Grand Canyon North Rim

Early this morning Auntie Pat, dog sitter extraordinaire picked the girls up early and Kathy and I got off about 8:00 on our run to the North Rim. The transition from canyon, to prairie, to mountain, to upper flats and meadows, to upper forests made the eighty mile ride both scenic and interesting. Upon arriving we immediately went to the Lodge and enjoyed breakfast looking out the plate glass windows at the Grand Canyon.

Most of my life I have viewed photos of the canyon and have been impressed with its grandeur. I often wondered if I would ever see it for myself so this trip is somewhat a wish come true. The day was a lovely one with the temperatures in the high sixties and low seventies with a bright blue sky. However, there was more haze that I would have liked but you can’t choose the weather, only the destination. This always seems to be the plight of the traveling photographer. You are captive to the elements that exist at the particular time that you arrive. I read stories of Ansel Adams and how he would sit in one place waiting for the lighting and conditions he wanted for a specific shot. Few of us have that luxury, or that dedication to the photographic art. My resolution has become to make the best of prevailing conditions to produce the best product possible under the constraints presented me. Sometimes I am happy with the result but many times I just shrug my shoulders and think, oh well.

Kathy and I spent a good number of hours at the North Rim, and other viewpoints, eying the magnificent view and then headed back to Kanab. Knowing that we had a little extra time, and that the girls were provided for, we decided to take in Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park on the way back. It was a circuitous route and involved about twenty miles on what was labeled “Primitive Road Not Maintained” but we made it. It was interesting to see but l don’t think either of us would have minded missing this one. It did indeed look like what one might envision the Egyptian landscape to be, but it was much smaller than we imagined. In fact, I was curious how the movies that were shot there managed keeping the obvious southwestern red cliffs out of the background when shooting.

We picked up the girls and found that they had a wonderful day playing with the sitters three pampered pooches. It was a good opportunity to socialize the pups as they are still young and needed the interaction with other animals and humans.