Here we picked up a bit of tack (actually lovely art prints), looked at the collection of raptors on display (as part of Wildlife Day, and all of which were rescue birds with either mental or physical abnormalities), and walked a bit of the Rim trail.
Nothing can quite prepare you for the sheer scale of what suddenly reveals itself before you - amazing rock formations in colours hard to comprehend as natural, all stretching to the horizon, and with plummeting drops just the other side of the surprisingly low safety rails. In this short space of time we encountered a large squirrel in the top of an adjacent tree shouting very loudly for no apparent reason, copious amounts of ravens, and turkey vultures.
Eventually beginning our driving tour of the southern rim, we stopped off at pretty much all of the viewpoints, giving us great views of more raptors (including, we think, a dark zone-tailed hawk) as this is the start of the raptor migration. This also included a short visit to an 800 year old Tusayan Indian ruin, which was fascinating, and a 1930s watch tower giving panoramic views of the edge of the canyon and over into the Painted Desert.
Completing our Desert Rim Drive, we began our trek to the North Rim (via Navajo jewellery roadside stalls - they seemed to be obsessed with Tony Blair for some reason), which was extremely scenic, passing over the Little Colorado River canyon, and running alongside the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, which were spectacular in the late afternoon light.
We have made it to the very remote (accessed via an unpaved road...) campsite at the top of the North Rim Drive, which is so remote that all water is trucked in, the toilets have no lighting and are chemical ones, and everything is pitch black - all the better to view the probably-amazing stars. Also no wifi, not that that is surprising at all.
According to the couple in the RV next to us, the 15 mpg we are getting is fairly normal as they hired the same type last year. We tried the cruise control today, which occasionally causes the gearbox to change down two ratios unexpectedly, with associated frantic screaming from the V8. That probably doesn't help the fuel economy.
This evening's entertainment is trying to work out how to defrost the trout for dinner via the microwave relying on the internal instructions! (the fridge was evidently too effective...), and wandering from RV to RV in search of a corkscrew as we mistakenly bought a bottle of wine with a proper cork, not a screw cap. Cruise America did not seem to realise what constitutes essential equipment. Tomorrow we head off to Zion National Park (only recently re-opened after significant fires) after our trip down to the North Rim and back. Access to Zion will require an escort through a tunnel because we are not a car - exciting!
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