Day 6 Grand Canyon, Flowers, and Snow - Page 5

On Thursday, Day 6, we crawled from our toasty sleeping bags into freezing air. It hailed a bit at breakfast. A 40% chance of thundershowers was predicted. After a futile foray to try to find another battery for my camera, we strolled to the shuttle stop in the hail/snow and started our tour of the rim. Delightfully, the sun came out and we strolled the rim trail in pleasant weather. But by lunchtime, freezing winds and hail/snow had driven everyone back into the shuttle buses. With white-out conditions in the canyon, we bought a hot lunch indoors and then went to Tusayan to watch the IMAX Grand Canyon film.

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elf1 > Top Center: Bright Angel Canyon, then the trail, then Indian Garden in the center again. So-called because the Havasupai gardened there for hundreds of years until the Park Service kicked them off mid-20th-century.

elf1 > Instead of taking the shuttle along the Rim Trail, the weather turned so nice that we walked. We were lucky to have tons of wildflowers. This is, I believe, bladderpod (lesquerella intermedia).

elf1 > Fleabane (erigeron concinnus). All of these plant IDs are my best guesses.

elf1 > What I believe to be Thickleaf Penstemon (penstemon pachyphyllus) bloomed everywhere. I took dozens of photos in different locations. They were so nice to pose for me.

elf1 > Bladderpod again, with more blooms. (lesquerella intermedia)

elf1 > The rim trail is paved, but barely wide enough for two people. And the only thing separating you from a long plunge is a low border of rocks. Here, it's not too bad, but in some places--

elf1 > The rocks take such interesting shapes.

elf1 > Yellow flowers, unidentified so far, and Mr. Ant Hills.

elf1 > Unidentified white flower on a shrub.

Top Center: Bright Angel Canyon, then the trail, then Indian Garden in the center again. So-called because the Havasupai gardened there for hundreds of years until the Park Service kicked them off mid-20th-century.