December Wall Calendar Takes Me Back To The Grand Canyon

The past couple months, my 2022 wall calendar featuring American National Parks, each month, has been National Parks I have not been to, such as last month, which was Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Or September's National Park, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is in Ohio, and which I had never heard of til seeing it on my wall.

Or August's National Park, which was Arcadia National Park, in Maine.

But, for the final month of 2022, the December National Park is Grand Canyon National Park, which is one of the National Parks I have been to several times, both the North and South rims.

Way back in the last century, I do not remember what year, I hiked the Bright Angel Trail from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, down to the Colorado River. That is a brutal hike, easy going downhill, brutal making the climb back to the rim of the canyon.

I do not recollect seeing the Grand Canyon in person, this century.

I think my last time at the Grand Canyon was in October of 1995. That visit was part of a roadtrip which started with four days of houseboating on Lake Powell. That October visit was to the North Rim, which has way fewer visitors than the South Rim.

It was an overnight stay at the North Rim, in a log cabin.

During the night a blizzard blew in with about a foot of snow. We were stranded til snow plows could arrive. If I remember correctly the road was cleared by around noon, thus enabling making it to Zion National Park for that night's reservation in the Zion National Park Lodge.

I wonder if during my remaining years of still being vertical I'll make it back to the Grand Canyon again....