For Labor Day weekend, husband and I road tripped to the North Rim Campground in the Grand Canyon for 2 nights of smokey, smelly camping!

The drive up took about 9 hours with stops. It wasn't too bad but I might only be saying that because I didn't drive at all. We took husband's Jeep Wrangler (so aptly nicknamed "the bug killer") and I can't drive a manual. I think he bought a manual for that particular purpose...

As soon as we entered the National Park, we saw a bunch of roaming black dots in the distance:

What are they???

..

..

....

.....

Bison!

First thing's first, set up camp and start a fire!

TA DA!

Setting up the tent took a couple tries but we did it and it didn't fall down on us at all!

Our first night's dinner over campfire.

The adventure-mobile (aka the Bug Killer)!

After dinner, we walked around the campground to check out the views.

(He's resisting the temptation to push his crazy wife over the edge, I just know it)

The night would've passed very peacefully and pleasantly if it hadn't been for two hippies next door who couldn't control THE VOLUME OF THEIR VOICES and decided to sing Kum Ba Yah at midnight.

After a sleepless night, we cooked up bacon and eggs over the campfire before heading to check out the nearby trails.

I'm surprised we weren't stalked by wildcats while we were hiking considering we reeked of bacon, eggs, steaks and smoke...

Vista Encantada view point:

Walhalla Vista

Walhalla ruins across from the vista.

Along the Cape Final trail (easy 4 mile hike).

After the Cape Final trail, I was super excited to check out Greenland Lake. The photos online reminded me of Washington State.... this is what we got instead:

This is more like a.. pond? Puddle?

So after suffering a major disappointment when we came upon the "lake", we continued on with the trail and came across...... a cabin!

It seemed so random but as it turns out, it's a salt cabin! Duh!

...I still don't know what that's for.

Look at the disappointment on his face! 'I thought you said it was a lake!'

The great thing about the North Rim Campground: running showers. So after spending all day smelling like smoke, bacon, eggs, steaks and just being smelly from hiking, we took advantage of the showers. Only to sit in smoke again for dinner!

This is how you build a fire...

We pulled out a few drinks, cooked burgers and watched a crow go to town on a neighboring campsite:

We hiked off some of the food afterwards. We meant to do the Bright Angel Point trail but the trail head signs near the campground didn't have arrows so we ended up hiking the wrong way. We still got a fantastic view.

The next morning we were up early, packed and back on the road by 7 AM so we could hit up Horseshoe Bend (which was out of the way) before heading home.

As we headed out the the park, we came across the Bison herd again.

Baby bison running here and there kicking up a dust storm.