Tag Archives: Grand Canyon

The Road to Diamond, Day 258: Serendipity

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 13, 2025- Whilst listening to the sous chef at a local cafe talk with another guest, I learned about the lead barista, who he regards as top of the line. I can say that I agree with him, especially in terms of her skill at preparing a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages, congeniality and careful attention to people.

He also mentioned that she has both interest and skill in a field which is the purview of another friend. This sparked thoughts of carefully connecting the two of them, over the next several weeks. It would solve a lot of looming issues for my entrepreneur friend and be another avenue for the talented young woman.

I joined a couple of Zoom calls for the Red Cross, this evening, and learned that the Administrators have reached out to the leaders of a remote area, north and west of the Grand Canyon, as a result of our efforts in helping those whose livelihoods were upended by the Dragon Bravo Fire that is still raging on the North Rim. Not only the small communities of northernmost Arizona, but also those nearby in Utah, have been underserved over the past several years. This will now be corrected. On the western side of the Canyon, other small, remote communities have asked for Red Cross help, in setting up a shelter system that can be reliable, in the event of disaster. Fire is a serendipitous friend, in that way.

It pays to be alert and prepared to make problem-solving connections.

The Road to Diamond, Day 237: Amity Amid the Smoke

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

July 23, 2025, Flagstaff- I opted not to stop at Horseshoe Bend, following a fairly successful foray up to Page, meeting the school district’s Maintenance Director, for a walk-through of its shuttered Middle School, which we agreed would make an ideal shelter site, during the time when the property is up for sale. Such sales take quite a bit of time, and in the meantime, Red Cross would be able to house a couple hundred people, in the event of a major disaster in the area north of Grand Canyon and close to the northwest corner of the Navajo Nation.

The smoke from two not-too-distant fires is hard on the residents of Page and western Dinetah. Those with whom I spoke, in the school’s offices, were not even sure of how much protection they had, from being inside. Amazingly, the parking lot at Horseshoe Bend was still packed, with tourists braving the smoke and haze, for the chance to perhaps see the iconic twists and turns of the Colorado River, at this spot, which has been characterized as “the East Rim” of Grand Canyon. If that overlook is anything like the view of nearby Waterholes Canyon, the smoke is a perfect screen. A flagger for a nearby road construction project (more misery on the job) was pacing back and forth, near the Waterholes “viewpoint”.

Despite the outward environment, the Maintenance Director was glad for my visit and quite upbeat for the prospects of the Middle School being useful for us, and for the possibility that lack of disaster might obviate such use of the campus. He was also glad that his part in the tour was mostly indoors. I took the parking lots on by myself- getting a count of spaces. It was worth the drive, and the smoke, to cultivate another friend.

After leaving Page and the smoke behind, I enjoyed a lovely Navajo Taco, at Cameron Trading Post, then found my way back here-spending the night at Americana Motor Hotel, before a second Red Cross mission, tomorrow, hopefully establishing a firm connection with Native American Baha’i Institute.

The Road to Diamond, Day 225: Dust and Fuss

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, impediments, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

July 11, 2025- Cat # 1 uttered a mild hiss, as I got between her and Cat # 2’s food dish. Somehow, though, when I’m not there, he gets his food and water. It is also hot, and even with AC, the atmospheric doldrums affect animals, making them more sluggish and more testy. Dog Days aren’t just for dogs anymore. So Cat # 1 was fussy. Her housemate was merely listless and content to lie still.

This was my second day of going straight from there to Bellemont. We finished setting up camp and with the campers & crew helping, the process was pretty much done by 2 p.m. I left the operation in my successor’s capable hands and will just check in with him tomorrow. Saturday is a full day, but it is all local activities. It is also a lot less dusty here than at camp. The dust is much thinner than in the past three camp seasons, so there’s that.

There are fires in the area around the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and its market town, Jacob Lake. Our team is keeping watch on that, through app.watchduty.org, which shows major fires in the contiguous United States, west of the Mississippi River. If a shelter is requested, there will no doubt be some of us involved. I will stay close to Home Base until Wednesday, but will guide anyone who does go to serve.

I found myself a lot calmer and more centered today, than had been the case earlier this week. Kerrville/San Angelo had a lot to do with the agitation. It appears there is more closure for the families, but some victims may not be found for some time yet, if at all. For some, the closure will never be total; everyone mourns in their own way and to none is given the right to question their state of being. I continue to send waves of loving energy to those communities, and to Ruidoso, the earthquake-torn areas of Guatemala, the flood-ravaged areas of Nepal and Pakistan-we are all one people.

The Road to Diamond, Day 133: Mather Point

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, collaborating, Education, Entertainment, Hiking and Nature, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

April 10, 2025, Williams, AZ- There is no one way to see the Grand Canyon. I have walked much of the Rim Trail, stood at high points with sheer drop-offs of 3,000 feet, hiked to the Colorado River and back,on the same day and in summer heat and visited ancillary spots, like the Confluence with the Little Colorado River or Havasupai Falls. I have taken meals in El Tovar Hotel’s dining room (with Penny and my parents) and eaten a grab and go sandwich at Hermit’s Rest snack bar. It is all what makes this place so indelible in the mind of anyone who has ever stood in The House of Stone and Light.

My visiting friends had never seen anything quite like the Grand Canyon. When we stood at Mather Point, in the noon transition, the sun was high overhead and they had to position themselves carefully, so as not to be photographed in shadow, as happened yesterday in Sedona’s Tlaquepaque. They were awestruck, for several minutes. Then they looked right and left,, and decided that walking in the relative heat would not reveal anything different from what they were already seeing. They asked to head back to the car.

This is what they saw.

Mather Point 1
First view of the Grand Canyon
Mather Point 2
Staying close, at Canyon’s edge

There is a unique collection of sandstone rocks, arranged at the approach to Mather. One of these is a menhir, evocative of Carnac or Stonehenge.

Mather's menhir
Bobot and Thelma meet a Standing Stone

It was lunch time, and being frugal sorts, my friends vetoed any meals in the Park itself. We opted for the simply-titled We Cook Pizza and Pasta, in nearby Tusayan, and shared a Classic Cheese pizza. It’s been a long time since I have actually enjoyed pizza with nothing more than cheese and tomato sauce. Simple was exquisite.

The day was not spent, so I took Bobot and Thelma to Bearizona, a park that lets people view wildlife, including apex predators, from their cars. The wolves and bears did not disappoint. There were also herbivores aplenty-mountain goats, bighorn sheep, deer, elk, reindeer and bison. None of these are prey for their neighbours, who are fed meat provided by the staff. Here are some that we saw, carside.

Bearizona 1
Bearizona’s reindeer

The wolves were curious, but laid back.

Bearizona 2
Curious Lobo
Bearizona 3
Tundra wolf trio

Next, it was the black bears’ turn.

Bearizona 4
Black bears at rest
Bearizona 5
Bathing bruin

The Grizzlies have their own place, well-removed from the road.

Bearizona 6
Grizzly bears at dinner time

Our dinner time came later, as I had a business matter in the interim. No worries-Goldie’s Diner was open until 9, so we ate lightly but well. This week, like most weeks, has been a whirlwind, and time well spent.

Ten Beautiful Things (and People)

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Entertainment, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 18, 2024, Blythe- (Getting around “no internet” is always fun. I am posting this from a location other than my motel-Relax Inn.)

My favourite zoo animal, when I was a child, was the black panther. Stoneham Zoo and Franklin Park, in Boston, always had at least one melanated leopard. As it happens, Heritage Park zoo, in Prescott, has a melanated jaguar. This panther is named Notch. So, Notch ranks #10 on the list of beautiful things and people that come to mind, as I sit here in this desert town, on the Colorado River.

He is also the only one for whom I will present a photograph, in this post. The other nine have been posted previously, at one point or another.

#9 is the western sunset, which is almost given a run for its money, by the sunsets of the Midwest.

#8 is the Aurora Borealis, which I have seen only once-in Flagstaff, circa 1980.

#7 is the voice of Carrie Underwood, when she is fully engaged in a spiritual song.

#6 is the portrayal by Keala Settle, of the Bearded Woman, in “The Greatest Showman” (2017).

#5 is the snowscape, after a storm, on the South Rim of Grand Canyon.

#4 is a mother black bear, nestling her newborn cub-and viewed from a safe distance.

#3 is the look on the face of a little girl, when her family is relocated from a flimsy shack, to a tiny house, on the outskirts of Sacramento.

#2 is the smile on the face of a grizzled and cynical Right Wing political activist, when he is given a packet of Earth Breeze laundry sheets, by someone he knows to be a social justice activist, from the other side of the political spectrum.

#1 is the smile on the face of a very dear friend, when those she trusts include her in activities.

Everyone has their own ideas of what, or who, is beautiful. That is what keeps this world glued together.

The Bottom of The Top

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Hiking and Nature, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Striving, Travel

August 16, 2023- As a five-time hiker of the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail, from rim to river and back, I can attest that there is no appreciation of the bottom, without the top, and vice versa.

This afternoon, I completed reading “PrairyErth”, William Least Heat Moon’s “sequel” to his account of a back roads ramble around the United States, entitled “Blue Highways”. The latter took in travels through 38 states. The former concentrated on one county, in Kansas, which was one of the ten contiguous states he didn’t visit the first time. Mr. Least Heat Moon’s style is consistent, covering all bases of an area, telling anecdotes of his encounters with Man and Nature, weaving details of history, sociology, biology and geology into each chapter-in both books. The micro reflects the macro.

The writer, named for his having been born during a New Moon, entered the words of this post’s title, in the final chapter of “PrairyErth”, in the course of describing a walk which he and a friend took, tracing as best they could the route taken by the Kansa (Kaw) people, when those who gave their name to the state were removed to Oklahoma, in 1872.

He christened the base of a small, but steep, hill in the west of Chase County, as “the bottom of the top”, and thus connected beginning with end, east with west, north with south. Stephen Covey, many years ago, did the same in his life coaching book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”: “See the end in the beginning”.

Continuity and connection have been essential in my own approach to life, for at least forty years-and probably longer, on a subliminal level. Leaving someone out, not seeing a task through to its completion or omitting a detail have been foreign to my thinking, often to an extent that has been maddening to those around me-and sometimes to me, as well. Dr. Covey’s book helped, in teaching that planning things ahead of time can help enormously, with regard to remembering details-and so I have made that second nature-at least in the past fifteen years.

The first part of anything signals the nature of the last. The bottom is essential to the top. The converse of these is also true.

The Sticking Points

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

July 5, 2023- I woke at the usual time today, and after pondering whether to head up to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, for a walk towards Hermit’s Rest-on the west end of the rim, decided to stay put. There were a few uncertainties, with regard to cherished friends and a needy family. No news is okay news, with regard to said friends, and clarification about the family’s needs came, this evening, for settlement tomorrow. The other good thing is that my bear drum has been repaired and is back with me.

A question has arisen, as to why people seem so widely uncaring. I have to note two things:

1. Humanity, and the planet, are in a state of transition. It is pretty much established that a physical being does not take well to change. Bears hate being woken during hibernation; birds dive bomb anyone who disturbs their nest; humans grouse and complain, or worse, when a sudden, inexplicable change takes place. We often lash out at the messenger- nobody around here much likes the National Weather Service telling us that there will be no monsoon until August, if then, and don’t get retirees around here started on the Federal Reserve Board- “Stealing our money!”, is a not uncommon, if oversimplified, refrain.

2. This sort of off-track thinking, and the uncaring attitude that is noticed by people around me, stem more often than not, from either shallow spirituality, or a dearth thereof . Faith, of course, does not prevent challenges and setbacks from coming along, but it does put things into clearer perspective, and, at least for me, makes things easier to bear. If that annoys you, sorry-but not sorry. I am hard-wired to bull my way through things, anymore-having found that the victim mentality into which I was drawn, in the 2000s, and a few times since, resolved nothing and put me in with some nefarious company. I give credit for transformation largely to those I feel are my spirit guides, a concept in which not everyone believes, but here we are.

The difficulties we, and the planet, are facing largely stem from a wide-scale turning away from spirituality-which may not be true of all the individuals who cry “Foul!”, but which has been, and is, occurring for quite some time now, on a fairly grand scale.

I daresay this befogged life is not that for which we are destined. Only turning to the Divine, in what ever way one perceives It, and by banding together to face difficulties,can we hope to overcome any of the challenges that are thrown at us.

The Joy of Colours

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Posted by on in children, Hiking and Nature, Personal Values, Social

July 2, 2023- Two little girls offered commentary, during last night’s early fireworks display. They were most interested in the colours shown by each burst-even noting that the “weeping” item was silver droplets, gently falling. By the time the grand finale had finished, they had tallied twenty-five combinations of green, purple, orange, red, yellow and blue. Their correct summation was that there was a lot of “rainbow stuff”. There were only a few elements that had silver or gold, but that was okay with the kids.

It is a source of joy to me, to see colours in just about anything I encounter-whether in an urban environment, (Thank God for murals, which mainly add luster to a given neighbourhood), or in the glories of nature. The hues could be several shades of green forest, or miles of red rock or, as in the Grand Canyon, a riot of primary colours- from the ancient dark browns of earliest Earth to the iron-flecked top layers of the canyon rims. There have been times when eerie mists rose up from the Hassayampa River, southwest of here, as I hiked in a riparian preserve, several years back or a dazzling, flashing set of several colours appeared to me as I sat at Shalako, a site at the bottom of Texas’ Palo Duro Canyon, a year after Penny passed on. (No, I was not on hallucinogens!)

I am partial to blue, when it comes to choice of clothing, but have been more eclectic, in that regard, this past decade or so. Being required to wear only dark blue polo shirts when I worked for an inventory service, some fifteen years ago, helped bring about a wider palette. When it comes to living creatures-from flowers to animals, I have no set preferences: The wider the variety of colours, the better. Likewise, in the matter of human beings: What will it ever matter, as to the colour of epidermis, eyes or hair?

I take full delight, in the visual wealth we are proffered by the Divine.

Quiet Streets and Sweeping Vistas

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Family, Hiking and Nature, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

May 8, 2023- We stood atop Airport Mesa, one of Sedona’s premier places to get a quick look at several landmarks, in one fell swoop. My daughter-in-law, Yunhee, and her mother, Mrs. Park, were my visitors for a day. It was Mrs. Park’s first trip out of Asia, and only her second out of Korea- with Vietnam being the only other foreign destination. She is mesmerized by the differences in this western half of the United States-the prairies of Texas, desert around Phoenix and the three microclimates of northern Arizona.

Her questions, as to where are the pine trees and mountains of Prescott were answered, as soon as we turned a corner and saw Douglas firs and Alligator Junipers, then drove down a street and had full view of the Bradshaw Range. All this was within Prescott’s city limits, of course. What surprised her the most, though, was the fact that our city is walkable- unlike the areas in Metro Dallas that she has seen thus far. I hope she gets to walk along Mill Creek, in Grapevine, when they go back, at the end of this week. She will see a mix of walkable and not, when they visit Las Vegas, in a day or so. The ultimate walkable area, the South Rim of Grand Canyon, will cement her image of North America’s vastness.

Airport Mesa was the last of the spots I chose for the itinerary. Lunch was at Raven Cafe, photo stops included the summit of Mingus Mountain, a ravine just west of Jerome and, of course, Airport Mesa. Coffee, from Mesa Grille, was enjoyed whilst watching the small planes take off and land at Sedona Airport. It was a bustling day, more from their perspective than mine-as it had begun with rising very, very early, catching an early flight from DFW and driving from Phoenix to Prescott, then following me over Mingus Mountain to Jerome, Clarkdale, Cottonwood and Sedona. As we proceeded through the Red Rock city, to our point of adieu, we were each in a queue that was dealing with the aftermath of a serious traffic accident. I took Rte. 179, towards Oak Creek Village and the Interstate highway. The ladies were not so lucky, and inched their way up through Oak Creek Canyon, by choice, and found the backlog was inching along with them.

We all made it to our respective destinations, and tomorrow, while I am in my last day at work for the school year, Yunhee will show her mother what I first showed her of the South Rim. It was a splendid first day for this perky, spirited extended family member to really see what makes our continent such a marvel. In a few days, my own latest journey, by train, will get started. I may even opt for a roomette.

The Bandage

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Posted by on in collaborating, Family, impediments, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Striving, Travel

April 26, 2023- The dermatologist and his plastic surgeon partner pronounced the basal cell “tiny”, and took a short few minutes, for each of their actions in removing it and sewing the suture. The PA who bandaged the site was far more ostentatious, applying a long dressing, almost like the person who builds a wheelchair ramp at the entrance to a building. The bandage has to keep an area well to the sides of the wound free from dirt, and I am to keep it free from water, for about 48 hours.

These sorts of events are not as common in my life as they might have been, ten years ago. With three brands of sunscreen, each free of harmful chemicals, it is de rigueur to shelter the face, neck, ears and hands-and with the coming season of wearing shorts, the legs, before going out. I will once again purchase a full bush hat tomorrow-and this time be more careful not to leave it behind, in a room, the train or rental car.

Summer will introduce itself to us here, on Sunday, with 85 F the predicted high in Prescott, and Phoenix likely to see its first 100 F day of the year. I’ll not be shy about being outside, within the bounds of prudence, the rest of this year. May, alone, will find this one in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Reno, Carson City, and points north, at least as far as Vancouver Island. There are a lot of places closer to Home Base as well-with Yunhee and her mother stopping by for a visit, in the second week of next month, some Red Cross shelter inspections coming up next week and visits to the South Rim of Grand Canyon and Mt. Humphreys towards the end of the month, unless Disaster Responses intervene.

So, the bandage is doing its preparatory work, and will generate whatever comments it does, between now and tomorrow morning. I am greatly relieved to have such a team looking out for me.