The southern apex of the Kaibab Plateau is within the boundaries of the Grand Canyon National Park . The Native Indian word “Kaibab” means “Mountain Lying Down.”  Some 30 miles south of Jacob Lake on Arizona Road 67 is the boundaries of the Grand Canyon.  This road winds though ponderosa pines with periodical green meadows.  If you didn’t know you were in the Arizona, one would think that they were in the northern forests of Alaska.  The Grand Canyon is open from May 15 to October 16, depending on the weather.

During the Dixie summers, the North Rim is a great place to take a hike.  The “Ken Partrick Trail” is a favorite.  The trail starts from Point Imperial the trail winds some 3 miles along the rim to Cape Royal Road.  From here the trail moves into the forest area for the next seven miles.  With the rim section this makes the trail about 10 miles long.

The trail, like any other in our area, has a lot of ups and downs.  I would consider it as a moderate to arduous.  You will need 6 hours to hike the entire one way.  But, don’t let me scare you away, for there are many access points along the trail which will make your hike much shorter.  These access points are well marked along the drive from Point Imperial to Cape Royal.  Even though this area is high elevation and cool, always bring a couple of quarts of water along.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Bart Anderson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.