Leaving The Grand Canyon 6/17/2009

We had periods of heavy rain during the night.  While settling into Ten-X the day before I worked on water proofing the lower edges of the camper. The bottom edges of the plywood walls still needed to be sealed so as not to absorb water dripping off the edges. I had brought my epoxy resin with me having skipped out on the task while building the camper. It meant bringing two one gallon jugs with me when storage is scarce. Oh well, the price of being slack.

We putzed around the campsite a couple of hours longer than normal due to the constant mist and drizzle. We assumed that canyon views would be hampered and debated whether we should simply drive on and skip the rest of the canyon. As it turned out indecision was a good thing as we caught a couple peeks of sun here and there and decided that perhaps canyon viewing would be interesting in this weather.

We left our site and headed for the canyon. The weather seemed to be clearing and by the time we parked it was sunny. Good. We chose to go on a hike along the canyon rim where the private traffic is turned around and only public buses can continue. In the winter the buses are discontinued and private traffic can run the full length of the canyon. From the rim distant storms were visible which I thought looked nice contrasted against the canyon. Closer we saw the mules and people hiking the trail to the bottom. They served well as indications of scale in the photos.

While hiking the buses periodically passed and when Kat said it was time we hitched a ride on one of them. They are free. The running commentary from the driver was nice. It was kind of like a guided tour without the expense. We rode to Hermits Rest at the far end, as rain began to fall along with spots of sunlight in the distance. We were under a cloud.

Hermits rest was built around a hundred years ago as a resting area for weary horse drawn sightseers. So it remains today; a resting place for less weary bus riders. I got a coffee and the children ate muffins while a fearless squirrel scavenged crumbs at our feet. Of course Ian gave chase and his sister tried to pet the fat critter. I had mixed feelings with this. On one hand the park service frowned on this behavior to the point of possible jail time, but on the other had it was awful cute and I didn't want the kids to miss out on the experience. Such a thing crates strong long term memories. After eating the snacks we headed back for the car by way of the bus and a short walk all the while hoping that the weather wouldn't soak us. We made it back dry and headed for the eastern exit.

From here we headed for Utah. We drove through what we realized later was the painted desert and toward Monument Valley. The painted desert may as well have been the moon. The light was fading and photos were difficult. Night fell before we made monument valley and by the time we got there the stars shown brightly. We pulled over to enjoy them at a closed Indian road side stand. I believe the Indians have more than sold all the beads back to the white man and likely turned a profit. Maybe not.

As we drove through Monument Valley we were aware of the buttes only by the ominous absence of stars they created. Did I mention it was dark? It was no moon dark. It was no city light anywhere dark.

It was in this darkness that we pulled into Goose Necks State Park near Mexican Hat Utah. Driving blindly into a gravel parking lot of a campground that has as its' only reason for existence big holes in the ground is spooky. While backing up and watching my mirrors I noticed my headlights had fallen on a couple of tents and had likely been there for some time. I shut down the van then and there. No need to be obnoxious in a place I couldn't even see.

We set up the camper for the night as the children tucked themselves in. Before tucking myself in I stopped to experience the darkness. We had done some minor hill climbing to get where we were so the horizon reached roughly equally in all directions. As my eyes adjusted what I saw was interesting. I could just make out the darker shade of darkness that was the land meeting the lighter shade of dark that was the sky. There was a small area of sky after the land gave way to sky where there were no stars. In this area the stars never made it down to the horizon. There was a gap of emptiness between the horizon and where the stars began and it circled the entire 360 degrees of view. I guess the stars were not strong enough to shine through so much of the atmosphere in that area of the sky so close to the ground. Interesting and not experienced.

With that I was off to bed.