North Rim to South Rim- Scenic Drive

I know we don't usually do a special blog for scenic drives- there have been so many of them- but this one was spectacular. We took 89-A south from the North Rim past huge red cliffs, and traveled through towns called Vermilion Cliffs, Cliff Dwellers and Marble Canyon. The colors in the cliffs ranged from predominantly red to yellow, chocolate brown, pink, coral, green, blue- you name it, the color was there.

In the town of Cliff Dwellers, we stopped to take a few pictures of huge red-brown rocks balanced on each other. There were also remains of small huts made from the surrounding stones. It was amazing to think of living in this barren, yet spectacularly beautiful land.

After leaving the red cliff area, the terrain morphed into soft mounds of chocolate, cream, and gray sand. There were tracks in the mounds of what we assumed to be ATV's- pretty popular out here. We had our first real view of the Colorado River, source of the whole Grand Canyon. The color was strange, kind of a murky green. We later learned the word Colorado means "reddish", which is the color the river should be. Dams upstream catch much of the red silt that gives the river its name, so the color now varies depending on mineral content and rain.

We also passed the Little Colorado River, which has cut a canyon of its own. It is currently dry, but locals tell us that is not unusual at this time of year.

We entered the South Rim on Rt 64 through the east entrance. More on that later.