North Rim of the Grand Canyon
A beautiful lodge was built here as part of the Golden Circle Tour
Nearly 5 million people visited Grand Canyon National Park in 2023 but only 10% of them visited the North Rim. Some people believe that the views are better there than from the South Rim.
At twelve years old, I visited the North Rim and stayed in the historic lodge cabins for the first time. It was August, and to my surprise, there were a few snow flurries, marking one of the first times I had ever seen snow falling, coming from Southern California.
North Rim of the Grand Canyon
While it’s only a ten-mile distance as the eagle (or condor) flies from the South Rim, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon provides a different environmental and cultural experience for visitors. Driving from North Rim to South Rim requires a 4.5-hour drive of 220 miles. Additionally, the North Rim is 1,000 feet higher in elevation, giving it a colder, wetter climate. Because the area often gets heavy snows in the winter, the National Park Service (NPS) only keeps it open it from approximately May 15 to October 15.
Development of the North Rim
In some ways, development of the North Rim reflected that of the South Rim, though slightly delayed and on a smaller scale. The first concession did not open on the North Rim until 1917, almost three decades after the first businesses started on the South Rim. One reason was because the weather at the North Rim made investors less willing to develop facilities due to the shortened tourist season.
The railroad played a huge part of development of both sides of the canyon. The Santa Fe Railroad arrived at the South Rim in 1901, and the Fred Harvey Company developed many services there.
No railroad line ever ran directly to the North Rim. Instead, the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) established a train station 100 miles away at Cedar City, Utah. From there the UP established its subsidiary, the Utah Parks Company (UPC), that offered motor coach tours of the Grand Circle that allowed passengers to conveniently visit three National Parks: Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion.
Before the Lodge There was Wylie Way Camp
William Wallace Wylie originated the "permanent camp" concept in national parks, beginning with Yellowstone National Park in the 1880s. In 1917, the Union Pacific Railroad requested that Wylie establish similar camps at Zion National Park and Bright Angel Point on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
While William Wylie remained at Zion to run his camp there, he put the new enterprise at the Grand Canyon in the hands of his daughter, Elizabeth Wylie McKee. She ran the camp with the help of her husband Thomas, son Robert and a staff of local Mormon teenagers.
Wylie Way Camps were permanent with a central dining room and lodge surrounded by individual tent cabins. The tents generally had wooden floors covered by rugs, wood-burning stoves, beds, and other furniture.
The camp was located about 100 yards northwest of the modern location of the Grand Canyon Lodge near Bright Angel Point. From 1917 to 1927, the Wylie Way Camp was the main concession at the North Rim. In 1927, the NPS opened bidding to find the first permanent concessionaire for services at the North Rim. None of the small entrepreneurs such as Wylie Camp could afford the improvements that the NPS required to award the contract. The NPS had purposely designed it so that the Union Pacific Railroad and its subsidiary the Utah Parks Company (UPC) would be awarded the 20-year contract.
Elizabeth Wylie McKee and the handful of other small operators had no other choice but to sell out to the UPC. At the end of 1927, the UPC bought up the Wylie Camp and moved it to the site of today’s campground while the new lodge was constructed.
Grand Canyon Lodge
Built in 1927-28, Grand Canyon Lodge has the same village concept as Zion Lodge with 100 standard cabins and 20 deluxe cabins surrounding the main lodge. Like Zion and Bryce, it was designed by renowned Los Angeles architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood.
A crew of 125 men worked through the harsh winter of 1927-28 to finish the project, earning 50 to 85 cents an hour. The UPC built a state-of-the-art water and power system on the North Rim in 1927-29 that still provides water and electricity at by pumping water nearly 4,000 vertical feet up to a 50,000-gallon water tank on the rim.
Fire of 1932
The original Grand Canyon Lodge and two of its deluxe cabins were destroyed by fire in 1932. The fire engulfed the structure within minutes.
The main lodge was rebuilt in 1936-37 utilizing much of what remained of the stone foundation, piers, walls and chimneys of the original building. The lodge’s new roofs were sloped and better able to handle the heavy snows.
Today’s Lodge
The lodge and its cabins are pretty much the same as they were when they were rebuilt in the 1930s. As the automobile became travelers’ preferred mode of transportation, the Union Pacific signaled the end of an era when it ceased passenger operations in 1971, three years after the Santa Fe Railroad did the same on the South Rim. The lodge facilities were donated to the NPS and are currently operated by a concessionaire. In 1987 it was deemed a National Historic Landmark.
The Grand Canyon Lodge maximizes its prime position on the rim, featuring the Sun Room with expansive windows, an eastern viewing deck, and a dining room that also offers views of the rim.
Brighty the Mule
Did you ever read the children’s novel Brighty of the Grand Canyon written by Marguerite Henry when you were young? Published in 1953, it presents a fictionalized account of a real-life burro named "Brighty", who lived in the Grand Canyon from about 1892 to 1922.
The real-life burro spent most of his life on the North Rim during warmer months and down in the canyon during winter. He gave rides to children staying at the Wylie Way Camp and carried water up to the rim from springs within the canyon.
A bronze statue honoring Brighty can be found in the lobby of the North Rim’s Grand Canyon Lodge. The sculpture is by artist Peter Jepsen. Legend has it that if you rub its nose, you will have good luck.
In researching this topic, I found so much interesting information that will be a future post (give me a couple of weeks). Stay tuned.
How To Visit
Aramark is the current concessionaire of the Grand Canyon Lodge and other visitor services at the North Rim. Since it’s the only accommodation for miles around, it’s a good idea to get reservations well in advance.
Next Time
It appears that we’ve completed the Grand Circle, visiting all of the parks and lodges along its path, including Cedar Breaks, Zion, Bryce and now the Grand Canyon. However, I only briefly mentioned a unique aspect of several lodges: the Singaway. This charming tradition involved the young employees serenading guests as part of the lodges' historical and romantic allure. I’d like to share this wonderful tradition of the past in my next post.
A friend and I visited the North Rim in 1993, it wasn't on our radar to make reservations there. It is soooo worth the drive from the South Rim, it is a long ride, but it's so beautiful out there, and the views are gorgeous, so different from the South Rim in environment. We pretty much had the trails all to ourselves. No bus loads of tourists, just us, and the workers checking on the railings at points interest, and one said to the other, "We need to idiot proof this one." (Which we found amusing because there were plenty of candidates for Natural Selection at the South Rim.) It was only a day trip there and back, and I wished we had elected to stay there instead of camping on the South Rim (tho' it was a nice campground where we stayed. We had a raven sharing his range of vocalizations with us! And he never pooped on our tent!) On our ride back to our campsite it was late, and it's very dark out there, so we were being careful, and there was no one else driving on the road with us. Then we saw eyes glowing back at us from our headlights, and we knew it was a very large animal up ahead. We stopped, and it was a huge bull elk, he was magnificent! His antlers were like he had a tree growing on his head. He stared us down for a minute or two and then casually walked away. I looked at my friend, and I said "I think we were spared. He could've bashed the s**t out of your truck if he felt inclined to do so...this is his road and he was letting us know!" (As an owner of a wee donkey, I adore Brighty!) I must get back out there again someday, it's so magical.
Excellent write-up, Jan!