something... in their soul. It is a place that evokes a kind of primal feeling that serves to both remind you how big the world is and how small you are.

Oh good, only 100 yards to go before I can see the Grand Canyon

It was while I was on one of these trails that my realtor called. Apparently there's cell phone service up here, for better or for worse. She informed me that a house I had been looking to buy (well, I hadn't seen it yet, but I had made an offer on it anyways on the basis that a friend liked it) had gone into multiple offers, and that the seller would decide on the best offer within the next hour. So, I modified my offer, put it in, and... I guess that's how, technically, I ended up buying a house from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

My view as I was sorting out the documents

Hot dog legs and the Grand Canyon

A kind of weird lizard that looked at me the whole time

Never a dull moment in my life!

I headed back to the lodge and wandered around for a while, checking out the facilities. It seems like there's something for everyone here, with accommodations ranging from camping to cabins to swanky hotel rooms, and food from pretzels to fancy high-end dishes. I guess the lodge aims to accommodate everything since the next closest facilities are at Jacob Lake.

Old school fire alarm system near the hotel

The more time I spent at the North Rim, the more convinced I became that it is truly the better rim. There's the sparser crowds, which are a critical factor to be sure. The facilities at the North Rim also retain less of a commercialized feel, with the lodge feeling more like a simple lodge in the mountains, a destination for those who want to get away from it all. And then there's the climate - at 2700 ft. higher than the South Rim, the North Rim enjoys substantially cooler weather, which is ideal for summer hiking. But most of all, the North Rim has a kind of gravity to it, a hushed feel that makes you hesitant to disturb the peace. It feels like a place where you can go to really learn something about yourself and your place in the world. It's not a tourist trap, it's a temple. And that is why the North Rim is the better rim.

The sun took its time setting, but it did finally get low enough on the horizon for me to snap a few shots of the canyon lit up in gold and red.

Unfortunately the clouds weren't right for a truly spectacular sunset, so I took off back for Jacob Lake before it got too much further. While my trip going to the North Rim had been leisurely and stress-free, the return trip was not so much! All of the deer and bison come out at dusk and they seem to have a nasty habit of standing directly next to the road, providing ample opportunities for hair-raising, heart-racing experiences. I white-knuckled it most of the way back, doing my best to not hit any four-legged beasts.

Further north, I ran into the smoke from a largish controlled fire that they were burning nearby. Even though it reduced visibility - and therefore should have been a little concerning to me - I found myself really enjoying the ambiance. The brilliant ruby and amber glow of the fire flooded across the horizon well after the sun had set, illuminating the skeletons of trees and lending an apocalyptic feel to the scenery. The smooth blacktop faded into the depths of the shadows on the side of the road, that velvety blackness only interrupted by the brilliant white orbs of deer's eyes as I passed. It was one of those moments that was best broken down into its component colors.

Jane and I made it back to Jacob Lake unscathed, and I tumbled into bed shortly thereafter. So until tomorrow... Kelly signing out.