More Grand canyon.

The alarm went off at 5:45 am, I got up in a daze and managed to get myself out the door, into the car and over to the Visitors centre by 6:15. Here's a map explaining it all. My lodging were at A, the Visitors Centre is at B and after parking the car, I caught the free shuttle bus to C.

This was my first real look at the canyon and it looked amazing in the dawn light.


Why was I up at this time in the morning ? Not just for the photos, the plan was to join a ranger guided walk to Cedar Ridge. This map shows Cedar Ridge.
We walked from the lower carpark loop to the green arrow. It doesn't look very far but it took us about an hour and a half. (Here's another map.)

You can see the trail going along the lower part of the cliff.


The colours were amazing in the subdue morning light.


This was only a little walk. Cedar Ridge is a mere 300 m below the South Rim and only 20% of the way down to the river.


The sun started to peek over the top of the rim and dapple the canyon.


There were a number of animals about. Can you play spot the Least chipmunk?
Here he is for those that missed him.

The sun continued to dapple and lit up the top of Zoroaster Temple.


For those that are interestd, (Hi Louise) here is a table of the ages of the Grand Canyon rocks. We walked from the Kaibab formation to the Coconino Sandstone.


Our ranger turned up and she was fascinating. She's been a ranger for 31 years at the Grand Canyon. (And yes, I've forgotten her name.)


After a quick chat about what to expect, we started down the trail.


There were more animals about. I think this one is Abert's squirrel.
Here he is closeup.

Just a pleasant stroll down the hill really.


There were lots of interesting things in the layers as we walked down the paths.


And the ranger stopped and had people hold cards against them.






The sea lily was tiny.


In contrast to the canyon walls, which were huge. (There's two people on the trail at the bottom.)


This is a native pink thistle. Ach aye and all that.


We continued on. By now the sun was up and the clouds were retreating.


The cliffs were amazing.


So were the warning signs. It can be 15 degrees hotter on the canyon floor that on the rim, and a number of people have died of heat exhaustion.


I love the red colour and the layers.


Looking back up the trail to where we started.


Big chunk of rock that had slipped.


Another nature lecture on the types of animals.


The ranger at one point said that they had a slight erosion problem.


Ouch !! Spikey and purple !


Some of the layers were really well defined, like someone had painted them.


This looked like the same someone had been stacking rocks.


The light was incredible.


Cedar Ridge is the red bump in the lower left corner.


More amazing light and cliffs.


The Colorado river is down there somewhere.


Final zig zag to Cedar Ridge.


Fossilised lizard footprints.


Froma another angle.


Cear Ridge with O'Neill Butte to the right.


Getting to the bottom. Optional.
Getting to the top. Mandatory.


See !?! I really am here. ;)


Looking back up the trail. The start is the first notch to the right from the highest point.


A closer view of the start, you can just make out the zig zag trail below the horizontal part ot the cliff edge.


O'Neil Butte and Zoroaster Temple. One of my favourite photos.


I was playing around with the tilt-shift lens that I rented and making the cliff look like a model.


Looking the other way.


I'm not sure what he is, but he wasn't very afraid.


Going up was harder than I thought it would be. The air gets thinner at 7000 feet.


Looking back at Ooh-Ahh point. So named because you walk down the steps and suddenly see the canyon spread out in front of you.


Halfway up the final zig zag.


I made it back to the top. Caught the shuttle bus back to my lodgings and had some lunch. Then I had a nap and went out to shoot the sunset, but that's for another post.

(PS. I used a larger size click thru photo for the post. I'd like some comments on whether people prefer the larger size or should I go back to the normal size. Here's a comparision to help you. Normal size. Larger size. Thanks.)