The Grand Canyon

I have blogged about the Grand Canyon (and specifically Grand Canyon National Park) before, because it is so close to home (10 hours) and we go there fairly often. This was just a quick trip -- a nice stop on the way south. I am going to jump ahead for just a moment to mention the highlight of the stop. We actually saw -- at close range -- a California Condor. It's not a pretty bird, but it is a special one because it has come back literally from the brink of extinction. I'll talk about it more later.

Surprise!

I was shocked that I was able to get accommodations in the Park -- I have written frequently on how National Park lodging fills up very far in advance. When I checked, there were rooms at both the El Tovar (pricey) and the Bright Angel (reasonable). We chose the latter and got a single room with toilet and sink and use of a bath/shower down the hall for only $97. It was a lovely room that was very convenient to the rim of the Canyon. I would definitely try to get a room there again. The only downside is parking. It's very tight because there is no parking reserved for hotel guests. So, you grab whatever slot you can and then try to move closer in the late afternoon/early evening when things thin out a little. We were lucky two out of three times, but once had to park by the El Tovar and walk. And, it was because of that walk that we saw the Condor!

The weather when we arrived at the Grand Canyon was cool and a little bit breezy with clear blue sky. There was some haze, but we were able to get some nice pictures anyway.

The GRAND Canyon

The entire Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and 6,093 feet deep at its deepest. It exposes nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history where the Colorado River and its tributaries cut channels through the rock while the Colorado Plateau was being uplifted over the past 5 to 6 million years ago. 

The Colorado River peeking through

The National Park comprises 1,900 square miles.

The Colorado Plateau is uneven and is about 1,000 feet higher at the North Rim than at the South Rim. The South and North Rim are at about 7,000 and 8,000 feet, respectively.

Almost all runoff from the North Rim (which gets more rain and snow) flows toward the Grand Canyon, while much of the runoff on the plateau behind the South Rim flows away from the canyon (following the general tilt). 

The result is deeper and longer tributary washes and canyons on the north side and shorter and steeper side canyons on the south side.

The most accessible -- and most visited -- part of the park is South Rim, which is open year-round. Because of deep snows, the North Rim is open only in late spring to early fall. This year it opened later because of major water main repairs. 

We visited the South Rim. I love the North Rim, where it is much cooler and greener, but that's a much bigger commitment. The road from the South Rim to the North Rim is 215 miles!

South Rim

The major geologic exposures in the Grand Canyon range in age from the 2-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist at the bottom of the Inner Gorge to the 230-million-year-old Kaibab Limestone on the Rim. 

There is a gap of about a billion years between the 500-million-year-old stratum and the level below it, which dates to about 1.5 billion years ago, indicating a long period for which no deposits are present.

Many of the formations were deposited in warm shallow seas, near-shore environments (such as beaches) and swamps as the seashore repeatedly advanced and retreated over the edge of a proto-North America. It is possible to find fossilized sea creatures in the Grand Canyon. Major exceptions the ocean environment include Permian Coconino Sandstone, which contains evidence of sand dune deposition. Several parts of the Supai Group also were deposited in non--marine environments.

Ancient rock

The base level and course of the Colorado River changed 5.3 million years ago when the Gulf of California opened and lowered the river's lowest point. This increased the rate of erosion and cut nearly all of the Grand Canyon's current depth by 1.2 million years ago. The terraced walls of the canyon were created by additional erosion. 

Between 100,000 and 3 million years ago, volcanic activity deposited ash and lava over the area, at times completely obstructing the river. 

These volcanic rocks are the youngest in the canyon.

The Grand Canyon became an official National Monument in 1908 and a National Park in 1919 (more on that later), just three years after the National Park Service was formed. It is the second-most visited National Park (after Great Smoky Mountains), with almost 6 million visitors in 2016.

The South Rim of the Park has about 60 miles of road along the Rim from Desert View to the east to Hermit's Rest in the west. The road is dotted with overlooks. The eastern portion can be visited by car, but the western portion can be visited only by Park shuttle bus. This has greatly reduced the congestion on the narrow, winding road and makes it very easy to see the canyon without having to mess with parking.

Interesting formation

Views include a vast number of formations plus occasional glimpses of trails (most visible is the Bright Angel) and the Colorado River below.

For thousands of years, the area has been continuously inhabited by Native Americans, who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves as well as on the neighboring plateaus.

The river

Among the residents of Grand Canyon have been Ancestral Puebloans; the Cohonina, who were ancestors of the Yuman, Havasupai and Walapai peoples who inhabit the area today; and the Sinagua, who may have been ancestors of several Hopi clans.

The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540. No Europeans visited the canyon again for more than two hundred years.

In 1776, Spanish Catholic Priests Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante traveled with Spanish soldiers along the North Rim in Glen and Marble Canyons in search of a route from Santa Fe to California. They eventually found a crossing, formerly known as the "Crossing of the Fathers," that today lies under Lake Powell. The same year, Fray Francisco Garces, a Franciscan missionary, spent a week near Havasupai, unsuccessfully attempting to convert a band of Native Americans to Christianity. 

Blue sky, red rocks

In the early 1820s, Americans, including trappers and Mormons traveling to Utah, began to visit the Canyon. A number of expeditions were conducted in the mid-1800s

In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell led the first expedition down the canyon. With nine men, four boats and food for 10 months, he traveled from Green River, Wyoming, to the Colorado River, near present-day Moab, Utah, and then through the Canyon. In 1871 Powell first used the term "Grand Canyon;" previously it had been called the "Big Canyon."

Varying colors

Theodore Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon in 1903 and established the Grand Canyon Game Preserve in 1906. 

Livestock grazing was reduced, but predators such as mountain lions, eagles and wolves were eradicated. 

Once the Antiquities Act of 1906 was passed, Roosevelt added adjacent national forest lands and redesignated the preserve a U.S. National Monument in 1908. 

Opponents, including land and mining claim holders, blocked efforts to reclassify the monument as a U.S. National Park for 11 years. 

There are several historic buildings located along the South Rim near Grand Canyon Village. The Kolb Studio, which was very close to our room, was built in 1904 by brothers Ellsworth and Emery Kolb, who made a living photographing visitors walking down the Bright Angel Trail. In 1911, the Kolb brothers filmed their journey down the Green and Colorado Rivers. Emery Kolb showed this movie regularly in his studio until 1976, when he died at the age of 95. Today the building is an art gallery and exhibit.

Kolb Studio

Bright Angel Lodge, where we stayed, was built of logs and stone in 1935. Mary Colter designed the lodge and it was built by the Fred Harvey Company. 

Photo: Xanterra

There are 52 mammal species in the Grand Canyon, including Desert Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Lions, Elk, Mule Deer, Raccoons, Coyotes, Ringtails and lots of bats and rodents. We saw a few Elk and Deer, but I photographed only a Desert Cottontail ... 

Bunny

... and this adventurous Rock Squirrel. Why adventurous? That bush he is on is hanging out over the rim.

On the edge

There are a fair number of insects, including some kind of flying beetle that I tried and tried -- and failed and failed -- to photograph. And, the place was alive with the sound of cicadas (Apache Cicadas to be precise), but finding them was tough. I finally found one ...

Cicada

... although I know they were everywhere. Scott saw a Tarantula Hawk, a giant red-winged flying bug that actually attacks and eats Tarantulas. I missed that.

The Grand Canyon isn't exactly flush with birds -- all in all there are about 48 species -- but we did see many of the world's most common birds: the Common Raven (the name even says so).

Common Raven

Really, the only other birds we saw were Great-Tailed Grackles, and they weren't in big numbers.

Grackle

But, by far, most exciting bird was the California Condor, which we found out about purely by accident. We were walking from our far-away parking space at the El Tovar Hotel (who would guess that lot would have a spot?) toward the restaurant in the Thunderbird Lodge, and we passed a young couple who sounded European or Scandinavian and were discussing big flying birds. A Common Raven flew over and they made some comment about Condors that prompted Scott to tell them it was a Raven ...

Fly-by

Then, they told us there was a Condor just down the path. So, we hurried down and, sure enough, there was #87, a 19-year-old male California Condor, sitting on a rock very conveniently next to an information sign about California Condors.

I took a few pictures and then ran back to the car to get my long lens. Luckily, he wasn't going anywhere and I got more pictures.

California Condors have an interesting story.

On the rim

A New World Vulture, the California Condor is the largest North American land bird. 

It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when 27 remaining wild individuals were captured so they could be protected and bred to pump up the numbers.

California Condors were reintroduced starting in 1991 to the coastal mountains of central and southern California and northern Baja California. 

In 1996, Condors were released in northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the Grand Canyon). Years ago, I saw one flying very, very high in the sky.

It is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps and is still listed as critically endangered.

The plumage is black with patches of white on the underside of the wings; the head is largely bald, with skin color ranging from gray on young birds to yellow and bright orange on breeding adults. Many Condors have a feather ruff around their necks that looks almost like a boa. This Condor didn't have any noticeable neck feathers.

Condors can have a 10-foot wingspan, can stand up to 55 inches tall and can weigh up to 26 lbs., which nearly equals the weight of the Trumpeter Swan, the heaviest among native North American bird species. The condor is a scavenger and eats large amounts of carrion, hence its bald head (easier to clean to avoid bacterial infections). Condors are one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 60 years. Condors do not have true vocalizations. They can only hiss or grunt, which can only be heard when very close.

California Condor

Condor numbers dramatically declined in the 20th century due to poaching, eradication based on a false belief that they kill the large animals they eat, lead poisoning (from hunters' bullets in carrion) and habitat destruction. The 27 wild birds captured in 1987 were bred at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. 

Numbers rose through captive breeding and, beginning in 1991, condors were reintroduced into the wild. The California condor is one of the world's rarest bird species: as of December 2015, there are 435 condors living wild or in captivity. I was told that there are 93 California Condors currently living in the Grand Canyon.

We didn't hang around, instead going to dinner, a decision I regret. When we checked after dinner, #87 was gone. I would really have liked to see him fly. Primarily soarers, Condors flap their wings when taking off from the ground, but then glide, sometimes going for miles without a single flap of their wings. They have been known to fly up to speeds of 56 mph and as high as 15,100 feet. They prefer to roost on high perches, which is what #87 was doing, from which they can launch without any major wing-flapping effort. So, maybe, he didn't fly dramatically, when he left.  Often, California Condors are seen soaring near rock cliffs, using thermals to aid them in keeping aloft

Condors bathe frequently and can spend hours a day preening their feathers.

#87

Wild condors maintain a large home range, often traveling 160 miles a day in search of carrion. They prefer large, terrestrial mammal carcasses such as deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs, cougars, bears or cattle. Alternatively, they may feed on smaller mammals, such as rabbits or coyotes, but they rarely eat bird and reptile carcasses. Since they do not have a sense of smell, they spot these corpses by looking for other scavengers, like eagles and smaller vultures, the latter of which cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor. They can usually intimidate other scavengers away from the carcass, with the exception of bears, which will ignore them, and golden eagles, which will fight a condor over a kill or a carcass. In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for up to two weeks without eating.

Multiple views

I knew Condors were rare, so seeing one wasn't really on my radar. But, conversations with people at the Grand Canyon revealed that they are becoming easier and easier to see as their numbers increase and they become more comfortable around people.

Now, back to the Canyon ...

Pretty view

We visited most of the eastern lookouts on the first afternoon, going to the western end early the next morning, thus avoiding crowds. People flock to the western edge for sunset, which doesn't really make sense because all you can see is the sun against a darkened rim. The better tactic is to go east for sunset and west for sunrise so that you can get that glorious light in the Canyon.

Nice view

At night, we tried some more night photography, which required a very short walk to the rim edge near the Bright Angel Trailhead. With the moon, it was still too light for any really exciting sky shots, but we got a few night pictures.

Night sky

One of the things we noticed was a lack of NPS Rangers -- budget cuts have reduced their ranks. On several occasions, we witnessed people ignoring National Park rules and climbing over fences and out on outcrops that  are off limits. We even saw people letting their small children go out onto dangerous rocks. We wanted to alert a Ranger, but could find none.

While the Canyon can be dangerous, it turns out it is not as bad as I thought.

Deep canyon

According to Wikipedia, about 600 deaths have occurred in the Grand Canyon since the 1870s, including 53 from falls; 65 from environmental causes, including heat stroke, cardiac arrest, dehydration and hypothermia; seven people died in flash floods; 81 drowned in the Colorado River; 242 died in airplane and helicopter crashes (128 when two jets collided in 1956); 25 in freak accidents, including lightning strikes and rock falls; and 23 were the victims of homicides. 

That last one is somewhat surprising -- looks like the odds of getting hit by lightning are less than being murdered.

We thought we might see some falls, but, luckily, we didn't.

This was a quick trip. We just walked along the edge a little, took photos and took the shuttle bus to several lookouts on the western edge. Scott hates to be constrained by shuttles and said that he didn't think he had been to the western end since probably the 1980s! I actually like the shuttles when they aren't crowded. And, early in the morning, they are not.

Afternoon view

Now that I have shared exhaustive information (sorry!) about the Grand Canyon -- mostly gleaned from Wikipedia -- I won't have to for any future trips. I can just post pictures.

And, I do plan to go back.

Trip date: May 3-8, 2017