dogzilla

I spent a week visiting Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Lake Powell and Canyonlands. This was about 1700 miles of driving in a long drive starting and ending in Phoenix and about 30 miles of hiking.

These are some pictures I have from the Grand Canyon

The two mornings I was at the south rim, I got there early enough to get some sunrise shots.









While hiking the south rim, I saw some birds flying and tried to get some pictures. I found out afterwards that the birds with numbers on their wings were California Condors. The numbers are for tracking them since they are so rare. They have about a 9 ft wingspan and were flying close enough overhead that I could hear the wind noise from their wings.



One of the mule trains for visitors that don't want to hike



The first day, I was about 1.5 miles down Bright Angel trail when there was a nasty thunderstorm with hail that lasted about a half hour. I lucked out and found a rock ledge to stay under while the storm blew thru. This is the canyon after the storm.





The second day, I hiked about a mile down the South Kaibab trail before I had enough of walking on trails where I was thinking about the consequences of one slip and going into free fall for hundreds of feet.



And a couple other photos from the south rim

amonkie

Phoenix is quite toasty this time of year, isn't it?


AZ will always be my hometown, and you've done it justice in these pictures

__________________
Calling from deep in the heart, from where the eyes can't see and the ears can't hear, from where the mountain trails end and only love can go... ~~~ Three Rivers Hare Krishna

snowy

I loved the time I spent at the South Rim when I visited the Grand Canyon. It's one of my life goals to hike Bright Angel.

What beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing them.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Brewmaniac

The photo's were amazing! Thanks for sharing!

__________________
"That's a joke... I say, that's a joke, son"

dogzilla

When I got to Phoenix the temp was about 105-110, but wasn't that uncomfortable compared to temps around the low 90's here in NY. Grand canyon was in the 80's at the south rim and in the 60's or 70's at the north rim. Once I got into the desert, temps were in the high 80's to low 90's. Even with all the hiking, it didn't feel uncomfortable, but I did have lots of water.

tiltedbc

Great photos. I enjoyed the Grand Canyon and the way they manage it with the shuttles going by every few minutes.

paddyjoe

Ahh, but just think of the pics you could snap on the way down....


Some very sweet shots here dog. Especially like that close-up deer. Great stuff!

dogzilla

It's a long way down. I probably could have gotten quite a few pictures.



The deer were pretty tame, and you could walk right up to them.

I have a bunch more pics I'll post over the next few days.

ASU2003

[QUOTE=onesnowyowl]I loved the time I spent at the South Rim when I visited the Grand Canyon. It's one of my life goals to hike Bright Angel.
[QUOTE]

I hiked down that trail. (you can see Plateau Point in picture 7)

Here I am:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52393029@N00/55504526/

There are other trails that would be better to hike however. Watching out for the mules and the stuff they leave behind takes a little out of the experience. But, it is a good trail. I haven't hiked any other trails to know if there are any that are better. That might change this August.

dogzilla

There's three main trails. Bright Angel and South Kaibab on the south rim and North Kaibab on the north rim. The mules use all three. The Bright Angel trail is supposed to be the easiest. The part of South Kaibab (1 mi) I hiked was steeper. The part of North Kaibab I hiked (.75 mi) wasn't too bad. There's a couple other trails at the far end of the south rim shuttle loop and another one maybe 10 miles east of the main park at a former mining site. I think those are unmaintained and more difficult.

SAM821

wow! what nostalgia! I proposed to my fiance there, at Mather Point. (I got lucky, it was just us there at that moment, so it was very romantic, and obviously a heavenly view). I have to say, the Grand Canyon is a trip that everyone must do in there lifetime. Its unbelievable. I will definitly go back and try to explore more next time, ala going hiking, down the river, etc.

Oh yea, and by the way, BEAUTIFUL photos!

MySexyAssJ

wow! I've been wanting to go to the grand canyon for awhile now. you did it a lot of justice with the great pictures you took. you've make me want to go there even more now

__________________
Once bitten, Twice shy.

dogzilla

Here's some pictures from the north rim of the canyon. I spent about six hours there since the closest I was able to book a motel was Page, AZ, which is about 140 miles away. I did see a couple motels a little closer when I was driving and might have booked them if I knew about them.

The north rim is a lot greener, and was a bit cooler than the south rim. I got there about 9:00am and it was about 60 degrees then.








I was there on June 10th, about a week before a wildfire closed the access road into the park. The fire was burning as a controlled fire on the 10th and the road was quite smoky in the afternoon.