brightangelblog: July 2021

We have returned from our North rim pilgrimage. There was no Fourth of July water fight because the Park Service did not want to tell people to stand shoulder to shoulder and breathe in COVID cooties. I am sure the masses of people we saw were all vaccinated, right? right?

We passed through Cameron on the way, the Navaho still require masks because they believe in science. A blousy woman was incensed at the 'masks required' signs and demanded, "Isn't this Arizona?" I said, "No, it is the Navaho Nation," pulled up my mask and walked in. They are on a cross country trip with no masks?

We camped at Cape Final the first night and had the only rain of the trip. We were putting up the tent for the first time in five years in a hail storm. "This is the cross poll". "No, THIS one is."

We had a semi-view cabin on the North rim and the first thing that happens is a family strings a bunch of hammocks right in front of my porch and plop down. Hammocks are not allowed by the Park Service because they are bad for the trees, and they ought not to be allowed by Forever Resorts because they look tacky. Also, I did not pay extra for a view of fat tourists. I have demanded a refund. We shall see.

I reported them and they were told to take them down. They did, then immediately hung them back up and smirked at me because I could not get rid of them.

We did all our hikes early because it was still in the 90's at 8,000 feet (!) One dark morning on the North Kaibab we saw the smallest little spotted skunk you have ever seen in the middle of the trail. He chittered at me and climbed the wall and kept chittering. I guess I am lucky all he did was chitter.

Then on to Bryce. I have always wanted to hike the Thunder Mountain Trail at Red Canyon so we did. I am fully confident that I shall never mountain bike it.

I have also always wanted to hike to the Hat Shop at Bryce. Every time I have tried something has gone wrong. So we started out from the lodge to hike the three miles to the trailhead, because the trail is only four miles round trip and that is not enough for us overachievers. We got to the trailhead and my sun umbrella had fallen out of the pack, so I ran back the three miles in 30 minutes and found it at the bottom of the first hill. Something did not want me to do this hike, but this time I was determined, so we caught the shuttle bus instead.

The hike is nice, even some shade, but when we saw the hat shop we both wanted our money back. I expected something like Mexican Hat, and this was a conglomerate with basalt clasts. It might have been more impressive had it not been almost 100 degrees by now. Since I had gone to all that trouble to get my umbrella back, I hooked it to my pack for shade, but by the time we got out we were both thrashed from the heat.

Two difference I noticed from the Canyon. No runners. I guess running the length of Bryce is not a social media "thing". Also, at the Canyon everyone asks how far did you go, who far is it to three mile/the River/Santa Maria, are you going rim-to-rim? Only one woman asked me where we had started from, and she wanted to know if her group was on the correct loop trail. As it turns out, no.