Gems of the National Park Service: Part 1, The Grand Canyon

The view from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on a hazy July evening, 2015.

Montezuma Castle

Birding trips and vacations are not alike.  Certainly, there may be great sites to see on a birding trip, but the focus is on the birds.  And certainly birds can be found on a sightseeing vacation, but the trip is about the destinations, and the birds are a happy accident.

Such was the case recently when I embarked on a long-discussed, long-desired vacation.  It was billed as a trip to the Grand Canyon by Caravan Tours, but according to the tour literature, most of the time was to be spent in other places.  Furthermore, the Grand Canyon was listed as the first destination and a two-night stopover.  Odd, I thought.  Why did they plan such a big trip and put the crown jewel up front?  But when I asked the tour director why they hadn't saved the best for last, he smiled and said, "We did."  As it turned out, that extraordinary treasure of the American southwest came in third on the list of my favorite places.

A gorgeous view toward the town of Sedona, AZ.

The first day of the trip was spent in Phoenix on organizational details.  I was early enough to get some birding in, and a walk around the area surrounding the Doubletree Hotel proved to be productive.  I watched White-winged Doves race about courtyards and a Gila Woodpecker scurry from one palm to another.  Great-tailed Grackles busily chased late afternoon snacks while House Sparrows did what they always do ... chat noisily while eating everything in sight.  My reverie was suddenly broken by a fluttering above me.  I looked up and was startled to see a Prairie Falcon looking back at me from not fifteen feet away!  While I stood there with my mouth agape, a car stopped.  "You a birdwatcher?"  I nodded that indeed was what I was doing.  "That's our local hawk right there.  I watch it every day from my fourth floor office window right up there."  Again I nodded, "Well, actually it's a falcon ..."  He wasn't interested.  "Yeah, well, it's pretty cool whatever it is.  I hope it hangs around for a long time."

The next morning dawned cool, crisp and clear, with none of Florida's humidity.  We hopped on our bus, met our driver (Bob, and he was terrific) and tour guide (Joe, equally terrific), and started out on the road.  By mid-morning we reached our first destination, Montezuma Castle National Monument, a relic of Sinagua communities that thrived south of Flagstaff between six and nine hundred years ago.  While snapping photos of the Castle, I noticed basket-like nests affixed the the cliff walls.  Cliff Swallows!  Sure enough, a flock of them danced crazily above us for fifteen minutes before moving on the their next feeding site.  Down below us at the river's edge, a Black Phoebe found some tasty morsels for a late breakfast.

My first lifer of the trip, a Mountain Bluebird in Valle, AZ

Back on the bus we turned toward Sedona and what was for me the least appealing stop on the tour.  Yes, the scenery around the town was spectacular, but what was billed as an artists' community turned out to be nothing more than a tourist trap with a couple of blocks of non-stop souvenir and confection shops and restaurants.  Still, the Bell Butte and the view across the valley to the real Sedona were beautiful sights, and a Western Scrub Jay added to the day's pleasures.  Then later at a rest stop near Valle I got my first life bird of the trip - a Mountain Bluebird - one of my Ten Most Wanted!

Finally, we turned toward the Grand Canyon, arriving there after 5:00 PM.  The day was hazy and photos weren't as clear as I wanted, but there is no denying the extraordinary beauty and indescribable scope of this treasure of the American southwest.  In truth, it lives up to its Grand name.  It's a vast, intricate, colorful and unending maze of painted canyons nestled between towering buttes and mesas. I kept thinking, how can this be real?  Surely it was a Hollywood blue-screen set for some fantasy-world movie.  But there it was - just inches from my shoe tips, gaping wide into a chasm that dropped for thousands of feet.  It was overwhelmingly, stunningly beautiful.  Soon I was to beg the question, can one take too many pictures of the Grand Canyon?  Around every corner, at every dip in the trail, there was another breath-taking view.  Whether from the narrow ledge of the Bright Angel Trail, from the Watchtower at Desert View, or right outside our hotel window, every glance screamed for a photo opp.  I snapped away and have since enjoyed looking at every one of them over and again. 

Navajo Spear Dancer with eagle feather adornments

This dancer used extremely intricate footwork!

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Navajo dancers.  Wrapped in their native clothing and feathered adornments, the dancers were a brilliant whirl of colors, shapes, motion and energy.  I was glad to learn that the ancient Navajo ways have become a source of pride and interest for today's youth, and that the Navajo language is once again being taught in their schools.  The rest of us need always remember that this was the language of the famous code-talkers of World War II whose exploits saved thousands of American lives and directly contributed to American victories on some the war's bloodiest battlefields of the Pacific theater.  Then they went home and kept their heroic role a secret - even from their own families - obeying the final order from their officers.  These same code-talkers were the children and grandchildren of the Navajo who had their land taken from them by the American army and eventually were confined to the least valuable and least productive portions of that land.  If it weren't so tragic, the irony would almost be laughable.  I wonder how many of today's "patriots" would have served had they been confined in poverty to a reservation before being asked to volunteer for service to "their country."  Yet they did so - by the hundreds - and made a very tangible difference in the outcome of the war. 

Looking toward the Colorado River from Desert View

We spent two nights and the intervening day in the Grand Canyon.  I can attest that the sight never got old.  But the people-watching was also a constant source of thrills - and not always in a good way.  There was a large contingent of Japanese youth in red jackets throughout the park.  Like teens everywhere, they were exuberant, filled with energy and life, and apparently believed themselves to be invincible.  This led to some shockingly unsettling sights for this old school teacher/field trip leader!  The scariest was a group that crawled its way out to the edge of a rocky point thousands of feet above the canyon floor, only to stand in the gusting wind then shout and wave with gigantic smiles while taking dozens of photos of each other with their tablets and selfie-sticks.  Every teacher instinct in me wanted to jerk them up and send them scurrying back onto the trail where they belonged!

The funniest sight was a trio of these same red-jacketed tourists, two young men and a lovely girl.  The boys surrounded her, seemingly vying for her attention while she laughed and scampered just ahead of them.  A storm was brewing and the gusting wind suddenly lifted her newly-purchased Grand Canyon hat and tossed it over the cliff's edge.  It hung up on a tree top about thirty feet below us.  Shocked and dismayed, she called to the two boys and pointed down the extremely steep slope to her cap.  They walked to the edge, glanced down, looked at each other then at her.  Slowly, they both shook their heads.  I didn't need to understand Japanese to know that discretion is in fact the better part of valor regardless of the language, culture or attractiveness of the young lady.

Brown-crested Flycatcher - Beautiful in Its Own Right.

That green ribbon, way below, is the bottom of Bright Angel Trail.  I didn't walk down because I couldn't have walked back.

This Brewer's Blackbird and I shared a view of the Canyon (below) before we both turned away from the edge.

Nightfall approaching the Grand Canyon, South Rim