There is only one way to the Grand Canyon's North Rim. It is the north-south highway in Arizona, also known as the Grand Canyon Highway or the State Road 67. Cycling there is fairly easy and most of all straight-forward. At least, as long as you are not faced with such headwind as we were on our approach to the most impressive of all canyons.
Leaving Zion, we hit the 67 that would eventually led us to coral pink dunes. They are a famed destination for AVT drivers and while those vehicles sure are great fun, being subjected to the fumes and noise, it once more became clear, what a blessing travelling with electric bikes is, esp. if the system is a silent as the Yamaha of the Haibike SDuro we ride our bike tour with.
To get closer to the Grand Canyon, you cycle through the Kaibab forest that borders both the North and South rim of the canyon, meaning it divides the forest that sits on plateaus itself. So we found ourselves going uphill a lot like on forest lane 22.
It was after a night of wild camping among the pine trees, that we reached the highest point of our tour so far at 9150ft. / approx. 3000m. Again, the wind was against us, icy this time, and we decided to have lunch at the Grand Canyon lodge.
The day started with the sunrise over the Grand Canyon that we could watch from our tents. We used the chance of having internet in the Campsite store to complete some online work before hitting the road.
On our ride from the Grand Canyon towards Utah, we were rewarded for the strong head wind we had when riding TO the Grand Canyon. This time round, the wind Thanks to this, we rode the first 57 km non-stop at an average speed of 34 km/h, while climbing almost continuously uphill at an elevation of 2500 m and above. Soon my bike’s cockpit showed 3,000 km!
In Jacobs Lake, 70 km from the North Rim, we then took a break at the Lake Jacob Inn – a souvenir shop with restaurant and a cafe. Exclusively friendly personnel served us an excellent potato soup and home made blueberry pie with ice cream for desert. The home-made cookies are lovely, too!
Soon after Jacobs Lake we enjoyed a long, beautiful downhill with a fantastic view of the mountains in front of us where Bryce Canyon is located - our next destination.
In today’s conditions with tail wind and a roughly 20 km downhill I got 93 km out of one 400 Wh battery, although I rode in High mode all the time.