CuRVWander: Shutdown continued....and a hike.

As the day has progressed we have learned a few (very few) details about the shutdown. Since my last post we found out that the rangers that work the entrance station and campground check-in kiosk have been furloughed with no option to remain. They are done for the season and have to vacate the premises. There is no going back to "normal operations" even if the ding-dongs in Washington work things out.

We also found out that people already in the campground with permits that go beyond 11:00am Thursday morning will NOT be allowed to stay as we were first told. Everybody has to be gone, campers, cabins and lodge all gone.

The entrance station, 12 miles away in the meadow is already closed and barricaded. Law Enforcement Rangers are now sitting out there and making sure no one tries to skirt around by coming in the exit. Road signs have been put up at Jacob Lake 45 miles away warning drivers that the Grand Canyon is closed. Sounds funny doesn't it. How do you close the outdoors?

I started to get ready to go on my hike today. I was going to go down the North Kaibab Trail a little ways and take some pictures of Roaring Springs Canyon. But just as I was about to depart, one of the furloughed rangers came up and invited us to attend an impromptu going away pot-luck lunch. Cyndee and I both wanted to be able to say goodbye to everyone so there was no way we were going to miss it.

The mood at the lunch was pretty good. Most were taking the attitude that they had an extra two weeks to do whatever they wanted before getting to whatever they had planned for the winter. Summer experiences were recollected and emails and phone numbers were exchanged while getting a group picture.

Cyndee and I came back to our camper but our co-host, Don had made the decision to leave immediately. He left in his class-C RV from the pot-luck and headed for Flagstaff. He had an elderly uncle and his wife that were supposed to arrive at the North Rim Lodge today, but with the shutdown in force they were caught on the outside. Don went to Flagstaff to put them up in his rental townhome to wait and see if things cleared up and his uncle could resume their five national park tour.

We sat in our camp chairs and watched the road in front of our camper. Normally it would be a steady stream of arrivals coming in all afternoon. But not today. There was only a little bit of traffic with people in the campground going to the showers, doing laundry, picking up items at the General Store or going to the Lodge for a drink or dinner.

Cyndee thought the lodge sounded like a good idea. We had twiddled our thumbs about as long as we cared to so we loaded up in Big Gulp and got to the lodge a little less than an hour before sunset.

Parking was abundant and we got a spot closer than any time before. We also discovered a scenic overlook trail that we had not seen before. What a surprise, we could see into Roaring Springs Canyon better than we knew was possible without getting on the North Kaibab Trail and taking a difficult hike.

Not expecting to do any sightseeing I had left my camera at the camper and my phone was dead so it was back at the camper too, on the charger. Cyndee had her phone but her battery was seriously low too. I managed to get in a few shots before it died altogether.

This is a view of Roaring Springs Canyon that we thought we would never see without serious climb down the North Kaibab Trail.

Our little hike took us down an asphalt trail. Roaring Springs Canyon is on the left, the Grand to the right.

Looking straight out into the Grand Canyon from the trail that leads to Bright Angel Point

The air is about the clearest we have seen since arriving in July. The San Francisco Peaks were easy to see at more than 25 miles away. Flagstaff is on the back side of the peak on the left.

This spot on the Bright Angle Point Trail is about the best view of the sun room I have seen.

Roaring Springs Canyon

The lighting is getting way too difficult for the iPhone to handle but at least you can see the footpath, its narrowness and no railing between you and a couple thousand feet straight down.