GRAND CANYON VOLUNTEER - AUGUST 4, WEEK 9

It was a wet week to start with. We had several days of heavy monsoon activity which meant reminding a lot of people about lightning safety. Sometimes the advice was heeded and at other times it was ignored. The only harm done on my watch was that people may have gotten wet.

Last “weekend” we took an afternoon to go into the Kaibab Forest for a very pleasant hike. We drove to East Rim View Trailhead and then headed North along the Arizona Trail which runs from Mexico to Utah. We hiked along a fairly level trail through the woods and several beautiful long meadows. We saw a number of wildflowers, a red-tailed hawk, and a couple of mushrooms. We saw no one on the hike! It was really relaxing and beautiful. We finished the afternoon with dinner at the Kaibab Lodge which is located about 5 miles North of the Park entrance.

One source of groceries here is Schwan’s who come up with a large truck full of frozen foods for sale. Some of them are complete meals, others are just the ingredients. I generally get a box of frozen turkey pot pies, as well as some ice cream bars, and frozen vegetables. The ice cream products are impossible to bring from Kanab (81 miles away) when we shop there.  They were scheduled to come last Friday, but they did not show. We can usually do without and we will, but is a nice convenience. Hopefully they will show up in two weeks.

This past week I had two days out in the Cape Royal area. The program scheduled is the Archaeology Talk, and then it is roving and/or a ranger choice of an optional program. Usually I just do the roving routine with one of the trails being the Cape Final Trail which is 4 miles round trip. This time I had to cancel one of my Archaeology Talks due to rain. On the second day my throwing of an atlatl resulted in the dart sticking in the target tree about 10 feet above the ground. I then had to throw a rock at it to dislodge it. It still showed the benefit of the atlatl as a dart throwing device. (For more info on this go to http://www.atlatl.com/) I did not try any lightning photography as things were in flux and there were several heavy downpours, not good for me or the camera gear.

My Nature Walk this past week was fun. We were able to watch a nesting tree swallow flying in and out of its nest hole. In the afternoon my photo talk was well received and I had three people join me for my walk to Bright Angel Point afterwards for late light and sunset.

This weekend I have been working with my sourdough starter and making muffins. They really came out well so I decided to try bread today. The starter is quite active and it looks like the bread has risen well. It is about to go into the oven. I have to do the baking at the Wrangler’s kitchen as the oven in our trailer is only good for cookies, or an 8x8 inch baking pan. There is no height to it, a bread loaf pan would not fit! (Later – the bread came out very well, light and quite tasty.)

We have enjoyed a couple of days of no rain, however the forecast is that the monsoon activity will be back maybe this afternoon. and over the weekend. I am going to be prepared for trying to capture some more lightning safely.

Have a great day in a GRAND way.

Along the Transept Trail--

Gambel Oak Gall

After a Lightning Strke

 Hike in the Meadows --

Stormy Afternoon --

 Clouds in the Canyon

Along the Bright Angel Trail --

Golden Mantled Squirrel Nest Building ---

Kaibab Squirrel --

Dragonfly Inside Administration Building--

Horned Lizard ---

Morning Light on the South Rim in early Morning -- Note different height of rim on left and right. The juncture is the fault line of the Bright Angel Fault.

Off to give a program. Hope all is well with all of you.