Sunday, May 30, 2010

What a difference a week makes! Last Sunday was frigid and very windy; most of that day was devoted to moving the RV to the permanent site. Although last night was cold (29*), today was sunny and pleasant with nothing more than gentle breezes. And we devoted the day to enjoying the Kaibab Plateau.


We drove more than 50 miles of gravel Forest Service roads to several viewpoints along the east canyon. The Colorado River flows south through Marble Canyon then makes a 90* turn to the west to flow through ‘the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.’

We saw some typical wildlife—a small group of mule deer, many chipmunks, several kinds of birds and the ubiquitous turkey vultures—very few people and magnificent views. On the road to Saddle Mountain we passed a hotshot team conducting a maintenance burn of debris from previous fires in order to reduce fuel which could be ignited by lightning strikes. 

The very best part of the day for me was revisiting Marble Viewpoint. Here, you can look out over the Cocks Combs, huge humps of rock protruding from the earth in a line resembling the Loch Ness’ monster’s backbone, to the plateau far below split by Marble Canyon and stretching to Navajo territory on the far side. In addition to the magnificent vista, Marble Viewpoint boasts an abundance of fossils.  There are large ones and small ones and they are strewn every where, evidence that this was, millions of year ago, the bottom of an ancient sea.  We found fossilized shells, sand, coral and what might be remains of vegetation and aquatic creatures.

We also found several varieties of colorful, dwarf wildflowers: a brilliant red-orange, a lovely violet-blue and two types of little yellow flowers.  I'm anxiously waiting for the arrival of the Arizona wildflower books I ordered so I can identify them.

We ended the day with a dinner that finished off our entire food supply.  Tomorrow's agenda is a mandatory trip to Kanab for groceries.