Camping 2010

Me. at rest. Despite the crack in my forehead, I am supremely happy in this photo! The main point of the trip was to be far away from the computer, and the phone, and not missing either at all. I spent 5 days camping by myself in the Grand Canyon...although to say I was "alone" would be a stretch. There were thousands of other people there visiting, most of whom left at the end of the day. The camp site was full each night, and most of my neighbors were considerate, good campers.

As in years past, there are always the ones who just don't cut it. The ones who really should have gone to Disneyland, or stayed at the hotel, or at the very least, rented an RV and stayed in Trailer Village. Case in point were the Cry Baby contingent south west of my site with Alex, Aaron and Lily, and the Poop Picker Uppers with Liam, Willow and Sierra to the North west. Both contingents had 3 small children under 9 I am guessing, PLUS a baby. Each morning one of the babies would wake in the dawn hours and wail for a solid 10 - 15 minutes. Once the babies were awake, of course the kids got up and the parents of BOTH camps, let their little evil doers run wild through the camp site.

Liam was very fond of finding and playing with deer scat, and his sisters had a habit of riding off on their bike bicycles causing mother much stress. She would stand in her camp site and BELLOW their names. I wanted to tell her that they weren't responding cuz they had RIDDEN OFF ON THE BIKES YOU BROUGHT FOR THEM TO RIDE ON, but I didn't see the point. Alex, of the Cry Baby camp across the street, was constantly bawling about some injustice or another. One time he tried to play with the Poop Pickers and they had apparently snubbed his friendly advances and wouldn't play with him. he has a god awful habit of trudging to the bathroom, NOT on the conveniently located path that went straight there, but insisted on taking a LONG cut through the middle of MY camp site. My evil eye stare did nothing to disabuse him of this habit. They all left on Saturday, and on Sunday morning, I actually slept until 7am - what a quiet morning that was! Even the bastard ravens were quiet for a change!

This is my 5th visit, and my 4th camping trip, to the Grand Canyon, and it simply does not fail to astound me EVERY time! The first visit was with my mother, brother and sister, back in 1980. We took this grand driving tour, from Denver, to Salt Lake City, Reno, San Francisco (where our father met up with us), down the California coast, to LA (where daddy left again), then over to Flagstaff, and a mofning drive through the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, Four Corners, and then back to Denver. In 2006, I came with the guy I was dating for the Star Party. We broke up shortly thereafter, but I enjoyed the Star Party so much, I got my aunt to come back with me in 2007 and 2008.

Last year, I would have come, but instead, spent the whole month in Hawaii. I was back this year, even though my aunt canceled her plans a mere week ago! I toyed with the idea of not going at all, but in the end, I am very glad I did. Tomorrow I will post something a little more reflective, as i did a lot of thinking and musing and pondering and even took some notes on scraps of paper, since I forgot my journal....

The photos are nothing that spectacular, I don't have the right camera or talent to capture all those colors you see in professional photographs, but to be quite honest, the light is SO bright, it is hard to really take an honest photograph! Even my memories of the view are bleached almost colorless. The sunsets this year were nothing too spectacular, unfortunately, but the star gazing was awesome!!...Oh, and the white dirty thing is a pancake with almonds, sunflower seeds, cranberries and raisins, and a few chocolate chips. I did flip it over to cook this side too and it was incredible!

The last three were manipulated with Microsoft Picture it just for fun.