Lonely Wednesday at the Grand Canyon

August 26, 2018


Wednesday morning Dutch and Tracy were up at dawn, finishing their packing. I made coffee and a quick breakfast.  All too soon, they were on their way to Phoenix to catch a plane back to Houston.  I had been reading a book while they packed and got to the can't-put-it-down point, so kept reading after they left. I finally  got around to taking a shower but by then the light was gone and I didn't want to be out in the sun. I needed to write a blog or two, so I went to the Park Headquarters to get free wifi and spent the middle of the day writing and editing.

My other plan was to redo the route to  the west as I wanted to see and document the light on the rocks in the canyon. I left my car in the parking lot by Headquarters and started out with my water bag with snacks and a jacket plus my camera. I had to catch a blue route bus, drive three stops, to catch a red route bus. The red bus stop has a beautiful view of the canyon, but it was still too bright for pictures.


My first stop was Maricopa point. The first being I met after I got off the bus was a sweet mule deer.

Very tame mule doe 

Canyon view in late afternoon

Several of the points are close so I elected to hike between them.  I soon found the trail going around a  fenced in area. When I got to Powell Point, I found that this is the site of the old Orphan Mine, where uranium was mined for thirteen years, leaving radioactive waste for the park to clean up.

Another view - think looking west from Maricopa

The rocks get more pastel in the evening

I kind of like my shadow selfie

The colors can be saturated, depending on the light

This was the trunk of a very determined cedar

I never got tired of the patterns and colors

Shadows are building, making the tips appear to be rising out of a dark hole

The trail itself had many interesting views

A bit of the Colorado River gleams in the shadows

Only the tips of the top rocks are showing

The back rocks are losing color

Mysterious

I wonder how long these rocks will remain here?

I enjoyed some watercolor pictures of the grand canyon and attempted to emulate them

This almost looked like lace just above the dark red rock

By the time I got to the Abyss, I was tired and decided to catch a bus. The sun sank, just as I got to Hermits Rest, but there were no clouds to make a sunset. By the time I got back to the final bus, it was dark.  I went to bed as soon as I got back to camp because I planned to be packed and driving off by daylight. I could not find a decent dispersed campsite, so gave up and got a motel room.  The next morning I met my new boss, for these two weeks and for next summer. It's going to be a lot of fun here. I've already gone to a staff meeting and met the staff that runs three refuges in the San Luis Valley of south central Colorado.

On a current note, I had a long day today helping to set up and take down the Kids Sandhill Crane Festival. I also took several hundred pictures which I edited down to a little over a hundred. I'm volunteering at Alamosa and  Monte Viste National Wildlife Refuges which are managed as a pair. Next week, I'll get to spray weeds from an ATV or UTV.  My boss bought me a helmet, because they didn't own any in my size.

I still have more adventures to go back too from when I visited Capitol Reef National Park.

Tuesday at Grand Canyon National Park

September 25, 2018

We got a late start on Tuesday because we let Dutch sleep in.  He got up feeling better, so I made breakfast for everybody before we decided to go to see the Watchtower and the Tusayan Museum. and ruins.  We stopped at all the pullouts. Tracy was amused by all the  posturing the people getting their pictures taken were doing and insisted on having some of us doing the same. We are still not sure of the meaning - hope we are not treading on anybody’s toes here. 

A early view of the Grand Canyon

Tracy 

Dutch and me

Interesting formation

Photographer at Moran Point

Every view is the same and different

The shadows and highlights make the colors of the rock change constantly

Another view from Moran point

A tiny view of the Colorado River

A view in midmorning light

Then we visited the Tusayan Museum and ruins. A professional trip leader was there instructing his tour group.  We kind of tagged along within voice range and enjoyed his talk as he led us through the ruins. 

The Tusayan Museum

Artifacts found here

Stick art from the first peoples

One of the living spaces

The Kiva

Then we went on down to the watch tower. This was fascinating because it was designed by a women, Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter. She was inspired by the architecture of  the Puebleon people. She successfully tried to make it look old and also incorporated a lot of quirky shapes.  I didn’t have the patience to try to find them on the tower.  Usually visitors can climb the five floors, but at our visit, the fourth and fifth floors were being repaired. The design incorporates a kiva room and decorations by an Indian artist. Another interesting feature were the reflectivescopes, black mirrors that are mounted in the walls outside the Watchtower to reflect the canyon.  

Watchtower

View of the Rio Grand from the Watchtower

Canyon View from Watchtower area

Viewing platform and view from in front of the Watchtower

It was Dutch’s turn to cook our main meal of the day. He planed to take us out to lunch so we could use the evening hours for more exploration.   Dutch wanted to take us to a fine dinning restaurant, but none were open for lunch. So we made do with chili for him and delicious salads for Tracy and me. We also got some poppers for an appetizer. 

Our evening foray was to go to the west side to watch the sunset. This required two bus changes and about 90 minutes of riding the bus. We ended up at Mohave Point. The sunset was mostly a bust. But we got a few decent pictures. By the time we had driven all the way back and changed buses again, it was getting past our bedtime. Dutch and Tracy still had to do a lot of packing, so they could get out early the following morning.  I  got to go to bed and read while they worked. 

Shadows rise from the bottom of the canyon

Sunset from Mohave Point

I saw some pastel paintings of the Grand Canyon and tried to emulate them in a photo

Another attempt

When we saw the evening star we knew it was time to leave

I'm having to work around not having wifi at my current house, at Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge.  I can get it at the Visitor Center, about two miles away,  so I'm up there.  Yesterday I went to the staff meeting at Boca, the third refuge in this group of Refuges in the San Luis Valley of south central Colorado. The third refuge is Alamosa.  I spent most of the morning there, helping to get ready for the Kids Crane Festival which will take place this Saturday here at Monte Vista. I also collected the radon testers from all the buildings and got them ready to mail back to the lab. This is where I'll be living and working next spring/summer.

Monday Morning at Grand Canyon National Park

September 24, 2018

I drove most of the day on Sunday to get from Capitol Reef National Park to Grand Canyon National Park. I found my campsite, got my tent set up, and supper preparations started  before Dutch and Tracy arrived.  They had flown into Phoenix and then gone camping with a friend from Tucson before driving on up to meet me. They got in in time to set up before dark. We pretty much got a stir fry over riced cauliflower ready to eat too.  But we were distracted by a bull elk and a couple of cows, as well as one calf that treated our campsite and the surrounding area as theirs. The bull was coming into rut and was periodically bugling. Later he chased of a smaller rival while near our camp. 

This bull elk plus his females and calves spent a lot of time around our campsite

Dutch and I are both avid photographers and wanted to do the sunrise tour. This involved us getting up around 4 AM, making sure we had our cameras and water, and driving to a parking lot at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, and catching a bus.  (Private cars are not allowed to drive on a lot of the roads.) We bumbled around a bit before locating the right parking lot, then the right bus. The bus was so full we had to ride standing up.  But soon we were walking east along the rim at Yaki Point.  Only one intrepid photographer was out on the rocks that face the sunrise when we arrived, but he soon had another twenty or thirty friends including me. Others took their pictures from different vantage points along the rim. 

Within a half hour after sunrise, most of the sunrise viewers had departed, leaving us to enjoy the ever changing light on the formations in the canyon and the birds that were busy feeding. I got into the photography business when a Pakistani family asked me to take their picture.  Then a pair of Australian guys asked me to do the same for them.  I ended up taking a couple of poses of them against the now beautiful background and got hugs from both of them before they got on their motorcycles and continued on their trip.  They were going to end up in California. 

The sunrise is well documented here

We didn't get much of a sunrise because it was too cloudy

I liked the cloud colors in the southeast

I was fascinated with the light interacting with the formations

Light painting

We got a double sunrise due to a cloud bank - second one was best

This became the spot for people photos

Tracy and Dutch

Captured while strolling along the rim

Shadow selfie

We were getting hungry, so we came back to camp for breakfast. Dutch cooked scrambled eggs and onions for us and we had some gluten free bread that our Tucson friend had baked for them. We enjoyed the elk and bird visitors to our camp. A

Mother and baby elk just behind our camp- that is the showers and laundry building behind them 

Tracy, Dutch and uninvited guest at breakfast

 After we started on our next exploration,  Dutch began to have what he thought was an allergy attack and ended up wanting to come back to  camp and sleep. Tracy and I stayed  at the Visitors Center and then walked to Mather Point and on to the Geology Museum before catching a bus back to the front of our campground. 

I had to take this picture of Apache plume seeds - they were catching the light so beautifully

A VERY long glimpse of the Colorado River

This stone will probably fall in a few short geological years - 100 -1000 years

The colors and feel of the canyon changes with the light

Rabbit bush was in bloom everywhere

A late view of the canyon

There are many towering whitish ricks agains the darker ones further down in the canyon

A closer formation against the canyon backdrop

Dutch was feeling even worse and now had a very bad sore throat. He and Tracy went shopping for various medicines and he then went back to sleep sitting up in the car while Tracy cooked lentil stew for supper. We were all tired and had an early night and decided to wait until morning to make plans . But we ended up having a very enjoyable day that I’ll share with you in two blogs. Stay tuned.