Today was a big hiking days or us here on the North Rim. Tim and I decided to take on the Cape Final Trail. To get there you need to drive a few miles back out toward the park entrance, then take a very winding side road, another 20 miles out on the Walhalla Plateau to the trail head parking lot.
The Cape Final Trail is a four mile roundtrip hike. It should take approximately two hours to make the hike. This hike took us three hours. We of course had to stop at every lookout along the way plus we ate lunch at the tip of the trail.
Here we enjoyed the hike through the ponderosa pines. One thing we noticed here is the lack of underbrush in the forest. The final destination of this trail sits on top a large rock formation on the edge of the Rim that has a couple of geological markers embedded in the rock. There we found one of the most breath taking views yet on the Rim. This trail is less traveled so we had plenty of time to take in the view.
Afterwards we continued driving to the end of the Walhalla Plateau to the Angels Window and Cape Royal. Both short hikes on a paved trail. Here we got a really great view of the Colorado River below.
Exhausted we returned to base camp and made dinner. It was another foil pack on the grill with smoked kielbasa and fresh veggies. Then our wonderful Airstream neighbors, who live in Jacksonville, came over to sit fireside with us for the evening. Of course it turned into Airstream show'n tell! Good conversation goes a long way, we enjoyed the company and we hope to meet up with them soon.
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