We had a pleasant trip to Kanab this past week
as it was cool and overcast with the threat of thunder showers. The
thunder showers never materialized, so we treated ourselves to one of Jacob
Lake Store’s famous chocolate raspberry milk shakes. (Sanity prevails: we split
it. :-)
)
We had another PSAR volunteer to breakfast on
Wednesday morning. I treated us all to poached eggs on my sourdough muffins,
and they were well received by us all. I
also did a few other chores before taking off in the afternoon. My photography
included some deer photos, a kaibab squirrel, and mushrooms which are quite
abundant now with all of the rain that we have had.
Thursday
was a typical day with some laundry in the morning, and making more of those
sourdough English muffins. George
in the meantime was set up for solar viewing at the Lodge. About the end of
that project there was an emergency where a visitor slipped on the way out to
an unsanctioned trail and fell and possibly broke her leg. George helped with
the transport, and almost got recruited to drive the ambulance. When he got
home in the middle of the afternoon, it was my time, so to speak, to get away
from trailer.
I
went off in pursuit of photography. There were thunderstorms brewing. I met up
with our neighbor Jerry and Jeanie at the picnic area and got a couple of shots
of the storm but it did not amount to much. Jerry and I decided to go down to
the Lodge and see what was brewing to the West. Well there was quite a show
about to begin. We got set up and the thunder and lightning came. The thunder
was not particularly dramatic, but the lightning show went on for a little over
an hour. We both have Lightning Triggers which witll trigger the shutter for
us, we just have to set the f-stop, shutter speed, and point the camera in the
right direction. Well in an hour’s time we had 58 pictures that had at least
one lightning bolt in it!! We are processing the images, and I have a couple
posted here.
The
Monsoon season has really been strong here. There has been damage to the North
Kaibab Trail with a couple of small rock slides, and trail wash outs. The Trail
Crew has been working diligently on the issues. Then just today we
had some more heavy rain. The visitors do not like picture perfect days, but we
try to explain to them that when there are clouds and/or fog in the Canyon it
is special. All tat they need to do
is be patient and wait for the clouds to rise and make for magical moments. (Of
course this is hard to do when you are on a schedule and only have a few hours
or a day to visit.
I
am not looking forward to this coming week when they will be closing the road
to Cape Royal from Roosevelt Point on so that road improvements can be made.
There will be a number of disgruntled visitors from September 3rd to
the closing of the Park in October. I have one more day working out there,
tomorrow, and I plan on being there through sunset.
It
is hard to believe that Fall is quickly approaching but there are sign:
mushrooms; aspen and maples changing colors; hunters in the forest. The
temperatures are dropping, but that is in part due to the monsoon activity.
Sunset Sky from The Lodge:
Fauna and Mushrooms:
 |
| Kaibab Squirrel |
 |
| Colorful Mushroom |
 |
| Mule Deer Buck |
 |
| White Mushroom |
|
|
|
Inversion in The Canyon:
Lightning, August 29:
August 30: Sunshine, Inversion, and Storm Brewing:
