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.

Yesterday, we took the day off and went to Zion since the weather was nice. I've never seen so much snow that low down around here and there was about 6-8 inches all over the canyon floor and bands of white and icicles festooned the canyon walls. Of course we didn't bother to take a camera because "we have plenty of winter pics of Zion"...my bad.
The trails usually ice up and become treacherous when it's cold but the snow was crunchy so the trails weren't too slippery. The ones we took weren't opened the whole length because of falling icicles. We did get to witness some ice falls including one way up a cliff face. The icicles must have been 20 or 30 feet long but looked small from where we were. They make a loud crash as they fall, and something fell somewhere that made a sound like thunder and made the ground actually shake. It was bigger than the usual clattering boulders you hear drop in summer, whatever it was.
I saw a really pretty road runner and a huge flock of turkeys, but no deer this time. The park was rather busy- apparently the big piles of snow up north have driven a lot of Utah retirees south for some sunshine. Also, lots of Nevadans take a day trip from Vegas to see snow. There are few times of year any more where the park doesn't have a good number of people in it. Sometimes, it's "amusement park" crowded. We usually avoid it at those times of year unless we have to take guests.
We bought a new annual pass for the national parks system (they're only $80) and plan to give this one as much of a workout as the last.
I have to remember from now on to bring a camera, no matter how many pictures we already have!