Grand Canyon -- Post 2

After I dropped Helen off at the Phoenix airport, I decided to drive back up to the Grand Canyon.  When you enter the park, the $25 pass you purchase is good for seven days.  I had two days left on the pass.  Since the geology center opened on the south rim, I have never made time to visit it.  I have always been with friends who were not interested, or we simply did not have time.  Also, I wanted to take photos for use in developing the next online rockhounding class.  I took many hundreds of photos, but in this posting I will include just a few.

When I arrived back at the Grand Canyon, the weather forecast was for single digit temperatures, so I decided to get one of the efficiency rooms at the Bright Angel Lodge.

 

The geology center sits right on the rim....

Evening shadows in the canyon at sunset....

 

It has been many, many years since I drove the west rim road.  During parts of the year, the road is not open to private vehicles.  From some of the view points, you get a tremendous view of the Bright Angel Trail.

 

Notice the change in color as the trail passes through different Grand Canyon layers.

 

Mount Humphreys from the Grand Canyon.

The Colorado River...

 

Sunset....

 

Some final photos....

Sedona -- Last Post

I am still catching up with photos taken last week, but today I will include the last pictures from Sedona.  Some of you may be getting tired of seeing all the red rock photos.

On our last day, Helen and I did two hikes.  The first was not very long, but it was one of the most difficult.  We climbed up Cathedral Rock.  Climb is the operative word.  It was more boulder scrambling than it was hiking.  It was also 750 feet elevation change in less than a mile.  We saved this to the last day because of the difficulty, as well as because it is the formation we could stay from where we were staying.

We laughed when we ran into the same three couples that we saw the previous day on the West Fork Trail.  All three couples are from the Midwest as well.

Part way up -- looking back down.

We maneuvered up the crevasse....

I'm not sure what the marking is on this rock.  Natural or cultural?

Looking across the valley....

Getting closer to the platform between the first set of spires....

While we were climbing, a sundog appeared....

Finally we reached the target platform.  It was a steep climb, but almost straight down on the other side.

Then we saw a guy coming from around another rock formation.  It said it was possible to get to the next section -- so we did.

Igneous basalt on top of sedimentary rock....

The second platform was between three spires.

Helen catching some sun...

When we climbed back down, I took a photo looking back toward Cathedral Rock.

Before the second hike, we stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built into the rock.  Frank Lloyd Wright was an influence on the building of the chapel.

Cacti along the driveway...

The red rock formations around the chapel were some of the best we saw....

This structure was below the chapel.  We are not sure what it is.....

Next we climbed up Bell Rock.