The road less traveled

     The North Rim...it has to be one of my favorite places on Earth, and I'm writing this from the viewpoint if having done FOUR great parks in the past week or so.  The NR is beautiful, uncrowded, has everything we needed and nothing much that we didn't.  The park gets only about 10% as many visitors as the more-famous South Rim of the Grand Canyon, mostly because it's really remote and hard to get to.

We spent two nights here, hiked the trails and rode our bikes between the campground and the Lodge, Visitor Center and the General Store (which has groceries, ice, laundry and showers -- all the basic necessities!)  The NR's "spokescritter" (every park needs one, right?) is "Brighty", a burro once made famous in a childrens' story about his real-life namesake (named for Bright Angel Creek, which runs down the canyon from the North Rim).  When we found a toy version of Brighty in the NR Assoc store, we decided Max needed him and then had to figure out how to get our new friend back to the camper.  I'm not sure what the real Brighty would have thought of our solition, but it worked well for us.
     Next we're off to Zion, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef NPs ("The Grand Staircase").