The North Rim Day 1

It doesn’t rain in this area very often during the summer, but it is raining today.  I imagine the firefighters who are working the North Rim are happy.  The fire was started by lightning so the protocol is to let it burn without getting out of control and without threatening life and property.  The floor of the forest will develop “chuff” over time.  That’s an assortment of debris, small vegetation, brush and assorted twigs and limbs.  If every fire were extinguished the chuff can become an enormous hazard since it becomes fuel to create even bigger fires.  Also, when forests grow to thick with trees they promote rapid, out of control fires.  Periodic controlled burning is part of the way forests are now managed.

The fires are not close to where we are or where we will explore.  Some of the back country trails are closed.  Our cabin sits near the rim.  It’s about 150 yards away.  There is nothing between our porch and the rim except trees.  The skies are supposed to clear overnight so we are looking forward to sunrise and plan to join a Park Ranger on a nature walk at 8 AM.

Most of the guests are respectful and appreciative of what a resource this is.  There are some who enjoy flirting with danger by climbing or walking into areas that are not safe.  There were campers here from New York State.  Nice camp!!!  Not enough adult supervision.  They were scaling cliffs in order to take more interesting pictures of each other.  I am not whining about young people.  They should enjoy their moments, but if one of them falls into the canyon I doubt their parents will think too highly of that camp.

One surprise on the way into the park this morning.  There are Bison here.  I do not know if they found there way here somehow or if an initiative to re-introduce them into the park is underway.  For the benefit of Laura Santacrose I took a picture of a calf nestled against her mom.  It’s a long lens picture,  I was not close to the herd and it would be profoundly stupid to get near a calf with a mom nearby.  There is not as much traffic on the North Rim as the South Rim.  When we found the herd there was no enormous traffic jam.  Just two cars observing from a safe distance.

We are here for two days and then on to Monument Valley.