The trip from Oroville to our first destination, Quail Creek RV Park was uneventful. Which is how I like it. We do short travel days, so we spent two nights on the road before that. Our first overnight was at Whiskey Flats RV at Hawthorne, NV. Second night was at Beatty RV just north of Beatty, NV. I was honestly amazed at how very much Nevada there is. Mile after mile. Hour after hour. All Nevada.
We stayed three nights at Quail Creek and daytripped over to Red Cliffs.
North Rim Campground
This campground makes it into my short list of favorite campgrounds. It’s just that nice. The “Campground Full” signs were up every day we were there, but the campground never filled up. Given how hard it is (and it’s really hard!) to get reservation there, it seems strange to us that people weren’t showing up. Odd.
These things were scattered throughout the campground. We asked the ranger about them and were told that they were put in a long time ago to hold free firewood. The parks service used to chop up downed wood and provide it to campers. They don’t do that anymore, but these odd things are still there.
Sophie isn’t crazy about the travel days, but she does seem to enjoy the days that we’re camped somewhere.
Bright Angel Point
North Kaibab Trail
We wanted to go down the North Kaibab Trail. Definitely not all the way down, but partway down at least. The trail maps show various milestones down the trail, with the elevation difference from the trail head. This trail is strictly downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back. The first listed item on the map was the Coconino Overlook. It was only .7 mile down, but it was an elevation drop of nearly 800 feet. Neither one of us could wrap out heads around what that would be like. The next item on the map, the tunnel, would be just over 1400 feet to climb back up in a short distance. We chickened out on that one and just went down to the Coconino Overlook. After we went down to that and climbed back up, we agreed that it just wasn’t a big deal. Maybe next time for the tunnel.
The photo below was taken from the overlook, and it looks down the canyon that the trail follows on its way to the Colorado River.
Uncle Jim Loop
I definitely recommend this hike. It’s not all that long, and it’s not all that hard. The distance is 4.7 miles from the Kaibab trailhead. We walked from the campground, .7 miles one way, so the total was only 6.1 miles roundtrip. You mostly go uphill on the way out, although there is some roll. You follow the route the mule trips take, so expect some mule artifacts on the trail. You start out on the Ken Patrick Trail and follow that for nearly a mile before turning onto the Uncle Jim Loop trail.
This one was taken from the Uncle Jim Overlook, which was at the far point of the lollipop loop. The squiggly thing running down through the image is the North Kaibab Trail, where some people were undoubtedly toiling away and wishing they’d not started down it.