Even going to the Post Office is an adventure

In a previous post I showed you what my "office" looked like.  Now I would like to show you what a trip to the Post Office has in store for us.

On one side of the skinny little finger of land that the North Rim Campground and Lodge is built on is the Transept Canyon.  Many of my previous posts have featured views of this canyon from various places within the campground.  But the Transept Trail that follows the rim of the canyon is one of the ways that you can walk to the lodge from the campground.  And the lodge is where you can find the one and only official U.S. Post Office within 85 miles.

Cyndee and I had a number of things that needed to go by snail mail.  It was a beautiful day (after getting through almost two weeks of downpours) so we put on our hiking boots and headed out for the 2.5 mile round trip.



Walking towards the lodge on the Transept Trail.  Lots of viewing opportunities of the Transept Canyon.



All the rain has vegetation popping up almost right out of the rocks.



Looking out of the mouth of the Transept into the Grand.



There was a turn-out at one point where you could frame your view between gnarly trees growing out of the rocks and Ponderosa Pine.



The layers can really be seen here.  See the thick white one?  That is the Coconino Sandstone.  It is some of the youngest rock in the canyon but is still several million years old.



Here we have walked nearly to the end of the Transept.  The view is dominated by the Grand, with the South Rim on the horizon.



The rock formation jutting out is the end of the Transept on the opposite side from where we are standing.  It is known as Widforss Point and can be accessed by hiking trail only.  The park service ranks this ten mile round trip as an easy hike.

 

But it is not all just rim walking and canyon viewing.  The Transept, like most trails in the North Rim park, weave themselves in and out of the forests that border the rims.  

 

Since my and Cyndee's strides are not exactly equal (she takes three steps to my one) I tend to get out in front of her on occasion.  Here she is threading her way through some young, probably around 100 years old, Ponderosa Pines.

No matter what trail we are on, this is what Cyndee sees.



There have not been any real bad fires in this part of the park for a long, long time.  The Ponderosas are fairly large and there are virtually no Aspen. 



Almost there.  One little wash to cross, a short hill to climb and we will be at the lodge.



Nothing but Grand Canyon.  The Transept is behind us and the lodge can only just be seen in the upper left.



This is it.  The whole Post Office consists of an iron bar covered window with a place in the bars big enough to pass a small package through to the Post Master, the one and only postal employee.