Day: September 10, 2017

It had started to rain when I arrived at the Visitor Center and Grand Canyon Lodge on Friday.  Inside the Lodge is a restaurant and a large observation room with three huge windows overlooking the Canyon.  On either side of that room are outdoor decks with Adirondack chairs for relaxing while you enjoy the view.  There weren’t any takers today, as everyone wanted to lounge on the huge, dry, comfortable leather couches in the observation room, or stand and stare at the view.

This was the deck outside the left set of doors.

And this was the area outside the right set.  The restaurant is inside the building on this side, and the path down to the overlook I went out on was over here as well.

 

These are pictures I took with the digital camera on Friday at the North Rim.  They are all from two scenic roads north of the Lodge which ultimately lead out to Imperial Point and Cape Royal, respectively.  These appear in the order I took them, with improving, then deteriorating weather conditions.

I did not take any photos with the digital camera from the Lodge itself due to the heavy overcast.

 

These are pictures I took with the digital camera on Friday at the North Rim.  They are all from two scenic roads north of the Lodge which ultimately lead out to Imperial Point and Cape Royal, respectively.  These appear in the order I took them, with improving, then deteriorating weather conditions.

These are pictures I took with the digital camera on Friday at the North Rim.  They are all from two scenic roads north of the Lodge which ultimately lead out to Imperial Point and Cape Royal, respectively.  These appear in the order I took them, with improving, then deteriorating weather conditions.

My Airbnb host in Kanab told me about this place which is about 35 miles east of town.  Saturday started out as a damp, dreary morning with a low cloud ceiling as there has been rain overnight.  As I drove east, however, visibility improved and I decided to make the one-mile trek back to see these curious formations.  They are sometimes called Hoodoos.

The “path” was mostly in a dry, sandy creek bed.  The overnight rain evidently hadn’t reached this far east so it was kind of like walking on the beach.  Occasionally the path went near some large rock over-hangings and there were some interesting layers of rock which had broken away underneath.

I found this rock in the path and it made me think of the Star Destroyer ship from the movie Star Wars.

I finally made it back to the eerie landscape where the toadstool formations are.  What follows are many photos from various angles of the main formation, as well as some standalone ones nearby.  The pictures in this post were all taken with the smartphone camera.  A post with other photos taken with the digital camera follows.

Toadstools are natural spires with a large rock sitting on top.  These aren’t things made as a prank by college kids.

There is another location with many toadstools (Hoodoos) in the town of Page, which I drove through later in the day after I crossed into Arizona.  That venue requires a considerable hike which I was not going to make.  I’m sure you can find photos online if you Google: Page Arizona Hoodoos.  They are even more spectacular that these.

I believe there may have been other toadstool formations at this location as well, but rain was moving back in so I made the one-mile trek back to my car.  I arrived there just in the nick of time, as a gentle rain started to fall which quickly became a hard rain as I drove away.  I hope the creek-bed didn’t fill up for the folks who were going in as I was coming out!

 

 

 

It was about a mile walk back to the area where the toadstool formations were located.  Much of the “path” was actually a dry, sandy creek bed which probably fills rapidly with water when the monsoon rains hit.  It had rained overnight west of Kanab but evidently not over this direction, as the creek bed was dry.

Once you get back to where the toadstool formations are located you are in an eerie, moon-like landscape with many large grayish-white rocks with wind-swept swirl patterns and many rounded nooks and crannies.  The “path” was not as obvious back here and I found myself in many dead-ends.

Nearby are many reddish-brown formations, such as the main attraction which is brown but sits high atop a white base.

Front:

Back:

And behind the main attraction are some smaller, standalone formations.

I believe this one fell over.