We went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon after a tour of the Utah national parks. What a surprise! After having been to the South Rim, we were expecting the same... not at all. It's about 1000 feet higher than the southern portion and we were met (in August) with a brief snowfall. We were also surprised by how heavily it was forested and spent quite a bit of time watching the chipmunks. We made the mistake of not staying at the Lodge .... a lot of reasons: one day really isn't enough, with all the hiking that you do it's not a good idea to travel afterwards, and most of all, you're so reluctant to leave, it would be a blessing to have planned in advance to delay the departure!