Day 14 - Grand Canyon

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 Today was all kinds of crazy. A nice stay at Cliff Dwellers Lodge between Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and Grand Canyon led to a story of delays, hikes, and wildfires. 


As I finally got close to the Grand Canyon North Rim road there were delays for road work that slowed my journey substantially but not much you could do when there is one road in and one road out. Eventually we were moving along and passed some signs just warning smoke on the road and there were little smoking fires in the woods. Looked like a controlled burn...maybe. Note this for later. 

Before I made it into the park proper I saw the Kaibab Plateau Bison Herd. It is pretty legendary and is only on the north rim of the Canyon.





Finally got to the hike for the day. Was taking the Ken Patrick Trail to the Uncle Jim Trail Loop. The Patrick Trail goes a lot further but is not as maintained as other trails. I was only on this trail for about a mile but it took forever mostly due to the mines I was dodging on the trail. Lots of mules use this trail and it was big ol mess at times.

The loop part is about 2.8 miles. I think I got around 5 miles on this trail by walking around taking lots of pictures.

Along the way I did see this little guy, a greater horned lizard I think is what came up.


Once I made it up to the top part of the loop the views were amazing and this little desert lizard or something posed for me as well








Once I finished that hike it was time for a quick stop for a passport stamp and then out to Imperial Point. The highest elevation in the Grand Canyon. It was AMAZING. I just stood there and was in awe.





On the way to leave I came across my favorite Bison Herd this time in meadows inside the park. I pulled over, got out and climbed a hill across the road from them and took some more pictures.




Then the crazy crazy happened. The sign merely said incident happened. Then something said wildland fire. Next thing I know there is a stoppage and they are leading us through smoke filled areas one way at a time.




Not sure if this was a controlled burn or something that got out of hand. I saw US Forest Service personal working to make sure it was not a roaring blaze. But man it had to have been something at some point. Crazy.

Now the day is done. I will be sitting and working a little the next two days from Best Friend's Animal Sanctuary. Hopefully there will be some cool pictures.


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