Day 4,5: Wildlife, Wild'things', the Grand Canyon

Ok, yes I know I've been delinquent regarding the blog, let's see if we can correct that. We've taken over 300 pictures between the kids and us on the Grand Canyon, but we've narrowed those down to a select few that illustrate the wildlife and the wild-things we've seen here.

We've limited the pictures of the Grand Canyon itself because there are a multitude of pictures already made of it, all better than ours, and they still fail to give the viewer a true indication of just how big and wide it is. And deep. Looking from the South Rim down at the Bright Angel Trail several thousand feet below, it's hard to believe that the green dots along the river are actually 60 foot cottonwoods.

We were greeted by the first wildlife as we arrived at the room. The kids named this one StellLuna after the kids book by the same name. Every time we went in and out of the room, Becky was sure it was going to drop and eat her head. No such luck :-).

The area around the Canyon was surprisingly wooded mixed with the sage and other desert plants. A nice change, especially after the dry, dry land of the previous two days. This is a picture taken from Trails View overlook back to the south towards Williams. The closer butte is 25? miles away; the one lurking over its right shoulder is 49 miles away. You can see from the sky that we've been blessed with nice weather for this part of our trip.

The weather on the first day was overcast and comfortably cool, nice shorts weather. We'd been told that the trip up to the Canyon, is completely misleading -- trees and flat land until suddenly the Canyon just appears. And it's true; it was all heavily wooded until we pulled into the Visitor Center area where we got our first look. It was impressive. (This is a picture from later in the day when the sun came out, but it counts :-) This area is approximately 8 miles (9.6 kilometers) across to the North Rim.

You may be able to see from this picture that there are layers to the rocks. They have 3 groupings. The layered rock on the top, with alternating bands of color are 250 million years old. Interestingly, the bands are horizontal. I'm more used to rock that shows it's been through a few foldings of the land. The next grouping below that is more tortured and includes the red sandstone that lends the red tint to everything. The bottom layer, or 'basement' is the most interesting. Showing almost vertical bands, most of the rock is igneous and is up to 1.5 billion years old.

We chose to take the shuttle buses to the outlooks along the South Rim. I think it was a good choice since we didn't have to navigate and Dad didn't have to find places to park. The buses run frequently and the drivers have interesting tidbits of information. And wildlife even followed us onto the bus.

The next 'wildlife' we encountered was the park squirrels that were fearless but cute. The squirrel's favorite past-time seems to be sneaking up from behind and then running across laps or feet to get at food. The park patrons were most excited. Oh, and the ravens. Bigger than crows, they are way too intelligent looking. Apparently they are not well adapted to the area, but they still manage to get along. Probably by getting protection money from the squirrels.

The Bright Angel lodge overlooks the trail called, oddly enough, the Bright Angel trail. There were lots of people traveling down there, and we caught a picture of mules on the trail. Mom was not interested in a ride or hiking it, but Corey and Dad were... Maybe on the 2nd day.

Also at the Bright Angel lodge was an observation point where Condors congregate. They are big, but they sure are ugly. They are actually California condors that have been introduced the park. They seem to be doing well here.

Deer, also fearless.

Unfortunately, I'm running out of time for this installation of the blog. The second day has a few more interesting pictures, including the infamous Picachu wildlife...ok, I'll give you a sneak peak, from Hermit's rest, and then I'm going to go help pack up for our trip to Cedar City, UT. There we'll take time to fill in more of the travels of the intrepid hikers as they tangle with the Bright Angels trail on the 2nd day! Until then, here is your moment of Zen:
The second day was clear, cool, and very windy. Definitely pants and sweatshirt weather. Yesterday we went east along the rim; today it's 'westward-ho' along a route called West Rim Drive to Hermit's Rest [map]. There are some excellent overlooks/vista's and we're going to overlook them. By the way, did I mention the Grand Canyon is big? The section we are travelling [map] is a small portion of the total [map]. (Thursday we travel to Cedar City, and it was a loooong trip around the east end of the Canyon -- it took us 6 hours through very forbidding country).

Regular traffic is not allowed along the rim in this direction, buses are the rule, and here we are waiting for the bus. It's bumpy, but clean, and well repaired. Our first stop is the TrailView Overlook, and there are several trails visible from here. Here we are looking North-Northeast, and the Bright Angel trail is visible below. That's where Dad and Corey are going to be later!

The next stop is Maricopi Point. I stayed back to get a picture of our intrepid crew as they brave the walk out. It was just as sheer of a drop-off on the other side of the point as you can see when we take a picture from our next stop, Powell Point.

Major John Wesley Powell, traversed the Canyon on the Colorado river in wooden boats. Twice. With only one arm. Of course there were others with him. The first government sanctioned group to accomplish it. By the way, Granite rapids, which can be seen from here(?) can be a category 8 rapid on a scale of 10 (but not today). We caught a group running the rapids in rafts. It was fun to watch them shoot the middle of the rapids -- it looked like a wild ride. Soon after, we watched three rowboats with either 2 or 4 people each run it, only backwards!

The walk out to Powell point had a fairly narrow trail out into the Canyon It was a bit of a challenge for Kelley. We took a special picture right on the edge, where there were no railings ... this is fair warning!

Next stop is Hopi point for a restroom, and then the Abyss. So named because of the sheer drop -- something like 4,000 feet to the bottom. This is a picture of the first 2,000 or so :-). This is facing mostly west.

Pima point had view of Granite Rapids, and it was fun to watch the plumes of spray. They looked small, but even from up on top you could tell there was a lot of water moving down there.

Next is Hermit's rest, lunch and rest-time. This is where we saw the Picachu, the squirrels and the raven that I mentioned earlier. Beautiful view. And we aren't really on the edge. Just in case you were worried. I don't know what the deal was with the Picachu; it looked like a Japanese tourist trying to keep warm.

Mojave point and then back to Bright Angel Lodge so we can go hiking! We decided to limit ourselves to 20 minutes down. We didn't want to end up looking like this guy after all. *shudder*. There were warning signs all over the park about not being prepared enough when hiking.

The trail was narrow, but not overly so, and the first thing you notice is the wind dies down quickly, and it starts to warm up. There can be a 30 degree (F) difference between the top of the rim and the bottom of the canyon. We're not going that far today. The second thing you notice is all the tired people hiking back up.

We came across a cool tunnel, which after we got back up, Kelley tells me there are petraglyphs n the other side. Timing is everything. The view was excellent, and the hiking was easy. So far :-) Next we got to a series of switchbacks and a cool prickly pear.

Wow, 20 minutes was already up. Corey agitated for more (he was wishing Becky and Mom were there 'cause this was really cool), but Dad was firm. Kept thinking of the dorkus in the picture. *shudder*.

Here is a picture just short of our stopping place where we took a rest. The trip up was uneventful, and quick (30 minutes instead of 40). And we took two breaks that Corey wants everyone to know was because Dad wanted them, not him :-)

Back to the top, and back to the hotel. Next day its time to say farewell to the Grand Canyon :-( and on to Ceder City :-)!

L8r.