Snowing here on the North Rim.. I figured a good opportunity for me to hunker down and finally get this thing going again. Been at the Grand Canyon for about two weeks now. Nice to be back. Had training on the South Rim this past week. Two days of sitting in on talks and getting "renewaled"... Interesting but hard to sit in one spot all day.



So getting down in the canyon on Wednesday, Thursday Friday was probably the highlight. Went down the Bright Angel Trail.. dropped food off at Indian Garden and continued on to Phantom Ranch to stay for the night. Nice walk.. and much less mule poop than the last time




Made it down to the river just in time for some sunset action in the distance.



Hung out at Phantom on Thursday and headed back up to Indian Garden in the afternoon.



Thanks to caffeinated clif shots, had a much easier time getting up Devil's corkscrew than the last time I did that (photo on left).








Got out to Plateau point for sunset and enjoyed turkey burgers and guacamole for cinco de mayo.









5 am Friday morning.. me, Jesse and Jake head east on the Tonto Trail.. about a 4 and a half mile stretch to the South Kaibab Trail (far superior to the Bright Angel Trail as far as condition and views go)... well worth the extra few miles.


Sunrise on the Tonto Trail.. managed to stay out of the sun for pretty much the entire time.. definitely helpful with the moisture retention.

Made it up around 10:30 and over to the BA trailhead in time to see everyone else come up and out of the canyon.



Saturday was wildlife day! Sat in on some good talks about Grand Canyon animals and got to see Jack Hanna speak (sometimes hard to understand with his super fast Tennessee drawl)... the two baby mountain lions were quite a treat... so cute!
On left is Tesla: a Red-tailed Hawk that collided with a powerline and had to get part of her wing removed. She was beautiful... kind of a bummer to see all these birds that have been injured in some way.. Now they're used for education which is great but it was still hard to look at them perched on posts indoors.