July 19 - Visit by a Yellowstone friend

I've been blessed with a lot of good fortune through the years.  Family - for sure.  And many friends along the way as well.  So when my dad said we're going to visit the national parks out west, I had no idea how that decision would change my life. Because that trip led me to take a job in Yellowstone National Park, where I made life long friends and met Susan. During that first summer (1970) in Yellowstone, Randy Smith and I worked together at the YPSS gas station at West Thumb. Though we lost contact for a few years, we've reconnected.  And a few weeks ago, Randy and Kay visited Susan and I here in the Grand Canyon.

Starting at the Geology Museum at Yavapai Point, we took the Rim Walk about 3 miles west to Verkamp's Visitor Center.  Great views off our right side the whole way.  The Geology Museum has a 3-D map of the GC; it's the only way (unless you're in a spaceship circling the earth) to see all of the Grand Canyon at once.

I'm standing in these rocks, and that big gash in the earth behind me is called the Bright Angel Fault.

This feature is called The Battleship.  It's along the Bright Angel Trail, but the view from above is the only way to really see it.

The Bright Angel Trail goes down 3300 feet in 4.5 miles...down, down, down to Indian Gardens. That's the green, riparian area below.  The creek helps keep the cottonwood trees nourished in the desert environment. I've gotten a backcountry permit, so Susan and I are headed down there in a couple of weeks.  

For dinner, I used my "clicker" to open "The Magic Gate" and we went out to Hermit's Rest.  Another Mary Jane Colter architectural masterpiece, Hermit's Rest was designed as a rest stop at the end of the 8 mile Hermit Road...but to look like "The Hermit" had just been there yesterday.  Ms. Colter found this bell in New Mexico and built the arch specifically to hold it.  The Hermit was Louis Boucher, a prospector/miner at the west end of the Grand Canyon in the 1880s and 1890s.  He wasn't really a hermit, but that was his nickname.  So he went with it.  And it turns out there are more features in the Grand Canyon with the name "hermit" in them than any other name.  Lucky for Louis Boucher because none of his mining claims ever panned out.  But Boucher did quite well giving rides on his mule and telling visitors about the Grand Canyon.

This is the fireplace inside Hermits Rest.  At the opening of the stage stop in 1914, Mary Jane Colter had "sooted up" the fireplace and put cobwebs in the corners...again, like The Hermit had just been there yesterday.  When the executives from the Santa Fe Railroad and Fred Harvey Company were at the dedication and saw how "dirty" the place looked, they complained to Colter.  Her response: "Gentlemen, you can't imagine what it cost to make this place look this old."  

We came back from Hermits Rest and had dinner at Mohave Point while waiting for the sunset.  We got the "hairy eyeball" from quite a number of people, wondering how we got out there with our delicious meal.  Let me just say...it pays to know people who know how to open the "Magic Gate."  

Rain started moving in from the east, creating a dark and brooding Grand Canyon. 

 Here's a panorama from Mohave Point.  

 And finally, sunset.  

Hope your weekend is a good one.  

July 13 - Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly (pronounced d'SHAY) National Monument has been on my life list for a long time. Best known for the ruins tucked up into various ledges above the canyon floor (similar to Mesa Verde National Park), the speculation by archaeologists and paleontologists has been "why?"  The next 3 pictures show how hidden this culture was, and how intricate their buildings could be.

Canyon de Chelly is in the middle of the Navajo Nation, which covers all 4 states of the Four Corners area (more on that later).  There are many stories about the Anasazi (also called Ancient Puebloans), Hopi, and Navajo here.  We stayed at Thunderbird Lodge near Chinle, AZ, which is on the Navajo Reservation.  Our Navajo tour driver said the Anasazi are "the ones who came before"; in other words, before the Navajo were there.  The Hopi people trace their lineage to the Ancient Puebloans, and again there is speculation as to why the Anasazi left: poor harvests; lack of crop rotation; floods; drought?  The Hopis moved to the mesas west of Canyon de Chelly (around 1300 AD) and Navajos moved in after the Anasazi left.

What looks like a swastika in the upper left of this picture is a Navajo whirling log symbol, a legend that was used in healing rituals.  The Navajo stopped using that symbol when the Nazis co-opted the swastika in 1935. 

They used pictographs (painted walls) and petroglyphs (carvings on rock) to tell stories.  On the left side, that is a kokopelli playing the flute. Entertainment.  

The story below is fascinating.  This petroglyph tells about 2 hunters and a dog (in the lower right corner) chasing a deer. The Navajo know the deer is getting tired because its mouth is open. The Indians won't spear it to kill it, but rather run it until the deer stops from exhaustion. Then they perform a ceremony of thanks and put pollen in its nostrils to asphyxiate it, so they can use every part of the animal and not waste anything.

Our guide told us that the Hopi did the petroglyph in the center of this picture and the Navajo (who did more painting) did the deer on each side of the circles.  

And there are incredible formations that have eroded over time.  In the picture below, do you see the 2 owls side by side?

More ruins in Canyon de Chelly. 

The Navajo still use the trails from the canyon floor up to the rim.  This ladder is in place to help them get up to the next level...today!

This is the only area you can reach without a Navajo guide.  Called the White House Ruin, Ancestral Puebloans built and occupied this place about 1000 yeas ago.  The hike is about 2 1/2 miles round trip.  With our guide, we were able to see White House Ruin from both below and above.

The White House is covered in a white plaster that was applied after the buildings were completed. Perhaps a more important person lived there? Perhaps that's where the elders met? Don't know.  But when they left, the tribe simply vanished.  This is the view from above, where the trail starts into the canyon.  Remarkable engineering and building.

I'm sure you've seen pictures of Spider Rock (below) with rock climbers on it.  This is an 800 foot monolith in the center of the canyon.

This fin just stands alone against the wind and water.

Inside the eyes below are more ruins.

When the rest of this cleaves off, there will be a very loud noise and a mess at the bottom.  Can you see the little chunks that have already broken off? I wonder how long that will take?

This is called Massacre Cave, on the north rim of Canyon de Chelly.  In the early 1800s, the Spaniards drove the Navajos deep into the Canyon, where the Indians hid.  When they were discovered taking shelter on this ledge, the Spaniards fired from the rim (basically where I'm standing) and killed all the people taking refuge on the ledge.

Hope you'll have an opportunity to get to Canyon de Chelly sometime.  It is worthy of your trip. What is not worthy is the 4 Corners Monument. What a disappointment.  We had been there on our family vacation in 1969 and it is so very different.  I realize that was 48 years ago and things have changed.  However, today the Navajo charge $5 a head just to get in.  And then it's like a flea market / bazaar around the monument.  Such a unique place to be so commercialized. I felt like Jesus should come in and clean out it out, like he did the money changers in the Temple. Went about 2 hours out of the way and got hit with a ridiculous admission charge.  I had second and third thoughts, but we did it anyway. However, I would not recommend this location to families. Not worth it when there are so many other unique places to see in the area - Canyon de Chelly; Monument Valley; Grand Canyon (both North and South Rims); Zion, Bryce Canyon; Grand Staircase-Escalante; Cedar Breaks; Glen Canyon and Lake Powell; Capital Reef; Canyonlands; Arches. And those are the ones just off the top of my head.  Some final pictures of this vast landscape, driving in northern Arizona. And no charge.

Sorry for the long blog; thanks for staying with this one.  Hope your weekend is a good one.  

July 5 - Meeting the family in Flagstaff and hiking

What fun that the July 4th holiday coincided with our days off.  Christy and family came up to Flagstaff to escape the 113 degree heat in Phoenix, and Susan and I met them there.  Got to see fireworks and then did a couple of interesting hikes.  The first, just south of Flagstaff, is an area called Sandy Canyon and is on the Arizona Trail.  And Cal found a big bug!

Then just Cal, Matthew, and I went to Lava River Cave, a unique area just west of Flagstaff in the Kaibab National Forest.  I had never heard of this place until just the day before.  One of the guests on my tour mentioned Lava River Cave, and said how cold it was.  Since it's been in the 90's here at the Canyon, I was VERY interested.  

Around the mouth of the cave, very hot!  (Air temperature, not because of lava!)  As soon as you start down the jumble of rock into the mouth of the cave, the temperature drops drastically.  And when you get inside the cave itself, it's 40 degrees!  So as crazy as it sounds, we were wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts for the walk from the car to the cave.  Then zipped on the pants legs and put on a long sleeved shirt for the hike into the cave.

There are several sections where it's scrambling over very uneven rock.   Headlamp required!  I did manage to hit my head pretty hard.  Caused bleeding but never saw stars.  But I was looking for a place to sit down quickly and safely when that happened.  Ouch!  

We got about halfway through the lava tube and then headed back.  Very cold and interesting place. Lots of fun with the family.  Next week, headed to Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona.  

July 2 - Fourth of July Weekend and "people" have arrived

Until today (Sunday), my fellow drivers have been saying "just wait."  Just wait for the traffic to get thick and difficult to maneuver around.  First it was Memorial Day; nothing.  Then it was "wait till the California schools get out in mid-June;" nothing.  Finally today, traffic was somewhat like Yellowstone was last summer.  Drivers sitting in line, waiting for a parking place.  The Visitor Center parking lots were all full and drivers were on the main road waiting to turn in...only to be turned away by a ranger.  But even with that, nothing like the driving in Yellowstone last summer.  I have been able to get my bus in and out of every place I needed to go.

Unfortunately, statistics show that people only spend about 3 1/2 hours at the Grand Canyon.  Too bad.  I believe the best time at the Canyon is sunset.  I've done quite a number of sunset tours and the colors just come alive.

And there are artists that come out to capture the special colors at sunset as well.  I asked this artist if I could take his picture as he moved this special sunset from canyon wall to paper.  He was working very fast to capture the colors that he saw.  Fascinating to see an artist at work like this.

And these are some of the scenes that I saw.  

And I loved creating this next sequence of pictures.  Notice the perfect shadow of the butte below on the wall behind.  Then I noticed a huge block of sandstone had calved from the rest of the butte.  As many times as I had been out there, I had not noticed that before.  This Canyon saves scenes, and then reveals them at just the right time.  Sublime nature.  

Good night, Grand Canyon.

On our days off last week, Susan and I went to Phoenix to visit Christy's family.  Frankly, it was like a vacation.  We needed to get away. But it was blazing hot down there; 113 degrees every day.  When we got there about 9:30 on Monday night, I took Gordon (their golden) for a quick walk around the block.  The sun had been down for about 2 hours by then.  But when I stepped outside, I could hardly breathe.  Still, so hot.  Swam in their pool and had a great time in the air conditioning.  I'm not too good with selfies, but this was a fun grandson picture.  

Hope you have a wonderful July 4th holiday.