Annual June Star Gazing at Grand Canyons National Park

Day 3 National Park 2010

I woke up with my head cold and the rest of my body warm.  I decided to take the time to look for a beanie.  I had short spurts of sleep and insisted on staying in bed till 6am.  I got out of bed at 7:30am and it was windy so it took a long time to boil water for instant noodles.  I made hot tea for my new friends.  Matt wanted hibiscus for the heat from yesterday, exhausted from the run and the sleep.  Pat, it was high mountain tea.  We all ate cookies and mocha till 9:30am.  It was nice to hang out and chat.  We traded travel routes and travel experiences and then we parted and went on with our ways.

I cleaned camp and organized for the next hour or so.  I plugged in my charger in the rest room with the extension chord while I washed up.  One of the things I didn’t bring last time was an extension chord and panel strip.  This time I am more prepared.   

The South Rim Grand Canyons has an efficient bus shuttle system with bus drivers who inform you of interesting facts of vista points.  I headed for Mohavi point and got off at the vista point prior to it.  The rush of the Colorado River with it white currents, visible from this distance tells me how strong those rapids are and how powerful the river is, it did carve out the canyon.  Lots of people have died on that river under estimating power of nature or over estimating human abilities to overcome nature and it’s powers.  My first glimpse of Colorado River in person was very exhilarating to see.    I didn’t linger long on this vista point because I wanted to hop back onto the same bus and continue on to the next point.  At the Mohavi Vista point the driver had a 4 minute wait at the stop and so I jumped out and took a photo and jumped back onto the bus. 

 



 

 

 

Made it to Hermits point trail head around 4pm, a time when hikers are hiking out of the bottom of the canyon and not begin it.  I went down the trail like the ranger recommended. .  I had fun looking at dessert canyon plants and bushes.  It was fun and new for me.  The Ranger recommended for me to discover fossils on rocks or boulders.  I looked but no success.   This trail is rocky and gravely, it’s quite a workout for the knees and ankles.  I used hiking poles.  I wasn’t worried and I didn’t stress, I took my time and paid attention.  There were signs, warning you of the dangers in progressing on this trail and signs of encouragement that you are not a looser when you decided to turn around now.  I wasn’t going to challenge the wisdom and experience of those who put up those signs, for my benefit I only hiked as far as the beginning of the switchbacks.  I had no personal need to attain or conquer the canyon with getting down to the river.  It will be 9 miles approximately and a 18 mile round trip. I saw what I wanted and had a lot of fun with my experience and I am beyond content.

 

 I think if I was a decade younger, out of sheer enthusiasm of a youthful body and mental wrecklessness, spiritually banking on sheer luck, I without a blink of an eye would have ran this in one breath and dealt with all the consequences later, most of the times years later.  Well the canyon conquers many lives each year, it’s not a scare tactic. I’ve seen it on “I shouldn’t have survived” show.  Actually, that show, has helped me with canceling a bunch of thing off my to-do list and added to what not to do.

First, never go off the marked trails.   Read signs, and if things look like they haven’t been maintained, it could mean the information is old and no one has been on this trail recently and no one will be hiking it to check the trail and won’t happen to stumble upon you if you are injured or dying.  Run your trail itinerary with an experience ranger. Let others know when you are off and expect to return.

Second, never abandon your pack unless you have fallen into the river and the pack is drowning you, pack water, food, emergency meds, emergency blanket on a hike, mirror or something for choppers to spot you. 

 

Third, never hike when you are tired, disorientation and confused judgment leads to fatal mistakes on distance, time, direction, memory recall. 

Fourth, check the weather before setting off each day.

Fifth, respect your body, it’s amazing and extremely vulnerable the same time. 
 

On the bus back to camp I met a Japanese woman who thought I was Japanese and started to speak Japanese to me.  My broken Japanese with terrible accents, right away she knew I didn’t speak Japanese and wasn’t Japanese.  I wished I had kept up with my Japanese from age 7.  She was from Yokohama and is traveling on a tour from Japan that landed in Utah and did the Utah tour doing all the beautiful spots including slot canyons etc… to Grand Canyons to Vegas to Yosemite to San Francisco and back home all I 14 days.  Her itinerary looks great.   She spoke with carefree excitement and passion in her broken English as if she had been banned in silence for decades and these were her first words.  I was glad to see how happy she was.  Honestly, if it wasn’t for the years I spent in the Berkeley Monastery working with Rev. Heng Sure that I learned to be more silent, I would still be talking a mile a minute about everything, like this happy woman.  I too am happy and excited lost for words is more like it. 

 

Vista point at the visitor center

I made it out to the Hopi House visitor center around noon. I found a parking spot and sat on the lookout and inhaled the beauty. I came across a ranger who was passing through and he gave me a run down and planned out my day for me. Watch the Navajo Dance, Mohavi Point and see Colorado River, Hermits Trail for terrain vegetation and fossils of the sea, the Yaki View Point. He spent 30 minutes helping me, I am grateful and his itinerary for me worked out perfectly.

I found a spot in the crowd in front of the open stage and sat in my small fold out chair and waited for the performance to begin. It was moving to watch the dancers who sang and played traditional musical instruments. It was the spirit in which they were singing and dancing from that was captivating. I have a lot of respect for them. It felt sacred and I felt honored to be there. Although it was a regular summer performance, the performance was not commercialized nor did it loose its integrity.

 

Watch out, keep your eyes on your food, they are fast and quiet about it.

 

 

I had decided that it would be better for me to eat lunch overlooking the Grand Canyon then to carry it and eat it at a hike.  Lunch menu was hummus, baby carrots, tomato on the stone wall using it as a bench with amazing view of grandness.  A squirrel approached and I had to move to a different spot.  Bringing the 5 gallon water bottle with a spout was great for loading my hydro pack.  Hydrp pack was an awesome invention. 

I drove to lot 3 to hop onto a green bus to Yaki vista point to watch sunset over the canyon horizons, very beautiful with multiple layers of colors reflecting off the walls of the canyon.  I came across 2 park securities and asked about North Rim, Antelope Canyon, Glen and Disperse camping etc.. basically the next leg of my trip and this is what they recommend for me.  Go to Jacob and pull over in the Kaibab National Forest on a dirt drive way it leads to campsites and watch out for buffalos crossing and buffalos grazing.  They gave me a picture of the road travel for Glen and Antelope canyon that the tour books or online sites didn’t.  They gave me a road breakdown and I took it in with my hearing and visualization on how to drive to Glen and to North Rim.  How to drive?  Yes, how to drive; steep inclines to watch out for, many sharp turns on one lane highways, last gas station to watch out for, last store to watch out for, how many miles, in real driving time etc…. all very critical and valuable information.  Such information is like striking gold. 

 

Strolling around the campsite, so beautiful to watch.

 

Dinner was fast, it was Spaghetti O out of the can for $1.  I used to get so experimental with cooking on camping, but really, this trip is about mileage on foot and wheels, it’s not a picnic or a BBQ party.  I had mistakenly picked up a can of chili beans at the store that had beef in it and I didn’t notice until the first crack and woof, the smell, smelled like canned dog food.  What a waste of resources.  I must have been tired when I was at the store and I didn’t register my fatigue.  I think it’s a whining thing.  Registering fatigue is acknowledging fatigue and so I must pay attention to the whiner within, and the whiner within can be so annoying.  I opened another can of beans and this was definitely vegetarian but the vegetables tasted gross, like moldy vegetables that got dehydrated and rehydrated and then cooked and sold, yuk! This should not be legal, FDA!  I hope this isn’t going to give me diarrhea.  So it's instant noodles for dinner instead. 

 

I found out about the annual Star Gazing party that happens each year here on both rims.  Astronomers gather here each year bringing their giant Uhaul towing telescopes to share with everyone the experience of gazing at stars.  They are all in my camp.  I happen to be here too during the week they are here.  I rushed back to camp to grab more layers of clothes and head lamp and a chair and blanket and tea. 

 

I parked my car in Yaopai Point where the star gazing party was happening.  It is cold here at night.  I packed, desert clothes and was not prepared for the cold. 

I walked around and looked through all the telescopes and saw the following: Saturn, Venus, Mars, M93, M11, M3, M83, M81, M5, Hercules, Arelir, exploding star, Beehive, Bernice’s Hair etc.. just to name a few.  I was overloaded with technical terms of star talk, sky talk.  I have always wanted to do this, star gaze. 

I find it interesting that what I am seeing in the star is just a photograph of activity in the sky many light years ago, I am looking merely at the past. 

This was a cold and windy night.  My head felt cold, the wind was strong in the day and that felt so good to bring relief to the heat, now it’s just chilly cold.  I decided I wasn’t going to catch the comet viewing at 3am.  Different things are visible at different times of the night because we have to wait for the earth’s rotation to open us to that part of the sky.  I left at 10pm. 

A part of this trip for me is to get to know my affinities for America and I am aware it has to do with the Natural Beauties preserved in the National Parks.  I want to accomplish, find ways to succeed in what I feared or just didn’t have the proper useful information to make it happen.  Break down the fear of driving on a road trip see, how far I can go and what else I will discover.  It’s going to be okay I tell myself, that is why there are mechanics and AAA road service.  This trip felt so monumental for me personally and the distress to just get going on this trip.  And I know now, just a few days on the trip, yes this is a monumental trip, monumentally majestically amazing. 

Thinking back now, it was so silly of me, I was stressed and thinking I didn’t have it together when in reality, I love organization and I am skilled in organizing.  I had my strength of preparation to lean on when I am tired, exhausted and frazzled.  Everything in daily moments is a preparation for a moment that matter in deliver and for me it’s about when I am tired, weak, falling apart, and it is going to be okay because every moment connected becomes habits, habits of strength I can rely on. 

Out in nature my sense can breathe and be used for the way it was intended.  In the city urban life I am overwhelmed in toxins that I distract my senses in a way from what is disturbing or I numb it so that I  am clogged and pretend I don’t feel what disturbs, what screams of dying and death.  I need to rely on my sense, thing have got to change.