Sept. 20, 2016 Leaving Bryce going to visit No. Rim of Grand Canyon and end up at Page AZ

Today we will cover about 300 miles - going to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and then drive to Page AZ.

Weather looked sunny so we dressed for it- I wore shorts and a tee shirt.

The landscape was hilly in places other wise flat on the way to the Grand Canyon. Ground cover was small bushes and  plants.

Our first break will be a stop in Kanab, UT at the Little Hollywood Museum.

http://www.littlehollywoodmuseum.org/

It had a large gift shop and indoor museum as well as sets from westerns in the back. Really cool. Had a wagon with horses and we got on an pretended to drive the wagon.

Lots of movies and tv shows - westerns mostly- were filmed here.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/870829/Western-movies-filmed-in-Kanab.html?pg=all

After our visit here we got on the bus for the ride to the Grand Canyon. We notice the weather changing and starting to rain as we got close to the Grand Canyon. Once we got there it started pouring and here we were without jackets or umbrellas as we did not dress for rain because the weather forecast predicted a sunny day.

Lodge

It was also very foggy and we could not see the Grand Canyon except for a short glimpse when the fog cleared.
We had our lunch in the dining room and then headed to the cafe for  coffee and waited until time to board the bus- 2PM.

Shortly we entered the Navajo Reservation- flat land covered by small bushes. Nothing to see for miles. Once in awhile we would see a mobile home or small home.
We stopped at Navajo Bridge- a National Recreation Area at 2:45pm for 30 mins- to see the visitor center and buy souvenirs.

The bridge is the only crossing from the north rim of the Grand Canyon to the South rim. Only other way in the past was to take the ferry across at Marble Canyon.
https://www.nps.gov/glca/learn/historyculture/navajobridge.htm

It was still raining so we had to run to the beginning of the bridge for some quick photos and back to cover.

Since we had some time, the tour director had the driver take us to Lee's Ferry at Marble Canyon. This is the beginning of the Grand Canyon and Colorado River.
We stopped here for 20 mins.

https://www.nps.gov/glca/planyourvisit/lees-ferry.htm

Here we saw several rafting companies getting ready to launch rafts for rides down the Colorado.

Still rainy/drizzly but not too bad and we did walk around a little and take photos.

Back on the bus- the plan was to stop at the Page Walmart and then go to the hotel. At 4:45pm we got to Walmart and and bought some snacks and incidentals. Some of our fellow travelers stocked up on wine since the hotel did  not have a bar.

All the chain hotels including ours were near the golf course and a distance from the town.
We learned from our friends on the tour to make dinner reservations the day before we got to a town. I had called the hotel several days before and found that there were only two taxis in town and made a reservation for one to take us to dinner the night we were in Page.
I don't know if there were hotels in town but it was inconvenient to stay at one of these hotels as dining options were very limited and guests limited to eating at the hotel.


The plan worked out great. Taxi showed up on time and left us at the Dam Bar and Grill and we made an appt. for the driver to pick us up in 90 mins. Fare was $8.00 ea. way.