It was an uneventful drive from Barstow to the North Rim. In Las Vegas, the freeway goes by the Mandalay Bay hotel, but I didn't see the broken windows. Either they had been repaired, or the freeway was on the wrong side.
I-15 entering Arizona is one of my favorite drives. The entrance into the canyon of the Virgin river is like being on a double-decker roadway with the river being the lower deck. It is reminiscent of the I-70 freeway east of Glenwood Springs in Colorado. I got gas at St George and left the freeway to reach the Grand Canyon from the north. The road climbed quite a bit until it reached the plateau over 8,000 ft, and saw some Yosemite-grade meadows with bisons resting in the distance.
It was hazy because of prescribed fire burns with signs reminding you periodically that the smoke was normal, and not to report it.
I turned into the campground and pitched my tent for 3 nights. The tent campground is at the edge of the Transept canyon opening into the Grand Canyon itself, and I was able to view the sunset over it.
But it got cold that night 37F, cold enough to put my coat on in the middle of the night within my sleeping bag. The air mattress felt like sleeping on ice, and the following nights I put a towel between it and my sleeping bag: it helped.