USA 2005

Thursday 28th July 2005 - Grand Canyon day 1

Marina and Martin woke up very early, at about 5:00 a.m, first light. We hadn't had a great night's sleep (well at least Martin hadn't!) as it turned out the campsite was quite near the freeway and relatively noisy. Still, it had served its purpose. We got up and started to dismantle our camp, leaving the kids asleep for as long as we could. By the time we were all ready, it was about 7:30. We hit the road and started our drive north to the Grand Canyon National Park, South Rim, where we had made reservations at the Mather campground for 2 nights. On arrival, since we couldn't "check in" to the campground until after 12pm, we parked and went for our first look at the Grand Canyon itself.

Our first encounter with the canyon was near the Yavapai observation station. To say the first viewing was "breathtaking" doesn't come near to doing justice to the richness of colour (reds, greens mostly), the majestic shapes and completely incomprehensible scale of the place. We walked east from here to the Canyon View Information Plaza past Mather Point. Jack had decided to participate in the Junior Ranger programme and keenly made notes about wildlife we encountered as we went. We saw a deer and a squirrel or two.

It was hot and we were all still pretty tired and after the initial impact of our first view, there was a strange sense of the novelty having worn off and of .... boredom setting in! This seems completely sacreligious, but it's what we were all beginning to feel. That once you'd seen one view, you'd seen all the canyon had to offer. Talk moved on to maybe only staying one night and heading off to Utah earlier.

After our first walk, we went to the supermarket (yes, there's a supermarket, set some way back from the rim) and bought supplies and the ever essential tacky souvenir! By now it was about 12 p.m. so we checked in at the campground and set up camp at pitch 285. The pitch was massive and in a beautiful woodland area which contained deer, lots of birdlife and just possibly a coyote, which Bekky saw on our first evening. We couldn't see any other campers at all from where we were, giving an impression of beiong alone in this lovely setting. We had lunch at our picnic table and discussed options. Lunch perked people up a bit and we started to feel more positive. The park provides all visitors with a publication called The Guide, and we looked at the various "Ranger Programmes" that were available and chose some we'd like to go to. Our first was at 2p.m. that afternoon, and was all about Condors. We hopped onto the free shuttle bus service that runs along the rim and were there in 5 minutes.

The talk was excellent and took place near the "Lookout Studio" not far from Bright Angel Lodge, with yet another spectacular vista. The park ranger that ran the session was a woman called Allyson, a geologist by training, who played down her knowledge of birds. She knew more than enough to run the session though and was lively and enthusiastic. We learned lots of interesting things about birds in the canyon and condors especially. In particular:

1. Condors are actually Californian Condors to give them their full name
2. Condors very nearly became extinct. Back in the 1980s, there were only 22 left in the entire world!
3. The massive and almost irreversible decline of the condor population was mostly due to birds being shot, lead poisoning or flying into power lines. Lead poisoning is a particular problem because of the feeding habits of condors.
4. Condors eat dead things. "If you're not dead you're not food!". They like large, dead carcasses to feed on and eat the soft tissues like guts. Lead poisoning becomes an issue because often the carcases or guts that they find are their because the animal was shot by hunters, and some hunters use lead based ammunition. Condor digestive systems cannot cope with the lead so they are very susceptible to poisoning in this way.
5. Condors find their food through having excellent eye sight and being very curious. Other birds like Turkey Vultures have a good sense of smell. Condors are attracted to groups of other animals gathered together as this often signifies the presence of a carcass.
6. A programme to save the condor was initiated in the 1980s. This involved capturing all remaining condors and initiating a breeding programme in captivity. In addition to breeding birds, they also trained the birds to avoid power lines, by having a replica power line in the aviary, with enough voltage to teach the birds to avoid them, but not enough to do any harm. As birds got old enough they were released into one of two areas, the first in California, the second in the Grand Canyon.
7. All birds are tagged with a large label with a numeric registration number. The numbers can be read from the ground when the birds are in flight. The tags also carry a transmitter so the birds can be tracked by scientists.
8. The easiest way to recognise a condor is this; they're big (9 foot wing span) and they have numbers! Very young birds may not yet have been tagged so a few other tips are useful. They hold their wings out straight and flat with the wing feathers at the wing ends elevated. They don't flap their wings unless they're taking off or landing.
9. Today, there are 279 birds, all of whom are descendants of 14 of the original surviving 22 birds.

After the condor talk, we hopped onto the shuttle bus again and rode to the end of the "blue line" where we changed onto the red line and continued west along the rim. We had no particular plan, and at random jumped off at an observation point called Powell Point (after John Wesley Powell, an early explorer of the canyon who first went there in 1869). Powell Point is on a bend and juts out into the canyon by about 100m. This allows truly spectacular views in both easterly and westerly directions. The view to the east is the best however. Squillions more photographs were taken, in search of the perfect Grand Canyon photo.

By now everyone was beginning to wilt in the heat, despite us all being very careful to drink lots of water (carried by our pack mule, aka Martin!). Jack in particular looked really tired. It was now getting on for 6 p.m. so we decided to head back to camp and have an earlyish night so we were suitably energised for our second day at Grand Canyon. To do this, we had to catch the shuttle bus one stop further to the west before being able to catch a return bus. This took us to Hobi Point from which we got our best sighting of the Colorado River so far.

Back at camp, Martin cooked an evening meal on the trangia and then lit the campfire. Sometime during this process, Becky reported seeing a coyote in the woods around our camp! Marina had some nice cold white wine from the cooler and Martin drank some ice cold mexican beer!

The fire was the best we'd had yet. We toasted yet more flaming mallows (Martin tried one and can confirm that they truly are a classic!) and had a go at singing some campfire songs, the result of which was often hillarious!

The kids went to bed, giggled for a while and eventually went to sleep, leaving Martin and Marina to finish their drinks, stare into the embers of the campfire and gaze at the beautiful night sky.

Warning: This page contains lots of photos of panaramic views!

Click on the photos for full size versions

View from the Rim Trail near Yavapai Observation Station. The next batch of pics are from the trail from between the observation station and the Canyon View Information Plaza

This time with Jack too

Remember: 10 miles across and 1 mile deep!

Jack opted to have a go at the Junior Ranger programme and was on the lookout for wildlife

Bekky and Jack were *really* impressed by the Grand Canyon. Can't you tell?

It's not all canyon at the Grand Canyon you know...

Other people! In fact Grand Canyon was probably the busiest of all the parks we visited. Despite that though, there were still plenty of times when we were alone with the canyon...

Jack having a go of Martin's new binoculars

Wildlife for Jack's junior ranger journal!

A much needed drinl of water. It was a hot day....

Around lunchtime we were allowed into the camp site. The pitch was enormous and despite there being plenty of other people camping at the site, we couldn't see another tent from where we were. Very nice too.