Day 6 – JULY 4th! --- Jacob Lake – Grand Canyon – Jacob Lake

Up at 6:00. The shop with coffee opens at 6:30. Beautiful day. Bright, clear blue skies. We head to the north rim of the Grand Canyon for the day, planning to return to our little cabin in the woods for the night.

Beautiful drive. Woods, trees, and more trees: spruce, pine, and aspen. Some areas had a fire a few years ago and have only now started to recover. We see some deer and lots of ravens on the drive in to the park. It’s 43 miles to the park from our cabin. We saw maybe 10 cars the whole way. Once in the park, we park and head for the Grand Canyon Lodge and the Sun Room with the big picture windows overlooking the canyon. Breath-taking!


The morning light makes the canyon look vast and deep. We want to take pictures everywhere we go. It is a truly magnificent sight. We have been to the south rim several times, so this is very different. It is so, what’s the word? Oh, yes. GRAND!











We walk to Bright Angel Point and gawk. Now we have been to the Grand Canyon 3 times before (all to the south rim) and we still marvel at the scale of it. The canyon is so big that it has mountain inside it. On the way back we meet a volunteer who leads star gazes for the NPS at the canyon. We chat a bit (shop talk) and move on. He is on duty. We orient ourselves at the visitor center and go through the gift shop. We find out that this is a special day, indeed! They are going to have a 4th of July Parade at 4 that afternoon. We make a mental note to be at the Lodge by 4. Shortly, the start posting signs “Dry Area” on one side of the street and “Wet Area” on the other. Being the nosy, uh, curious, people that we are, we ask what they mean. Well here’s the skinny. Fireworks are not allowed in National Parks, ever! So on the 4th the employees and guests have a water fight --- during the parade. Soon they break out brand new, common 50 gallon grey garbage barrels. We will see them in action later on.

We hop in our trusty vehicle (hey, it hasn’t acted up in 2 days) and headed for the highest lookout point on the rim of the canyon: Point Imperial. Then on to Cape Royal and Angel’s Window.


This is 25 miles one way, but is oh, so worth it. At Point Imperial you can see 100 miles. At Cape Royal you can see mountain peaks 60 to 80 miles away. We can also see the Colorado River 5 miles away. Pictures do not do it justice. The views are amazing. The red rock, the green trees, the blue sky, the white cumulus clouds beginning to build. Wonderful colors. I would come back again, that’s for sure. The temperature is nice, in the 60’s to start going up to 80 or so. Mostly clear. We had few rain clouds form today.

We head back to the Lodge and find the place hopping. We park in the far end of the lot and arrive at the scene of the parade at 3:50. This parade was so worth seeing. They got every National Park Service vehicle and vendor vehicle they could find. Red, white and blue bunting was festooned everywhere along with the stars and stripes. At 4 o’clock the emergency siren sounded to mark the official start of the parade. A park ranger (think, police) car led the way with lights on and siren sounding.

The next vehicle was a truck made to look like a train that normally took guests to a campfire cookout. Next came park vehicles, EMT, golf carts, mules,

a garbage truck (freshly washed, I’m sure), Smokey the Bear and many others.

Everyone on board was carrying a water gun. Big ones, small ones, blasters, soakers of all sorts. All the trucks had one of those 50 gallon buckets filled with water on it to provide a continuous stream of water. Some folks even had buckets that they would load up and throw on each other and the crowd. In addition, the circle drive in front of the Lodge was arrayed with sprinklers and fire hoses so that the vehicles got as good as they gave. Ostensibly the designated Dry Areas were off limits, but that faded as the parade progressed.



The street was short. At the start the vehicles had gathered in the parking lot and came down the short street to the Lodge, turned around the circle in front of the Lodge and headed back down the street. They then went into the parking lot and came BACK DOWN THE STREET. They did this at least 5 times. Some of those people got really wet by the time it was over.

Little kids were in heaven, running around in the spray. Adults were slightly bemused by the whole thing, trying to stay out of way of the spray. No doubt about it, this exemplified making do with what one has. And it was definitely one 4th of July celebration I will remember for a long time.

After the parade, we found some chairs and set up on the deck of the Lodge for sunset 3 hours away.


I had a tripod and took way too many pictures but the view was just sublime.


After sunset (7:49 PM MST) we grabbed our gear and drove back to Jacob Lake, 50 minutes away. A full day by any measure.