Quick Trip to North Rim

After waking up this morning, we decided to make a day trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We bought our new yearly pass earlier this month, when we visited a small park called Pipe Springs National Monument. I didn't bring my camera for the Pipe Springs park, but we'll likely make a stop there if we travel towards St. George or Las Vegas. It was a nice little park - scenic, a short trail, interesting - but not a place you'd spend too much time or a place to go out of your way to visit. Anyway, the North Rim closes for the winter season, so we thought we'd head back for a last visit in 2008. We basically got there, walked around some, viewed the canyon, ate at the restaurant, listened to an interesting ranger talk on condors, and then headed home. We did see some wildlife today: On our way out this morning, Brian noticed a red-tailed hawk perched on our back yard fence. It was just hanging out there, and didn't leave until sometime after we drove away. Then we saw a coyote rambling near the highway (not that big of a deal for this part of the country), plus a few deer inside the park, and I got to see my first porcupine.