Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The North Rim, or "other side" of the Grand Canyon, is visited by only 10% of all Grand Canyon visitors. The view is just as fantastic and one can rent cabins that is a stone throw to the Grand Canyon. The prices are very reasonable.

The drive from the South Rim to North Rim is about 5 hours (214 miles). It is open seasonally from mid-May through mid-October.

Story of Cliff Dwellers:

The story of Cliff Dwellers begins during the Great Depression, when one Blanche Russell gave up a highly successful dancing career back East to tend to her husband, Bill, who was suffering from tuberculosis. The couple packed up and moved to the Southwest, crossing the recently completed Navajo Bridge across the Colorado River south of Lees Ferry.

The Russells only made it a few more miles, however, before their car broke down near the big rocks. Blanche got it in her head that it wouldn't be a half-bad place to live and the couple threw up a lean-to of tarpaper and boards against the largest rock. Then, she started serving food to passers-by in return for labor as the house got larger.

Pretty soon, the couple had a full-scale restaurant on their hands and added a hand gasoline pump for some of the earliest motorists to the Canyon's North Rim. They also catered to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in wagons who were taking the Mormons' nearby Honeymoon Trail to have their marriages sanctified at the temple in St. George, Utah.

The structures haven't been lived in for 50 years.

One can rent cabins that is a stone throw to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon Lodge in located at Bright Angel Point on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Rates for North Rim cabins and motel rooms (2002 prices)