Here is a link to the interactive expedition map.
I mentioned earlier that there is a tiny post office at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It's just one room, I think, with one employee who sells stamps and hand-cancels outgoing mail (with a special north rim cancellation).
The post office is right next door to the bar, which sells muffins and coffee in the morning. You can see the open door to the bar, just beyond the barred window of the post office.
If I remember correctly, this is a peanut-butter chocolate chip muffin. And coffee. On the eastern veranda, beside the lodge on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
I believe that mountain (left horizon) beyond the south rim is Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona. It's just north of Flagstaff.
This wall is along the southern edge of the eastern veranda.
I've mentioned the verandas, and their Adirondack chairs. At the end of the veranda is the lodge's huge room full of huge couches
Looking to the right of the above. Picnic tables on the eastern veranda, and part of the lodge.
At the lodge on the north rim you are never alone for more than a minute or two.
Can you see what the guy in the blue shorts is focused on? Look right below the white things that is just to the right of the big window.
One of the world's tamest (and/or hungriest?) chipmunks. Well, given how chunky it is, I'm going with tamest.........
This guy got closer, and closer, and closer to the chipmunk, which held its ground.
It didn't budge when he sat down right beside it.
Selfie, with chipmunk (and, yes, the Grand Canyon in the background). :-) When the guy got up and walked away, I told him the chipmunk wanted a tip for being so patient. He said he'd been surprised that it tolerated his presence the way it had.
I can't remember where we walked after breakfast. Part way out Bright Angel trail? Maybe all the way out, even. I just can't remember, after 7.5 months.......
Twisted tree. I would think it takes a lot of force, over a lot of time, to twist a tree like this.......
Looking down into the canyon. See the little tree, growing from the pale rock?
I wonder how old this little tree is. Its trunk is thick enough I'm betting the answer is in years.... I wonder how much longer it will be here.
Looking toward the view point that is west of the lodge.
A closer crop. No one out there at the moment this was taken.
Looking south.
The south rim, in the distance.
Several times, as we sat on a veranda, we saw a pair of ravens slipping and sliding together, on the air currents. In the next image we can almost make out a pair of black dots that are a pair of ravens, making the most of their three dimensional world. They are above the tallest part of the tree at the right side of the image.
A closer crop. The world is a different place when an edge is just the beginning of a path to many different destinations, rather than a possibility that you'll never take another trip after you complete a fall to the bottom. "Down" has a whole different feel when you can change your mind any time you like, at the flick of your wings......
Speaking of wings, I mentioned before that it's possible my better half saw condors along the eastern part of the north rim on May 30. This sign is outside the visitor's center just outside the lodge on the north rim. It doesn't say so, but I'm betting that's a condor's silhouette......
We've checked out of our cabin, and packed up the car. One last look from the west veranda...............
So glad I got to experience this spectacular place.
Here is a link to the next post in the Grand Canyon series.
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