Theresa · Mather

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is much closer to us than the more frequently visited South Rim, so it's where we go most often. It's higher than the South Rim, and heavily forested. The lodge closes for the year on October 16 although the park stays open until the snow seals it in for the winter, or November 30, whichever comes first. We decided to get a final visit in before the lodge closes.
At this time of year, we were expecting autumn color. We never expected to see the elusive park buffalo, which used to keep to the back country, yet there some were right past the park gates. Judging by the number of "chips", they come to this field frequently.

We saw lots of animals, including about 40 wild turkeys, grouse, deer and a rare kaibab squirrel, which is a large charcoal grey squirrel with a black belly and white tail.The regional deer population is teeming- we saw tons of them all the way back from the park.
( More pictures, clicky here )

I enjoyed the first segment of Ken Burn's "National Parks: America's Best Idea" although since I live so close to several of them and go quite often, I do have something to add. Many of the parks out this way are jammed with tourists so it's difficult to get the zen like serenity and communing with nature that was being discussed unless you are flexible about the times you go or are willing to really hike.
For me, observing the behavior of tourists is half the fun (warning, gross generalizations ahead)- for instance, New Yorkers somehow invariably find each other at the viewpoints and loudly discuss New York and which Cirque Du Soleil they're going to see in Las Vegas. I think their brains must overload when they're out of their matrix or something, so they need to verbally recreate it. Germans expect you to get out of their way on trails, even if you would have to jump down a thousand foot cliff to accommodate them. I could go on with the data from my informal research and observations of tourists in their natural habitat, but I'll spare the details.
I do worry about people falling into the Grand Canyon sometimes when they try to get the perfect photo (one of the primary reasons it happens, actually).
I have thought about doing a project where I take a shot of a person taking a picture at a park, then ask them if they could send me the image they took and show them side by side. People are often so busy taking pictures and trying to get the ultimate shot that they seem to primarily see the parks through their camera or phone. One night, I watched a sunset from the north rim of the Grand Canyon at the lodge balcony, glass of wine in hand as a huge clump of people with cameras followed the sunset across the porch, some of them using flash. None of them actually looked at or witnessed the sunset- they were shoving and jockeying for best position as there were clicks and flashes akin to a paparazzi stalking. It was hilarious in a kind of sad way.
But then there's another time where an elderly man approached the canyon rim, found that he could see nothing because it was filled with clouds, asked my friend if she thought it was going to clear up and then started to weep because he thought he wasn't going to be able to see it. There was a story there, I'm sure.
Then there are moments that transcend the horrible Xanterra lodge food and the crowds. It was a totally clear morning though it had rained the night before. As the sun rose and heated things up, tendrils of mist began to appear rising from the rocks and they whirled gently into clouds. In about a half hour it went from totally clear to completely cloudy, and the clouds were all formed right there. It really didn't matter that the New Yorkers next to me were loudly discussing the merits of Cirque Du Soleil O vs. Cirque Du Soleil Zumanity, it was pretty darned cool.