Grand Canyon Rim trail, part 2

Here are some more photos from my hike of the rim trail as the day progressed and the afternoon light changed:

Along the portion of the canyon that I visited, the top layer is usually this white rock, followed by a layer of red rock underneath it:

More tree pictures:

The light changed as the afternoon progressed:

This is a little scary- this is looking straight down into a hole in the trail!  It's the real trail too- in places a hiker can wander off onto unofficial trails that can get a little precarious in their proximity to the edge.  This below though is a guard-railed trail- the rail isn't showing in the photo but would be along the top edge there.  Most people wouldn't be hiking this trail with little kids, but if they were, one could disappear down this gap, as could an adult who wasn't paying attention:

More trees and canyon:

If you click on this one below you can see the rapids on the Colorado river- the shuttle bus driver said each ripple is the size of a bus, he'd done the canyon on a rafting trip and he says it's very wild down at water level there, although it looks calm from here:

That's it for my Rim trail photos- stay tuned for a hike down into the canyon the next day, coming soon.

The Grand Canyon: Rim trail, part 1

As usual, I have way too many photos to inflict on you from my Grand Canyon trip.  It's not my fault, the weather was perfect, and even when it wasn't, it made for interesting photo conditions.

Here are a few photos from the first day of my stay there, September 29.  I hiked about half of the Hermit's rest portion of the rim trail.  I think I could have done more, except that my photographic addiction slowed me down.  It was a hot day though, and although the trail is in partial shade from trees along the rim, it was still a tiring hike from the heat (not that it was that hot by Grand Canyon standards, around 85 degrees).

I thought this building below was the old Kolb photo studio, but then I realized another building holds that distinction.  Whatever this used to be, it's now a gift shop:

You can see the Bright Angel trail in this shot (which I will hike part of on a subsequent day, stay tuned):

I just love the trees along the rim.  The extreme weather that they're exposed to create some very interesting shapes:

Here's a first view of the Colorado river, way down there, about a vertical mile below:

It's very brown, the Colorado river, but I guess when you consider it's carrying away all the sediment that carves the canyon, you'd expect it to be.

Here's the river looking in the other direction, from another point along the trail:

I'll have more photos from this hike posted in a couple of days.

Outa my way, Mr. President!

These pics are from Sept. 28, when I was leaving Albuquerque and heading to the Grand Canyon.

Just as I was about to pull onto the on-ramp for Interstate 25, a cop car turned in front of me from the opposite direction and started doing a 3-point turn, blocking the on-ramp.  I was thiiiiissss close to being on the highway when he closed it...

And there I sat, with traffic piling up waaaaaay behind me, for the next 30-40 minutes.  I had a good view of the Interstate, and I noticed that off-ramps down the road were blocked to exiting traffic.  They eventually cleared, and the road itself after 20 minutes or so became completely empty.

I figured that since the cops manning our on-ramp seemed not to be looking for any fugitive criminals among us, that there must be some sort of motorcade on it's way.  For all this fuss I guessed it had to be the president.  I had half heard something on CNN during breakfast about him making an announcement or something in someone's backyard down that-a-way, but I had thought that was over in Texas.

Guess not!  Eventually, a few minutes after a bunch of motorcycle cops zipped down the road, a convoy of many cop cars, white SUV's, black SUV's, one ambulance, two fire trucks, a van that looked like it might be a criminal-transport van, and several other miscellaneous vehicles sped past:

Look!  There he is!  Do you see him?  Do you see him?

An American friend says he always is hidden in a clutch of black Suburbans, so he is probably somewhere in that cluster there.

A google search revealed later that Obama had been in Albuquerque for an "informal meeting" at the suburban home of some ordinary Joe.  Cripes!!  Shut an entire interstate and hold up traffic for 40 minutes for an "informal meeting"?  How down to earth.  Just like regular folks.

So, I was a little late getting on the road that day.  I was terrified after that that he'd swing by the Grand Canyon for a "spontaneous" gander since he was in the neighborhood.  Luckily, nothing unusually informal occurred during my visit there.

Through New Mexico

Here are some photos from the road in New Mexico, from Monday Sept. 27:

This is the first mountain the highway comes across after crossing into New Mexico:

These mountains up ahead are the ones just east of Albuquerque:

This is the next day (Tuesday, Sept. 28), heading west out of Albuquerque, where I spent the night:

I really like the desert landscapes.  They sure aren't boring.

Finally! Summer!

I arrived in Los Angeles late Saturday afternoon.  The weather here is sooooo nice.  I didn't really get a summer this year except for a few perfect days in June in Arctic Bay, so I feel like the season has just begun.  September is actually one of the hottest months in Los Angeles, and they had a record-setting heat wave the week before I arrived.  However, now in the first days of October it's back to just being perfect again, around 78 degrees American or 25 degrees Canadian.  Sunny, of course, with the occasional bit of cloud.

I'll have more photos from my trip here as well as my stop at the Grand Canyon as I get time to go through them, so don't go away...

Don't say they didn't warn you

You can't expect to be able to drink from the toilet just anywhere, you know!  This is at the Holiday Inn at the Grand Canyon. 

I wonder if you can safely drink from the toilets in the more upscale hotels?

Oh wait, probably not, this warning below is on the lawn of one of the rim hotels.  This is a light post that the sign is posted by, not a tap.  Are they worried we might try to lick the water off the grass when they water it?

The Texas Panhandle

Some photos from the road through the Texas panhandle.  I really loved the wide open spaces.

I took the next two at a rest stop:

I think the rest stop below was the only one along Interstate 40 westbound through the panhandle.  It's beautiful- seems like they built one big one instead of multiple small ones.  This one is also a tornado shelter.

Lots of interesting sights along the road, I mostly don't get a chance to click the camera at them.  This leaning water (?) tower caught my eye:

There are lots of derelict gas stations and restaurants along the road that look like they were built in the 1960's.  The garage below looked like it's still in use though:

Don't know what was burning below- it was a short quick fire:

This is coming into the eastern side of Amarillo:

Grain elevator (I think) among other buildings:

Almost at the border of New Mexico:

Across Oklahoma

The landscape of Oklahoma changes from rolling forests to rolling farmland from east to west:

These photos taken out the side window have reflections on them:

Lots of windmills in Oklahoma and Texas, these are still Oklahoma:

The soil in western Oklahoma is very red: