It was a little windy when we closed our eyes on our own little patch of slickrock sandstone, but sometime during the night - after air temperatures equalized a bit - it calmed down and there was barely a breeze when our alarm went off about 20 minutes before sunrise. Our new-to-us Big Agnes Copper Spur UL 3 tent worked so much better than the semi-self-standing tent we had previously. Unlike most mornings where we might hit the snooze button once or twice, we were up and about almost immediately. Knowing that the forecast was for even hotter temperatures than…
5 CommentsTag: Grand Canyon North Rim
It's been more than a year since I visited my first Grand Canyon Polychrome site out on the Esplanade and I've been very curious to get back and look for more of these wonderful pictographs. Naturally, being rock art - and a relatively rare variety at that - the locations of the sites are a closely guarded secret by those lucky enough to know them. I'd hoped to finally meet and head out on a hike with of adventr.co - one of the foremost rock art enthusiasts I know - but family matters came up and he was unable to…
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Back at the Tacoma, and after consuming breakfast a smidge late, I packed up the tent and hit the road immediately. I'd hoped to tackle a top-secret hike - to some allegedly amazing rock art - for much of the afternoon, but my late arrival back at camp left no time for such activities. Instead, I needed to turn on the afterburners to reach my next camp site; even then, I'd was almost certain I'd be arriving in the dark. Rolling out of Snake Gulch. Amazing how places can look so different from the air. It took a couple hours…
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Our night - near the Tuckup Trail - wasn't nearly as miserable as we imagined it would be. I don't know if Mike ever turned his engine to warm up his cab, but my earplugs and heated socks made for sound sleep on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Photos of deep canyons are difficult to capture once the sun is blazing down from above. With one side of the canyon bathed in light, the other is deep in shadow, a contrast that's hard to balance with anything but the human eye. And so, as is often the case,…
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After spending two weeks (one) (two) in Death Valley, and a week in the Mojave Preserve before that, I figured it was time to get out of the Mojave Desert for a bit. My first inclination was to head east towards Cedar Mesa to continue my search for the Juniper Tree ruin. This, I figured, would be a relatively straightforward affair, since I'm confident that I've narrowed down its location, so I knew I'd need more to fill a trip. Pouring over my usual sources of inspiration, I came upon a reference to the Shamans Gallery along the North Rim…
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