July 27th, Grand Canyon

  


Thursday, July 27, 2006
Day 32
Grand Canyon National Park

Today was a fun day here at the park. We “slept in” until 7:30 (except for the brief 15 minute period when I walked Brownie at 5:00) and then quickly ate breakfast and got ready to go to the morning Ranger walk/talk. We had the same ranger we had the first afternoon we were here, and she was quite knowledgeable about the plants we saw along our walk on part of the Transept Trail. I enjoyed learning more about the Ponderosa Pine and the “friendly fir” and “square shaped” spruce. Also about the aspens and white firs.

We hung out around the campground for a while and I walked Brownie all around. The “premium” part of the campsite which we couldn’t get into has nice views of the canyon and I also found the Bridle Trail on which dogs are allowed!

Later we investigated how dangerous the “unpaved” road to Point Sublime is. We were told it was not a good idea in our car, but we weren’t sure what that exactly meant until we got to the road and met some bicyclers who were coming back. The one man was nice enough to talk to us about his adventures that very day on his bike, and in May he took his lifted truck down the road and ruined his paint and his foot running boards. He said, “Do you hate your paint job?” We understood what he meant then and decided only to go 3 miles down the road to just before it “gets bad”. We did and it did start to get bad so we backed up and turned around. It was still fun and an interesting area even if we never made it to the edge of the canyon 17 miles in.

Right before we decided to leave on this trek we had HAIL. Bigger than I’ve ever seen, it was about 1cm in diameter and really round! It was cool to watch it come down and I got it on video! Brownie was trying to eat the white balls until she realized it hurt to be out there. We had more hail later in the day, but not as extensive as the first storm which lasted about 15 minutes!!! The entire ground was white with these little marbles by the end of it. I was glad it wasn’t any bigger, so as not to damage the truck or travel trailer.

Tonight we had an early dinner and a big campfire, but it started raining again at the end of the evening, around 9:30. Yet another T-storm. We’ve had one each night here and each afternoon. So, we are hitting the hay early so that we can get an early start on our 250-mile drive to Meteor Crater near Flagstaff tomorrow. We may make some stops along the way if things look interesting…

P.S. – I feel like I’m at the cabin with all the little pieces of debris in my bed and all over the floor. Once that stuff gets wet, or your shoes get wet, it comes in no matter what you do. Oh well, that’s what brooms are for. The only yucky part is that we have a small carpet in the “bedroom” and it is pretty gross right now. It really needs a vacuuming!