Tag Archives: Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon to Lake Powell

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[Almost] Too tired.

I slept terribly while at the Grand Canyon. This was due mostly to my room’s climate control — and my inability to set it properly. My room had a baseboard heater that seemed to take forever to warm up the room. I was asleep when it got to the temperature I’d set it to and the room got very dry and stuffy. I woke up and opened the window a crack to get some fresh air in. From that point on, the sound of the wind in the trees kept me from drifting back into a deep sleep.

As I tossed and turned, I was worried about how the forecasted high winds would affect our flight from GCN to PGA.

I finally gave up trying to sleep at about 5:30 AM, which is my normal waking time anyway. Sunrise was only moments away and I was only steps from the rim of the Grand Canyon, but I was too tired to rush out with my camera. Instead, I took my time dressing and getting some of my things together. El Tovar’s dining room opened at 6:30 and I wanted to get one of the first tables. I had plenty of time.

It turned out to be a good thing that I didn’t rush. I would have been disappointed — like that horde of photographers the evening before probably was. There was a huge, thick cloud on the eastern horizon. Sunrise had been a non-event — as it sometimes is at the Canyon — when the world brightened without dramatic colors or shadows. There’s soft light and then there’s really soft light.

Lookout StudioLookout Studio at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, in slightly delayed first sunlight.

When I started my walk to El Tovar, the sun was just peeking out over the top of this cloud. I had my camera with me and shot Lookout Studio and the Canyon beyond with some of that early morning light on it. I imagined — mostly through experience — all those photographers shivering for an hour or more at Mather Point or whatever the designated “best spot” for sunrises was, finally getting a few shots that showed off the canyon’s dawn colors.

I got a table for one at El Tovar where a waiter who is definitely in the wrong line of business “served” me. I won’t go into details, but I will mention that he was rude to me — twice. My mood had been cheerful, despite two consecutive nights of bad sleep, but he managed to bring it down a notch. My breakfast was good, though, and once I got the pity of another server, strong, hot coffee kept coming.

Back outside on the rim just after 7 AM, it was still quite deserted. I had three hours to kill before meeting my passengers. I killed it by checking the weather multiple times.

I use four different methods to check the weather while I’m traveling:

  • My new Blackberry Storm has a weather application called WeatherBug. I highly recommend this to anyone with a Blackberry. You set it up with predefined locations or let it get you the weather closest to your current position, using the GPS. The weather info seems to come from the National Weather service and is augmented with icons and other graphic elements that make it easy to read. On my previous phone, a Palm Treo, I used the Web browser to visit the National Weather Service’s mobile Web site where I got the same information with a bit more effort.
  • My phone has a directory of the airports I fly into programmed into it. I simply dial the number for the airport’s AWOS/ASOS system and get current conditions read to me. Want to try it? Here’s the number for Grand Canyon’s automated weather observation system (AWOS): 928-638-0672.
  • If I have a computer with an Internet connection — which I can usually get via dial-up networking on my smartphone — I can check the DUATS.com Web site. This is a lot of weather information — usually a lot more than I need — but it is an official source of weather for pilots.
  • If I’m really concerned about the weather, I can call 800-WX-BRIEF and talk to a briefer. I’ll be the first to admit that I rarely do this. The information available to briefers is the same information that I can get from DUATS. Most of it is of interest to airplane pilots flying at altitudes I’ll never reach, traveling distances farther than I usually travel. But this is another official source of weather. And on one occasion I can remember quite clearly, a briefer helped me find my way over a mountain range that was clouded in.

On Tuesday, I mostly used the first two methods: getting the forecast and hearing the current conditions at GCN and PGA. Although PGA had high winds forecasted for later in the day, the winds remained calm at each call. GCN was another story. Each call brought a report of higher and higher winds. By the time I was ready to meet my passengers, winds were 22 mph gusting to 29. The forecast called for gusts up to 50 later in the day.

We were at the airport and climbing into the helicopter by 10:15 AM. My passengers waited inside while I preflighted. After adding some oil, I climbed on board and started up. I was parked exactly perpendicular to the wind, so my initial pick up into a hover wasn’t as pretty as I would have liked. But when I pointed it into the wind, I had no trouble getting airborne. We turned to the southeast to exit the GCN airspace and begin skirting around the Grand Canyon Special Flight Rules area. I had to keep the helicopter’s nose pointed about 15° off our path of flight to keep us in trim.

It was bumpy, but not nearly as bad as I’d expected. We dropped down off one plateau and then another. Soon we were flying over the Little Colorado River Gorge, heading northeast. We passed over a herd of wild horses at 500 feet and I asked my passengers whether they wanted me to circle back to see them better. They said they didn’t so I kept going.

We had a wicked tailwind. At one point, the GPS showed a ground speed of 152 knots. My airspeed never exceeded 110 knots.

At Page, I gave them a quick tour of Horseshoe Bend, the Glen Canyon Dam, and the Wahweap Marina, where my passengers would be staying. We had a bit of trouble landing at the airport because there was a plane in the pattern that kept changing its mind about what runway it would be using and I just couldn’t see it. (I will not approach an airport for landing unless I can see all of the planes in the pattern or there’s a controller to keep us separated from other traffic.) But we were finally on the ground about an hour after we’d left the Grand Canyon.

That same drive would have taken about 3 hours.

I had a lot of running around to do over the next few hours: taking my passengers to the marina for lunch and their boat tour, tying down the helicopter, having lunch, checking my passengers into their room and bringing up their luggage, checking into my motel in town.

I wasn’t staying at the marina. To make a decent amount of money on the excursions, I have to stay in more affordable places. So I stayed at the Page Boy in town. Not sure if I can recommend it. It was recently refurbished, but it still has that 1970s look about it. But it was $60 less per night than the the cheapest room at the marina. That’s $60 in my pocket. And I was too damn tired to enjoy the marina anyway.

Hedgehog Cactus
Hedgehog Cactus, in bloom.

One thing the Page Boy does have is a small but nicely landscaped desert garden around the pool. And that’s where I saw this hedgehog cactus, with more flowers on it than I thought possible. The flowers were a bright reddish orange and looked as if they were made of wax. I had to shoot a bunch of photos of it. I don’t think I’ll ever see a specimen this nice ever again.

I spent the afternoon trying to nap and not succeeding. I gave up at around 5:30 and went to get an ice cream. Then I went back to my room and watched entirely too much television on Hulu.com.

By 9 PM, I was sound asleep.

Sedona to Grand Canyon

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More photos from my trip.

I slept pretty crappy last night. My room got cold and I had to get up in the middle of the night to crank up the heat and throw an extra blanket on. I was very glad for the extra blanket. The heat — not so much. It was noisy and part of what kept me up was the sound of it going on and off for the rest of the night.

Sedona Morning

Okay, so it’s a crappy photo. Sorry. But it shows what I was seeing, so it stays.

I woke before dawn feeling too lazy to walk out to the overlook with my camera. Later, I finally went out and managed to capture a hot air balloon in flight. It would have been a better photo about 15 minutes earlier.

I was in Sedona, of course. On the second day of a Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure.

Once I shook the laziness out, I went over to the lookout and shot some early morning photos of Coffee Pot Rock and the neighboring red rock buttes. I was the only person up there — which really surprised me. The last time I was up there at dawn, there had been a small crowd. But tourists are weird about sunrises and sunsets. They’ll stick to a sunset until the sun slips behind the horizon, often missing out on the colorful light show that often comes afterwards in the clouds. For sunrises, they’ll show up before the light appears and leave just as it’s starting to play on the surroundings. So perhaps I’d missed the crowd. The light was good — although it would have been better a bit earlier.

Coffee Pot Rock and Friends

Coffee Pot Rock and nearby buttes on an early Sedona morning.

N630ML

N630ML at Sedona Airport.

After grabbing my passenger’s luggage and running them over to the airport restaurant for breakfast, I headed out to the helicopter to load it up and preflight. And take a few photos. Please don’t think I’m consumed with photographing my helicopter. I’m not. But I do need a few new shots of it someplace other than parked out in the desert. And you gotta admit: it is pretty.

By the way, did you know that Sedona is listed as one of the top 10 most difficult airports to land at in the U.S.? I think it was in AOPA Pilot, but I could be wrong.

After some more running around — including finding myself a latte and putting gas in the rental car — my passengers and I took off for the Grand Canyon. I took us northwest past Sycamore Canyon and up to the Colorado Plateau. We flew over my place at Howard Mesa and past the old airport near Red Butte before coming in for landing at Grand Canyon Airport.

There was another R44 on the other transient helipad. The pilot had tied down just one blade. Not very bright unless you want to damage the droop stop. I know this from experience. On an R44, you tie down both blades if you’re serious about protecting them.

I buttoned up the helicopter while my passengers waited on the ramp. It didn’t take long. We were running very early. That meant we spent a lot of time waiting for their helicopter flight over the canyon with Maverick. Afterwards, we took a taxi into the park.

Now normally I’d bring my passengers in to the hotel where they’d pick up the key for their room later on, tell them where to get the key, and let them loose at the canyon. I’d check the luggage and get lunch. Later, I’d check them in and move their luggage to their room. After spending a few hours along the rim, they’d come to the desk, get their key, and go to their room.

Today it didn’t work like that. When I got back from lunch and went to check on the status of the rooms, my passengers were waiting in the lobby. The rooms weren’t ready. My passengers weren’t interested in a stroll along the rim. So they waited.

For about 2-1/2 hours.

I felt terrible about this, but there’s nothing I could do. The rooms are guaranteed for 4 PM check in. Sometimes they’re ready earlier. Sometimes they’re not. Today they weren’t. I never in my wildest dreams expected passengers to prefer sitting in the lobby of the hotel to wait for their room instead of sitting outside on a beautiful day with the Grand Canyon in front of them.

Of course, my room was ready first, but I couldn’t claim it. When theirs was finally ready — at 3:45 PM — I paid a bellman to take them and their luggage to it.

Their room is a canyon view cabin with a fireplace, television, and full bath. Mine is a tiny dorm-like room with a toilet and sink but no shower. It’s cosy, but there’s at least one spider living in it and the light bulb is missing from one of the two bedside lamps.

Squirrel

This photo is not cropped — this squirrel was close.

Anyway, I took a lot of photos of the canyon and the tourists and the squirrels while I was waiting. The squirrels were especially entertaining. They’re not afraid of people at all. They come right up to you, especially if they smell food. I think one of them caught a whiff of the cheese and crackers in my bag. Everyone was taking photos of them, watching their antics. I was very pleased to see that no one fed them.

Bright Angel Trail

Bright Angel Trail. There are three hikers in those two circles.

Once we were all settled into our rooms — at least I assume they’re settled into their room — I caught the shuttle out on the West Rim Drive, making a few stops along the way. The light today was a bit softer than I like for a late afternoon at the canyon, but it got better (and worse) as time went on. One of the stops offered an excellent view of Bright Angel trail. This shot isn’t very artistic, but it does document the zig zag nature of the trail. And the two red circles indicate where hikers were coming up. Can’t see them? I’m not surprised; I had to zoom in on the full resolution photo to find them.

Photographers at the Grand Canyon

How different can these photos be?

There was a group of photographers working their way to Hopi Point, which is apparently “the best” lookout for sunset photos. I got a real kick out of them when I saw them all lined up to take the same photos. If this is what “photowalking” is about, I don’t think it’s for me. Most of these folks had attitude written all over them. They carried backpacks full of lenses and had tripods that could have supported me. And they were hurried along by a guide — or troop leader? — who kept reminding them of the time and how important it was to reach Hopi Point by 6:15 PM.

Personally, I don’t think true art can happen if it’s rushed.

Grand Canyon Sunset

My Grand Canyon sunset shot.

I stuck around at Powell Point and got all of my fading light shots from there. I could see Hopi Point out to the west — it was absolutely mobbed with people. Powell had a steady handful of people that came and went. The light got good about 15 minutes before the sun set and I got this rather nice shot. There are a few others that aren’t bad; I may put them in my Photo Gallery.

I took the shuttle bus back to my room, put on comfy clothes, and started winding down for the day. And I wrote this. Next up: some cheese and crackers and a movie on my laptop.

Getting Away from it All

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We spend a weekend at our “summer” place on Howard Mesa.

It’s no secret that central Arizona, near Phoenix, gets brutally hot in the summer time. Daytime shade temperatures in July and August typically 110°F or above, and you can add 20 to 30°F if you happen to step out into the unyielding sun. We realized after just a few short years in Wickenburg that we’d need a place to escape to.

I heard about Howard Mesa on a radio commercial advertising 10-, 36-, and 40-acre parcels near the Grand Canyon. Mike was away at the time — he telecommuted to a job in New Jersey and spent about a week and a half each month there — so I hopped in my Toyota and made the 154-mile drive alone to check it out. I was soon seated in a big sedan beside Larry, who would be our sales guy, driving up well-maintained dirt roads to the few lots that were still available on top of the mesa. I fell love with the second lot he showed me, a pie-shaped wedge near the mesa’s highest point. The wide “crust” of the pie shape was flat and bordered state land, where I was assured nothing could be built. The rest of the land dropped off gently toward the west. Every inch of the property was buildable, but the obvious building site was right before the dropoff, where an old two-track road used by ranchers and hunters led to a clearing, where a single cow rested in the shade of a pinyon pine.

The land was off-the grid — that means no electricity, water, telephone, gas, or cable television — five full miles from pavement and about ten miles from the nearest store where one could buy a quart of milk. Williams, AZ, which had a supermarket and restaurants, was 20 miles south. Valle, the crossroads of Routes 64 from Williams and 180 from Flagstaff, was 14 miles north. The entrance to Grand Canyon National Park was another 30 or so miles north of that.

It was the quiet, beauty of the place that hooked me. Not a single building was within sight — just rolling hills of golden grasses, studded with the dark green of juniper and pinyon pines. Once Larry shut off his Buick, all I could hear was the wind, with the occasional call of a crow or raven.

San Francisco PeaksBut it was the 360° views that sold me. To the north, is Red Butte and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. To the west and northwest, are distant mountain ranges near Seligman, as well as Mount Trumbull on the Arizona strip 85 miles away. To the south is Bill Williams Mountain, just south of Williams. And to the east is snowcapped Mount Humphreys and the San Francisco Peaks, the tallest mountain in Arizona.

The price for all this amazing remote beauty? Less than $1,000 per acre. And our lot was priced higher than most others because of the view.

That’s how it all started. And what we realized just last night is that we’ve owned this place for ten years now. It was the Toyota that trigged the date memory. I bought my Jeep in the summer of 1999 and I was still using my Toyota as my primary car when we bought the place. That meant April/May 1999.

Our use of the place has varied over the years. In the beginning, we camped there on weekends in a pop-up camper, which we kept folded up on the property when we weren’t around. We had a round pen for the horses, which we’d bring with us. We got the entire 40 acres fenced in so the horses could run free. Then we began preliminary work on getting a house built. After a false start getting ripped off by Lindal Custom Homes — they told us we could build a home for $60/square foot but needed $600 to draw up the plans; the plans resulted in a home that would cost $120/square foot to build — we started exploring other modest custom home solutions. We had a septic system put in. I spent the summer of 2004 in a trailer up here while I flew for one of the Grand Canyon helicopter tour operators. And then, to give us a place to store our stuff while we were preparing to build, we put in what we call our “camping shed.”

And that’s where things got stalled.

You see, although I still love our place atop the mesa and would love to build a full-time residence up here, Mike thinks it’s a bit too lonely and remote. With so much going on for us in the Phoenix area these days, we don’t come up here nearly as often as we used to. To further complicate matters, the future of the area has become questionable. Much of the land up for resale and several property owners have put up commercial style buildings or trashed up their lots with a lot of junk. All this takes away much of the charm of the place. It seems senseless to pour a lot of money into a permanent residence when we’re not sure whether our new home will be looking out over a bunch of used shipping containers and broken down cars or another oversized Quonset hut or a second-hand mobile home left to deteriorate in the sun and wind.

Camping ShedSo we come up here on the occasional weekend and soak up the silence or the sound of the wind. If the nights are moonless, we can see almost as many stars as Hubble — or at least it seems that way — along with the distant glow of Las Vegas, 173 air miles away. Jack the Dog spends most of his time investigating the rocks, looking for lizards or pack rats, or chasing rabbits. Alex the Bird hangs out in his cage, playing with his toys and whistling along to the music on my iPod. Mike and I go for walks or do odd maintenance tasks to keep our camping shed in good condition. Sometimes we’ll go for lunch and a walk along the rim at the Grand Canyon. Other times, we’ll drive out to Flagstaff for some Thai food and to pick up some odds and ends in Home Depot or the RV repair shop. Still other times — like this weekend — we’ll just lounge in the shade on the camping shed’s “porch,” reading or talking.

Its restful — the perfect antidote for the poisons of modern civilization.

When I’m finished with this year’s cherry drying gig, I’ll probably spend a month or so up here with Jack and Alex. Mike will join me on weekends. I’ll work on the last of the three books I have contracted for this year. I’ll make day trips to Williams or the Grand Canyon or Flagstaff. I’ll enjoy the violent thunderstorms that roll through during monsoon season. I’ll take my Jeep to explore the forest roads bordering Grand Canyon National Park and likely find one or two new places to look down into that vast abyss without a tourist in sight. At night, I’ll look out at the stars and listen to the coyotes. It’ll be a simple life — an escape from reality.

Something I need more often than most people.