South Kaibab Trail

We awoke early on the morning of the third day of our trip to begin our hike down the South Kaibab trail. The trail is only six miles long however it descends over 5000 feet down to the Colorado River. We started at dawn and arrived at the Colorado in the early afternoon. We took plenty of pictures as you can see below.

The view near the start of the trail looking towards the northwest. The morning sun had just begun to strike the upper portions of the canyon as we began our decent. I tried to enjoy the view as Sara mumbled behind me something about having to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn. I like to think of it as her way of thanking me for getting her up in time to see the sun rise.

The troops as they descent. Pictured first is me with my pack and a breakfast of bagels hanging off my pack in a plastic bag. Christina is directly in front of me while Quent leads the way. Steady as we go. No one wanted to accidentially take the short cut down over the edge to our right.

Quent and Christina pictured as they followed the trail down. The first part of the trial was mostly switchbacks carved out along the face of the canyon wall. This allowed for a scenic yet shaded path for a good part of the morning.

A view of O'Neill Butte below. The sun is starting to encroach on the depths of the canyon below.

A quick stop to put on our war paint for the impending battle with the sun. Us folks from Minnesota and especially our friends from Wrangell, AK aren't use to the blazing Arizona heat.

A black and white of the canyon below us. Smoke the from forest fire along the north rim fills the canyon to the east. The plateau shown below is about 2000 feet further down. The Colorado River is an additional 1500 feet below that.

Another view of the O'Neill Butte from the trail. How much further?

A view of the trail as is disappears behind the rock in the foreground and snakes around the butte and into the canyon in the background.

Sara and I stop for a photo opp. We are both about 3 inches shorter in this picture after having our spines compressed from our backpacks. We welcome the break from packs about as much as we were enjoying the view.

Looking back along the trail we had just come. The South Rim dominates the background which reminds us we are only about half way into the canyon. This section of the trail was much less aggressive the the first portion as it leveled out as we neared the plateau.

A view of the canyon as we neared Skeleton Point. Aptly named as temperatures were soaring above 100 degrees at this point. Still another 2000 vertical feet to go. Quent and I started to overhear rumors of mutiny at this point.

One of the first glimpses of the Colorado river since leaving the south rim. We were somewhat surprised to see how much sediment was being carried by the river. This view reminded me of a quote I'd read earlier from a 19th century explorer of the Colorado. "Too thick to drink and too thin to plow" - Major John W. Powell, 1869. That may be so, but at this portion of the trip any ribbon of water was looking awfully inviting.

We ended up skipping the Colorado and headed straight for tributary stream. This is called the Bright Angel creek or heaven as we were calling it that day. Quent immediately shed his pack and jumped into the cool water. The rest of us sat in the shade as we tried to muster the energy to walk the last 50 yards to the creek. It didn't take long before we were all soon in the river trying to escape the 107+ heat.

Our campsite along the Bright Angel Creek.

An early evening view of the Bright Angel Canyon.

The setting sunlight on the walls of the Grand Canyon.

Sara, Quent, and Christina smile for the camera near the Colorado River.

Phoenix to Grand Canyon

Day two began in Phoenix where we met up with our friends Quent and Christina. After gathering some supplies we headed north to Flagstaff and then to the Grand Canyon.


A view of the mountains around Flagstaff. Again we marveled at the drastic change in terrain from the desert around Phoenix.

Our first view of the Grand Canyon. We were all immediately impressed with its size and depth. I'm not sure any of us had anticipated just how large it would be. As you approach the South Rim you drive through a forest of pine which obscures the view of the Canyon. It isn't until you have arrived at the south rim that you can finally see the canyon.

A black and white taken from the south rim. Notice the smoke rising from the horizon beyond. This was from a fire that was burning along the north rim.

Our friends Quent and Christina pose for a photo. Look at those smiles!

Another view of the canyon looking towards the east. It's about this time that we start thinking about our hike down the canyon the next day. How far down was that again? 5000 feet?

The sunset setting in the west.

First Day in Arizona

In early September Sara and I took our long awaited trip to Arizona. It was the first trip to the Southwest for both of us and an entirely new experience. Below are a few pictures from our first day.

Cactus? This was our first time seeing "free range" cactus. This variety of cactus is known as Saguaro. It reminded me of Snoopy's brother Spike from the Peanuts cartoons. Sara snapped this photo from our rental car as we drove by. She wanted me to stop so we could get a better picture but I told her we'd have plenty of opportunity for that later on during our trip. My name is now mud because we never stopped and took the time to get a better photo.

The terrain quickly changed from cacti to pines as we headed north into the mountains. This is picture of the Arizona Natural Bridge located near Payson, AZ. It really was quite spectacular.

Another view of the Natural bridge from the bottom of the canyon. The primary geology of this area is limestone, however at the bottom of the canyon there was travertine, which is a mineral with a smooth glossy appearance. The travertine is a result of mineral deposition from water and erosion.

A view from the interior of the Natural Bridge. Notice the water falling from a small stream that spills off the top of the bridge. It was strange to see water not far from the dry valleys around Phoenix. Soon after hiking out of the canyon and hitting the road we were treated with a spectacular display of thunder and lightning from localized thunderstorms moving through the area.

A rainbow we captured on our return to Phoenix. Gotta love the wide open spaces.

August

In August we were able to steal a weekend away to visit Houghton. We stayed in the Twin Lakes area thanks to the generosity of Dr. Vitton who allowed us the use of his cabin.


A view of the Houghton/Hancock lift bridge from above Mt. Ripley. We strategically positioned the photo to block out the ugly condos built just to the east of the north end of the bridge.


Sara poses next to a few birch trees near the Quincy Mine.

This is a cool photo of the masonry wall from the old Quincy Mine. I thought it was a neat pattern. It was taken in black and white to provide a more uniform image.

Agate Beach. It's been several years since we last visited Agate Beach which is located in south west Houghton county. We hit it just as the sun was dipping below the horizon.

Little foot and Big foot. Guess who's is whose. :)

Sara smiles at the camera in the fading evening light. She doesn't know that I'm contemplating dunking her into the lake.

Another view of Agate Beach in the evening light. Notice the speck of moon visible just above the trees.

A picture of me as I walked towards the shore. Sara thought my blurred image was a nice touch. Maybe she is trying to tell me something.......?

This is a photo I took of the wave lines that are spread across the beach. Again, the camera does not do it justice. This picture was a bit of a disappointment compared to how it looked with the naked eye.

The Vitton cabin located on twin lakes. Stan tells us that this unit along with dozens more just like it use to be used for student housing back when he attended school at tech. I'm not sure how it work as an apartment but it makes a great cabin!

In late August we were invited to go "Wheelin" with Ryan, a friend of mine from work. This is his rig which is 'slightly' modified samauri. He added 40+ inch wheels, a custom chassis and two transmissions. Yes, two. He let me drive it for a stint, what a blast. This picture is of me and another co-worker, adam.

One of the guys we went out with got his Jeep Cherokee stuck in this little mud hole. It took us about 45 minutes to pull it out. It must have had about 400 lb of mud packed beneath the hood by the time we were done.

Ryan brought his brother's golden retriever along with us for the day. She managed to walk into a nearby mud hole and then proceeded to get stuck. She eventually gave up. Here we are during our rescue attempt. The mud was hard on top and the consistency of pudding beneath. I had to crawl out on my stomach to reach her. This picture was taken after I had already dragged her six feet. I think I lost a shoe in their somewhere.

Ryan puts his rig through the paces by doing some rock crawling. His friend Ben guides him over the boulders.

July

Early July took Sara to California to visit her brother and myself to Michigan to visit my family. Since Sara had the camera we can only post photos of her adventure and none of my misadventure. Just as well anyway. Sara is much more photogenic.

Sara and Andy pose on the California coast in front of a rather neat concrete bridge. I bet you were always wondering where engineers go on vacation.

I thought this was a cool picture that Sara took of a pier at some unnamed city along the California coast. The city is unnamed because I don't know where they went and Sara is not around to set me straight. That's what you get when you leave me in charge of important things such as this. Another fun game would be to count the misspelled words. How many are you up to now?

A neat photo of the California coast. Quite a bit different from the summer greens of the Midwest.

You're in luck. I do know where this photo was taken. This is 'Half Dome' within Yosemite National Park taken near Glacier Point. I think the black and white picture really highlights the contrast between the trees in the foreground which frame the mountain beyond.

Sara and Andy pose near ah er... um a river. Is there enough water for all those people to be swimming in? I guess that is California for you.

This is a shot of a lake near the north entrance of the park. You can see the granite mounds of the Sierra Nevada's in the background.

For our 2nd wedding anniversary Sara and I took a trip over the the Apostle Islands for the day. We spent too much time having fun and not enough time taking pictures so our offering is limited. This was taken on the ferry ride over to Madeline Island. It was a beautiful day.

We took a break and jumped into the Lake on this beach located at the North end of Madeline Island.