Mike in the Wild

I've hiked into the Grand Canyon several times since I moved to Arizona in 1988.  The last two times were into the canyon proper but actually outside the National Park, on Havasupai Trail which lies within the adjacent Havasupai Indian Reservation.  And the first time was down Hermit Trail which does lie in the Park.  Those three hikes were memorable for the fact that I also backpacked so that I could camp overnight, thus avoiding an exhausting climb out the same day I descended.  They were also quite notable because they happened more than thirty years ago.  Last month I finally descended again, albeit on a much shorter and far easier trek. From the South Rim in Grand Canyon National Park there are four public trails that lead hikers into the canyon.  They all eventually reach the Colorado River, a force that started carving the majestic landscape over sixty million years ago.  Two of the trails, Hermit and Bright Angel, follow pathways originally tread by Native Americans long be

There's no shortage of spectacular scenery at the Grand Canyon.  The vast, deep, dynamic landscape cascading from the miles of rim-side trails offers jaw-dropping scenery with every look.  Sunsets and sunrises offer even more magical views for the visitors that plan longer days.  And during my lucky stay overnight on the South Rim, the almost pitch-black darkness enforced throughout the National Park guaranteed some of the most stunning views imaginable of our planet's star-filled sky. On a moonless night I witnessed the Milky Way stretching overhead from the southern to the northern horizons, guiding my attention along the illuminated path its name connotates.  The Big Dipper lay low to the north, providing an easy guide to the North Star, Polaris. I was able to discern Andromeda, Earth's nearest neighboring galaxy, after approximating its location thanks to finding another constellation, Cassiopeia, whose distinctive W-shape points to it.  Sirius, the brightest star in ou

California condors, Clark's nutcrackers, and black-billed magpies were on my mind as I set out on the long road trip through the Painted Desert, the Navajo Nation, and wide expanses of pine tree forests.  Over six hours later, having reached my destination on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I was surprised that my first bird discovery was an American robin.  Surely, I asked myself, this remote corner of Arizona should also be the home to some of our state's most uncommon bird life? The North Rim lies more than a thousand feet higher than the South Rim and its plateaus are set back twice as far away from the Colorado River deep below.  And only ten percent of Grand Canyon National Park's visitors ever venture to that side of the river.  It's isolated, both from towns and the surrounding desert environment.  As a result, countless miles of views, trails, and pristine native habitat await uncrowded and unspoiled.  The forest landscape isn't all that different than o

There's no simple way to write a short story about the Grand Canyon just as my weekend camping trip to its south rim confirmed there's no simple way to visit such a vast and complex national park.  The park protects a large corner of northwestern Arizona that's been eroded over millions of years by the Colorado River between present day Lake Powell in the northeast to Lake Meade in the southwest.   A mile deep, extending for more than a hundred miles in length and sometimes a dozen miles wide, the canyon's dimensions will overwhelm even the most jaded statistician when witnessed in person. Besides a geological story that's almost as old as Earth itself, the canyon is a tale of flora and fauna that have evolved and thrived at over 7,000 feet on its forested rims and of the contrasting life much lower in the deserts along the river.  Just as long as people have been on the continent, there's a millennia long account of natives, conquistadors, explorers, miners