We have some of the same terrain that surrounded Monument
Valley.
The hills expose some interesting rock formations and
strata with varying angles and colors.
Following lunch (at the Cameron trading post), we turned
south on Rte 89 and then west on Rte 64 into Grand Canyon National Park. Before we get to the Grand Canyon National
Park entrance, we pass the Little Colorado River Gorge.
We made our first stop in Grand Canyon at Desert View
Vista and from our earlier vistas where the ground was flat and the scenery
went up in rugged hills, buttes and mesas, here we see flat lands and then the
Canyon going down a mile into the ground.
A stop at the Historic Watchtower at the Desert View
overlook. I got Carmen to stop taking pictures for a minute so I could get her in the frame with the watch tower.
The Desert View. You can see the high desert at the top of the picture. It is flat, then the drop, of a mile, into the canyon.
And again more of the Canyon.
And wouldn’t you know it, I find another lizard and you
know I have to take a picture of it. Why
else am I here on this wildlife abundant trip?
We continued to the south rim Grand Canyon Village and
guess what, we see more elk.
At Grand Canyon Village, we walked along the rim trail,
passing Lookout Studio.
The views from the Rim Trail are pretty spectacular even
though the sun is pretty high and there are few shadows to provide good depth
perception. You can see the Bright Angel trail in this picture coming from the bottom of the picture up into the center. The trail continues to the bottom of the canyon, crosses the Colorado by way of a rope bridge, then up the other side along the ravine going up the center of the picture (all 21 miles of the trail).
We traveled down the Bright Angel trail and through the
trail tunnel and continued further down the trail.
Coming back up the trail from below the tunnel you
can see people just entering to pass through the tunnel or at least they are waiting to pass through. The tunnel is in the upper right side of the picture.
Here is Carmen on her way through the Bright Angel Trail tunnel
on our way back to the top.
The views here are great.
But before going very far down the trail, we had to
return since we did not have very much time left before we had to return to the
coach.
Before leaving, we took more pictures. At the bottom of the picture along the trail you can see the Indian Garden campground (about 5-6 miles from the trail head), a rest area for those hiking along
the Bright Angel trail to the Colorado River.
You’ll never believe this, here is our first picture of a
Kaibab squirrel, only found here in the Kaibab forest around the Grand
Canyon. It was first sitting looking out
over the Canyon enjoying the view like the rest of us, some eating ice cream,
then turned around to look at me. How
nice that the animals pose on for us on this trip!
We head for the Lodge and after moving into our room, some
of us traveled back to the canyon edge, at Yavapai Point, for a talk by a
naturalist on the making of the Grand Canyon geology specifically the rock
strata.
The sun is moving further west then it was when we were
at the Canyon earlier, I took more pictures since the shadows provide more
drama and depth in the pictures.
To tell you the truth, it is hard to not take pictures. Here the Bright Angel Trail that runs up the
Bright Angel Canyon. Just to the left
of the Bright Angel Canyon, the North Rim Visitor Center, Lodge, and Bright
Angle Point are a mere 11 miles away (straight line of sight) or 21 miles if you decide to hike it.
Since we have to go to dinner, I took a couple of
more pictures.
And a couple of more.
Like I said it’s hard to not take pictures.
Trees, bushes and century plants grow out of the sides of
the rock cliff. Imagine! And this does
not show some of the fully grown trees growing where out of the rock cliff where they shouldn’t.
Leaving I decided to take a picture of some ornamental
grass.
Also flowers got in the way, I was almost late for the
bus.
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