Joe and Carmen's Album: Travel Picture Book

Welcome to our wedding site! We are looking forward to having all of you join us to celebrate our union at Grand Canyon North Rim. We have created this site as an open forum so everyone will have access to the latest itinerary, web links for information, and to add suggestions. More importantly, we invite everyone to download their photos onto this site so we have a complete album to share with everyone.

This past weekend we traveled up to the North Rim on a scouting mission and here is a preview of things you can look forward to in this trip.

The location
We will be staying at the Grand Canyon Lodge North Rim, a beautiful lodge perched at the very edge of the rim. The lodge was rebuilt in the 30's after a fire, and it boasts rustic stone and wood construction, a spacious dining room with very high ceilings and large windows with breathtaking views of the Canyon, a view room and a lovely outdoor patio.

There is a deli on the grounds serving sandwiches and other basic deli items at a reasonable price. They also have take-out pizza. Something to think about for the "Life is Good" party on Thursday!
There is a saloon for a quick-n-hard drink, an auditorium, and a bookstore full of must-have trinkets.

The Lodge has several types of cabins as well as motel rooms. However, many of the larger cabins are booked out as far as a year in advance. We have secured a group of the more basic Frontier Cabins, though we keep trying to upgrade them!

They have a double and a single bed and a shower; They are quite tiny but well kept.
The North Rim Campground has rustic sites without hookups. There is a general store and a gas station as well as showers and laundry facility. They provide the basics at a campground price, but the showers are clean. It's about a 1 1/2 mile walk from the campground to the lodge, so bring bikes or roller skates!

The only other accomodations locally are the Kaibab Lodge (cabins located in a lovely meadow about 20 miles from the North Rim - terrible food), and the Jacob Lake Inn, 44 miles north (really decent food, best cookies around).

The Wedding
The official ceremony will be Wednesday, 28th July at sunset, at the Wedding Point in Cape Royal. The site is about 35 minutes drive through a winding road, and the spot is just off the parking lot. It has a few rustic benches and a lovely view of the rim:

Cape Royal has some of the best viewing spots in the North Rim, and I can't imagine you are going to miss a little bit of hiking on your wedding shoes. Seriously, wear sensible shoes. It's also very windy along the ridge so be prepared for the breeze. The hiking trail is about a half mile long, mostly flat and paved and with interpretative spots along the way. We'll schedule some sightseeing time before the ceremony.

And how can you miss the Angel's Window?

or this view just off the Window?

After that, we will be back to the Lodge for a Canyon-themed dinner in their spectacular dinning room, toast and cake (if we can haul one alive from Phoenix).

Other Things to Do
The day before the wedding, in lieu of rehearsal dinner, we will head out for a Cookout in the rim, complete with live entertainment. We get to ride this cute train :) The train will take us near the campground, so the campers might want to meet us there.

Mule Rides can be hired at the Lodge main desk.
The campground has bicycles for rent, and also this funny looking pedal cycles:

Of course, there are trails of all levels of difficulty and length. Right off the Lodge, the Bright Angel Point Trail is an easy, 30 min round trip paved trail with some steep portions

Lovely views at the top!
A more difficult trail is the Transept trail, which runs between the campground and the lodge. Not paved, and occasionally steep. The Kaibab trail is for more experienced hikers.
Interpretative programs on different subjects are available from the park rangers at different times of the day, either at the Lodge Terrace, the Campground, and the Auditorium.
For something different, there are "slow" rafting trips down the Colorado River. They depart from Lees Ferry and float lazily down the Colorado River. There are "real" rafting trips, usually booked well in advance:

but these are more of a "floater" trip. Here are the rafts as seen from the Navajo Bridge

80 miles North, the Lees Ferry/Glenn Canyon area boasts great fly-fishing for trout, and a beautiful, clean, fine sandy beach. The river is ice-cold even on a hot day.