We woke up at 6:00 and decided to take the Transept Trail to Bright Angel Point for sunrise. The spot is only a quarter-mile from the lodge so we knew it might be crowded. As we passed the lodge, the smell of bacon was drifting through the air and our empty stomachs groaned. I could already tell sunrise was going to be a bust as we approached Bright Angel Point. The buttes and formations in the canyon were back-lit and it was hazy. Bummer. This point on the North Rim is definitely a sunset spot. We sat for a few minutes as others snapped photos of the scene. Then headed back to have some oatmeal at our tent site.

Our next stop was the Backcountry Information Office to try to snag a permit. Yesterday, I peaked at a map of the North Rim and saw there was at-large camping along the Widfoross Trail. I was excited because the trail would take us out on part of the plateau that extended into the canyon like a peninsula. The prospect of camping anywhere we wanted meant we could find a spot right on the rim too!

We walked into the office and were out in less than five minutes with our permit and a map. I am starting to think walk up permits are the way to go if you are flexible and visiting the Grand Canyon outside of the peak summer season.

We packed up our tents in record time under the watchful eye of the campground host who warned us that we only had 10 minutes until check out. Luckily, we are well skilled in the pack up and go department. We have slept outside almost half of the year already.

The Widfoross Trail was only 4.8 miles, but we needed to pack in all our water. We took about 3.5 liters each and complained to each other about the added weight. Luckily, after some initial uphill the trail flattened out for the remaining miles. We walked through stands of bright yellow aspens and under tall ponderosa pine trees.

The first half of the trail was along the rim. The viewpoints into the canyon were plentiful and we chose a nice one to have a leisurely lunch at. There was no rush today and we took our time. The birds were quite active and I saw many a Stellar’s Jay fly back and forth between the trees. The later half of the trail pulled away from the rim and we walked through some areas that were recovering from a burn. Finally, we reached the end of the trail, which was marked by a sign reading “Widfoross Point.”

The view into the canyon were good, and I could tell there was sunset potential here. Now all we needed to do was find a suitable campsite. I was in favor of camping back in the trees and walking back out to the point for sunset, but Bedazzled looked out to another point that jutted into the canyon and wanted to camp there. The only problem was we needed to cross a ravine and bushwhack uphill to get there. Though it was still within the limits of our permit, I was a little uneasy about going so far off trail. “This is how people get lost and die,” I thought. Alas, Bedazzled kept offering reasons why we should go there and was starting to get pouty so I agreed. Mistake?  I hope not.

We began to backtrack and then crossed a small ravine. To get onto what I thought was the correct land feature to get to the point. From there, we went back towards the canyon going down and up a dip in the topography. We reached a part where the land cliffed out. Here we went left and then down and up to a ridge. It wasn’t the exact point we were aiming for, but it had stunning views of the canyon. I was nervous about getting lost and made a voice memo of our route and included approximate times between each turn. I also belatedly realized I had downloaded a new app called AllTrails. It let’s you record your route via the GPS in your phone. I turned it on for the very last leg of our route. We also somehow had cell signal so I was pretty confident we could get back. Bedazzled could tell that I was nervous and apologized for pushing us to come here. She offered to go back, but we were already here so we decided to stay. We set up tents near the rim and realized we could see the lodge from this morning across the way.

As sunset approached, we climbed along the rim and out onto some large of boulders. The view was spectacular,and we had this section of the canyon to ourselves.  We sat in contented silence and watched the sunset unfold before our eyes. It was magnificent.

When the sunset finally set, our bellies were still empty, but our eyes were full. We climbed down from the rocks and cooked dinner as twilight descended on the canyon.