LIVING IN THE BED OF A PICKUP : Camping and hiking on the north side of the Grand Canyon.........life can't get better than this

There are studies that show that the average person spends 8 minutes in the Grand Canyon National Park. They drive to the overlook, park, take a few photos, and leave.

Eight minutes.

For this trip we took our "Rat" (i.e., Toyota 4Runner) to an area on the north side of the canyon. This is BLM land, whereas the south side is almost all Indian Reservation (where we can't do our type of camping).

Vicky found a potential spot. We didn't know what to expect. But we just drove there because her success/failure ratio is extremely high. We also knew that to get to the place she identified a 4WD high-clearance vehicle would be needed.

Here is a shot of the road:

At the end of the road we found a camping spot 50 feet from the rim of the canyon. That isn't a typo--50 feet.

We set up camp, and then took a hike west along the rim.

When we got back the winds had picked up. And by picked up we mean that they were at least 30-mile-per-hour gusts. They destroyed two pieces of our camping equipment.

We had to decide, on the spot, what to do. Drive out?

What we did was take everything down, put rocks and other heavy things (e.g., water) on our equipment, and head to the Rat to sleep for the night.

And the wind was strong.

The next morning, instead of leaving, we went for another hike along the rim--toward the east. After all, that's why we came there.

The sights were almost un-worldly. Such incredible beauty. It was all worth it. We had planned on staying at this spot for a few days, but through our satellite phone we found that wind gusts would be strong for two more days. So we went elsewhere.

But we will be back. The beauty of this place will see to that. And in the two days we were in this area, we did not see any other living person--just each other (our goal).

Our camping spot on the rim.