While returning to Flagstaff from a quick trip the other day, we stopped for a few minutes at the Navajo bridge across the Colorado River near Lee’s Ferry. Lee’s Ferry is the launch location for boat trips down the Colorado River through Marble Canyon and Grand Canyon. These rafts had probably launched within the hour and were beginning a multi-day trip down the river.
Heavy rains in recent days had deposited a large load of silt into the Paria River—which empties into the Colorado River just below the boat launch site. Stream flow increased from a baseline of about 8 cfs (cubic feet per second) to around 1000 cfs.
Stream flow on the Paria River near Lee’s Ferry.
These boaters may have been hoping for clear water for the initial portion of their river trip—but did not get it.
We recently took a “day” hike in the Grand Canyon — except that much of the hike was in the dark. We left Flagstaff around midnight and arrived at the South Kaibab Trailhead at 1:30 a.m. and began our descent in the dark.
The moon was already past 3rd quarter and had not yet risen. But the skies were exceptionally clear and the stars were brilliant. There was almost enough light from the stars to hike down. Almost, but not quite.
So we did the safe thing and used our headlamps to light the trail.
Normally, the South Kaibab Trail is quite busy with hikers. The constant low hum of people talking to each other mixes with the normal daytime sounds of birds and of aircraft flying high overhead (or, sometimes, not so high overhead).
But there was none of that. Just the gentle sighing of the wind and even that began to diminish as we descended from the rim.
The Orionids meteor shower was nearing its peak (still a day away) but we saw plenty of meteor action during the pre-dawn hours. There would be extended lulls followed by a brief flurry of streaks across the sky. We spent so much time looking up that we made only slow progress going down.
At Tip Off Point, we turned onto the Tonto Trail and slowly made our way westward as the first hints of twilight began to appear in the eastern sky. With first light, I began to shoot some photographs of the cliffs of both the South and North Rims and of the side canyons.
Early morning light on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
As we reached the Bright Angel Trail near Indian Garden, the sun had risen and people were out and about on the trail heading both up from Phantom Ranch and down from the Rim. The low hum of many conversations permeated the air and the heavenly silence we had experienced over the past few hours came to an end.
Pipe Spring Canyon – a side canyon of Grand Canyon.
After a short jaunt out to Tonto Point — where we once again had silence — we finished our “day” hike by ascending the Bright Angel Trail.
The Inner Gorge of Grand Canyon as seen from Tonto Point.
