Our patience and taking most of the day getting here was rewarded with some really nice weather and great scenery. Although I will have to say that the South Rim experience is really different than what we have come to know the last couple of months on the North Rim. The big difference is people, lots and lots of people. Then there are the services and facilities for all those people, far more developed and "commercial" than anything on the North Rim.
We found and visited with the host at Desert View Campground. Wow, there is no way I would volunteer for that job. In the first five minutes we met him he told us enough "experiences" that he had had to curl our hair and make our heads spin. He dealt with more things in three days than we have in two months. Cyndee and I both have suspected that we had been very lucky to work with a great bunch of folks and in a campground with a good "culture". Our few minutes visiting with Charlie at Desert View has confirmed our suspicions.
But enough of that, there were sights to see and hikes to be hiked. Our first pleasure stop was the Desert View Watchtower. This iconic attraction is about 26 miles to the east of the hub of the South Rim. While it is an attraction in and of itself, it is also surrounded by great vistas.
Mary Colter, a famous architect from the 1930's designed several of the National Park System's most famous lodges, and Desert View Watchtower. When you first see Watchtower you think it is an ancient structure, but Mary did a great job of building a modern structure to look ancient.
It is still summer time on the South Rim. Our flowers on the North Rim are al but gone now.
The tower is not really leaning, it is just the effect of the wide angle lens.
If you want to squint your way through it, here is the placard explaining how Mary Colter designed the watchtower.
The size of this shot is too big to fit on most screens but I like being able to see so much of the detail in design, even if I have to scroll to see it all.
There is a ledge nearby the watchtower. A short walk through some brush and you can step right up to the edge of the canyon with no railing to spoil the view.
Looking back to the east from Desert View there is what I think is an ancient cinder cone.
I kept edging my way along the rim and the view would change quite a bit in just a few feet.
This is something we don't get to see from the North Rim except in a couple of special spots, the Colorado River.
Scooch over just a few more feet, zoom in and a whole lot more river is visible.
Standing on the edge and turning to face back towards the tower and the canyon behind me.
The next several shots are from the foundation deck of the watchtower.
Going inside the tower at the foundation level is the gift shop. The ceiling of the gift shop is the floor of the first level of the tower. I bet the carpenters that had to figure out how to get all these logs to fit together had some choice words about Mary Colter.
There were no earrings to be had in this gift shop but that did not stop Cyndee from looking at every single item in the store.
In the gift shop is the entrance to a one person wide stairway that climbs through three levels in the tower. Each level has a collection of wall art, replicating cave, cliff and other ancient paintings.
 |
| Standing in the first level, looking up to the second. |
Artwork on the first level. Can you fans of Ancient Aliens find the spaceman in this picture?
Standing near the center of the tower on the first level and shooting all the way to the ceiling of the third level.
Zooming in on the ceiling. Somebody did a Michelangelo at the Sistine Chapel thing.
Here we are on the second level, looking up at the third.
And this is Cyndee taking the last of the 184 steps to get to the third level.
Now we look down the three levels.
The views out of the small windows on the third level are not too shabby.
After enjoying the views from the top of the tower we descended to the visitor center grounds much faster than we ascended the tower. I could not resist one more flower picture before getting in Big Gulp and heading for Shoshone Point.
Shoshone point is a little known place on the drive between Desert View and the South Rim Village. Many maps don't even show it, but a few of the more highly detailed ones do. The point itself is about a mile from the main road. There is an unmarked, dirt parking lot that you have to know to look for to be ready to slow down and pull into. From this parking lot there is a locked gate across a narrow, rough dirt road that goes out to the point.
The point is "owned" by the Grand Canyon Association. They hold special events out there and people can even work a deal with the Association to have weddings or other special occasions at the point. But in the days before we were to leave for the South Rim, rangers here on the North Rim started telling us that there was this "secret" spot that we just had to go see. Our co-host, Don was also adamant about us getting out to the point. He pulled out maps and showed us where the parking lot should be and gave us landmarks to look for so we would know if we had missed the spot.
Don gives good directions. We recognized when we were approaching the parking lot and were tee'd up to make the turn in. Cyndee and I both changed into hiking boots, I pulled on the backpack full of camera gear and binoculars, we hopped the fence and started the mile hike to the point.
The sun was getting low and the ponderosa pines and scrub oak was pretty dense so our walk through the forest was long shadows and dense shade. But shortly we could see the tree line end and nothing but blue sky beyond. The rim was at hand.
It was pretty fun tromping around this beautiful spot and then there was the added bonus that we were the only people in sight. There was absolutely no one else even close to where we were.
For awhile I thought that the "point" was just this little jut of land we were standing on. But as I moved around and was getting different angles for my shots I spotted this:
It was a narrow, sheer finger of Coconino sandstone standing proudly out in the canyon. And with the balanced rock perched at its tip, this had to be Shoshone Pointe.
I worked my way closer to where I could get access to the pointe.
There was a tight little path through the brush that looked like it might get me there.
It did get me there.
And I got some nice shots from this viewpoint.
Looking back the way I came. I have no idea why Cyndee would not come out to the point with me.
It was at this time that the sun had dipped low enough to touch the top of the trees. Cyndee was already worried about hiking back to the truck in the dark and had started in that direction without me. Time to hot-foot it out of here.
We made it back to the truck with a comfortable amount of daylight left. Just enough to get us to Grand Canyon Village so we could carry out a couple of missions. One of our volunteer supervisors had asked us to get her mail from the South Rim Post Office so we found the post office, which was next door to the general store. I went in to get the mail, Cyndee made a beeline to the General Store/Market. After retrieving the mail I caught up with Cyndee in the store, I was shocked. It was not the little log building with a couple of refrigerator cases and short shelves sparsely stocked with basics. No, this place was like a full-fledge grocery store. Stocked shelves with a variety to choose from and freezer isles and refrigerator isles and fresh fruit and vegetable isles. Wow, just like a real town. The one big difference from a real town was the prices. We saw stuff that was 200 to 400% higher than what we pay at Walmart. At those prices you could spend the money on fuel for the drive to Flagstaff and still come out ahead.
Another mission we were on was to deliver some laundry. Scott, one of the young rangers that was part of the North Rim crew got reassigned to the South Rim this week. In his haste to get packed and relocated he forgot he had a whole load of laundry in the dryer at the laundry cabin. Not realizing his load was a little lite until he arrived at the South Rim he called back to the North Rim desperate for someone to retrieve his laundry from the dryer and bring it to the South Rim. The volunteer supervisor, Nancy and I pulled his stuff out of the dryer and folded his shirts and put them in a laundry bag, neither of us were going to fold his underwear, that just got shoved in the bag. By the time we were done there was a good twenty pounds of laundry in the bag. Scott must have had nothing but uniforms to wear since leaving 5 or 6 days ago.
All I know is that when we caught up with him at one of the main entrance gates and he was really glad to see us. I got about three big man-hugs before I could hand the laundry bag over to him. Before we left he was offering us a place to "crash" anytime we were ever at the South Rim and his first born.
We told him that we had a place to stay in Flag for the night and that we might take him up on his offer (of a place to crash, not the first born) another time. That is when he recommended that we have dinner at Oregano's, a pizza place. Remember what I said in an earlier post about having had enough Navajo Taco that I would not have to eat again all day? Well, the temptation of a Chicago-style, deep dish pizza just put all thought of that out of my head. We now had a new mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment