Ghost Days

I am sitting on a rock at the edge of the Mogollon Rim sweeping off to the southeast as a thunderstorm moves along the edge of the cliff. The wind is blowing in gusts and I can smell the rain and see the lightning striking closer and closer. It is time to move off the Rim and back into the forest.

With a whisper, like a gossamer curtain, I move to the top of an extinct volcano, a cinder cone, looking across the Colorado Plateau, into the haze of the distance, again watching the clouds, make a patchwork of shade as they move across the desert.

Again I move, this time to the edge of deep canyon, so deep and dark, I cannot see the bottom. I clamber along the rocks, trying to get to point where the bottom is visible. I cannot believe that such a huge and deep canyon could be so unknown. I can finally see the creek at the bottom and I am surprised at the amount of water, where did this huge creek come from here in dry Arizona?

With a sweeping motion, I am sitting on a mountain top, looking out over the red and blue wastelands of the painted desert and glimpsing the edge of a huge crack running across the whole horizon. The wind is blowing again and I crouch down behind a rock to keep warm and to keep my eyes from running with tears from the cold and wind. There isn't a cloud in the sky, and the sunlight is intense. I can feel my skin burning.

I am walking, like a shadow, wading through ice cold water, the canyon so narrow there is no other path. The cliffs above rise in rocky crags, almost shutting out the sun. The green jungle growth in the bottom of the canyon, contrasts with the barren Sonoran desert of the canyon walls.

I move again, to a narrow box canyon. The echoes of my footsteps heighten the constriction of the rocks. I can reach out and touch both sides of the canyon at the same time. I can only see a narrow shaft of sunlight reflecting down from the cliffs above.

I am walking across the desert, stepping carefully to avoid the cholla, and watching for snakes. I see glimpses of the red ornaments of the Christmas cactus and watch for the sudden jumps of rabbits.

A thousand pictures, a thousand smells, a thousand sounds, crowd into my mind and again, my eyes fill with tears, this time not from the wind and not from the sun, but from my memories of walking Arizona.

Desert dangers: dehydration

Every year there are news stories about people dying in the desert in Arizona. This has become a big issue with many Latin American migrants being the victims. However, anyone who ventures into the desert must be prepared or suffer the same fate. There have been a number of occasions when I have been caught without enough water under the circumstances. One day, when the temperature was over 95 degrees F I lost six pounds to water loss alone. What may be a pleasant outing, can quickly turn into a challenge of survival, if you are not prepared.

Early symptoms of dehydration include thirst, loss of appetite, dry skin, skin flushing, dark colored urine, dry mouth, fatigue, and even, chills. Once your heart rate and respiration increase, and your body temperature increases, you are in serious trouble. When loss of bodily fluids reaches 10% you are in serious danger of dying.

The first and best rule is do not venture into the desert without adequate preparation. Make sure you carry enough water for everyone in your group, at least a gallon a day per person. There are certain times of the year when the desert experience is just not worth the risk. The Superstition Wilderness Area is a wonderful place to hike, but not between the months of May and September. Let good sense dictate when and where you go.

When you do go into the desert, make sure you tell someone your plans and your return date or time. When you do go into the desert, take those things that will be helpful in an emergency; a tool kit, a shovel, spare parts, extra engine oil and coolant.

With today's off road vehicles, you can get into trouble by having an accident or a breakdown only a short few minute's drive from the highway. What takes only a few minutes drive on an ATV can take hours to walk out. Without water, the walk may take the rest of your life.

Hypothermia-- a real danger, even in Arizona

Contrary to the popular view of Arizona, a large portion of the state is at higher altitudes. As I noted in my last post, the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon are both over 7000 feet above sea level. The northeast third of Arizona lies on the Colorado Plateau, most of which is over 5000. Temperatures in the Arizona high country can go as low as 40 degrees F below zero which was recorded at Hawley Lake at 8,180 feet above sea level. However, one hallmark of the high country in Arizona is the wind. It is not unusual for the wind to blow almost constantly at over 30 mph. With a wind chill factor, that -40 degrees F would have been the equivalent of the lowest temperature ever recorded in Alaska, -80 degrees F. NWS Wind Chill Chart

At those low temperatures the average time to frostbite can be as low as five minutes. But it does not take such extreme temperatures to put someone in danger of hypothermia. The primary indication of hypothermia is a core body temperature below 95 degrees F (35 degrees C). Below that temperature, hypothermia is life threatening. With the contrasts in temperature varying by altitude, you can leave Phoenix at a balmy 60 or 70 degrees F and within an hour or so, step out of your car into below freezing temperatures. Additionally, the temperature can vary significantly during twenty-four hours most places in Arizona, especially at altitude. For example, in the winter, Flagstaff can have a temperature variation of over 30 degrees from day to night.

Hypothermia can occur whenever the ambient temperature is lower than the body temperature. Obviously, the lower the temperature outside, the greater the danger. Hypothermia can be classified into three stages, mild with a core body temperature above 89.5 degrees F, moderate with a core body temperature over 82.4 degrees F and severe when the body temperature falls below 82.4 degrees. Young people and those with little or no body fat are at greater risk of hypothermia. The main symptoms of mild hypothermia are shivering, lethargy, confusion, loss of coordination and rapid heart rate. As the hypothermia gets worse, the shivering stops and confusion becomes delirium. At very low temperatures, the heart stops and you die.

Don't treat excursions out into the Arizona wilderness lightly. Temperature conditions can be extreme.

Next time: Heat exhaustion and heat stroke

Grand Canyon dangers -- altitude

Dropping over the Rim of the Grand Canyon, you enter an entirely foreign world. Both the North and South Rims are relatively high, and quite cool, even in the summer months. The Kaibab National Forest, on the North Rim, is a high, between 7000 and 8000 foot mountain, known as Buckskin Mountain. The North Rim is traditionally closed to vehicular traffic during the winter months because of snow and difficult weather conditions. The South Rim is lower, but still about 7000 feet above sea level.


This combination of altitude, heat and dryness is a real danger to those who, without proper preparation, leave the cushions of civilization on the Rim and drop into the Canyon.

First, the vast majority of people live well below 7000 feet. Altitude sickness, also known as acute mountain sickness commonly occurs above 2400 meters or approximately 8000 feet. See Altitude Sickness. However, symptoms of the condition can appear as low as 6,500 feet about sea level (2000 meters). Symptoms include headache, fatigue, stomach illness, dizziness, and sleep disturbance. Exertion aggravates the symptoms. In extreme cases, altitude sickness can be fatal.

I have lived much of my life at altitude, but have had acute symptoms of altitude sickness strike randomly, without warning. I remember one episode on Humphrey's Peak, the highest mountain in Arizona. I got an acute headache and had to lay down several times coming down the mountain to recover. I spent a lot of my summers up on the Colorado Plateau, I finally realized that my symptoms of fatigue were probably altitude related, going from near sea level in the desert to almost 6000 feet.

The Grand Canyon is definitely within the range of altitudes that can cause acute altitude sickness. When planning any hike into the Canyon, you definitely need to be aware of this possibility. While hiking out of the Canyon from Phantom Ranch, on one occasion, I could not figure out why I was hiking so slowly near the Rim. I finally realized that I had to breathe. So I would stop every 50 steps or so and breathe deeply. I finally began to move up the trail.

With all the other issues about hiking in the Canyon, this is one that is often overlooked.

Grand Canyon: Death and Injury

The scenario is almost legendary, a tourist on the Rim of the Grand Canyon backs up to get into a picture and falls to death off the cliffs. Unfortunately, the legend is in many cases, a reality. The exposure to falls on the North and South Rims of the Canyon are immense and the number of visitors is huge, combined these facts make for a relatively common problem. What it comes down to is that the Grand Canyon is reality, it is not Disneyland where the rides are not real. A fall into the Canyon is not cushioned by foam rubber. But falls are not the only dangers in the Canyon.
There is a recent book on the subject of the dangers of the Canyon. Here is the citation to the book:

Ghiglieri, Michael Patrick, and Thomas M. Myers. Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon : Gripping Accounts of All Known Fatal Mishaps in the Most Famous of the World's Seven Natural Wonders. Flagstaff, AZ: Puma Press, 2001.

Although this subject is "gripping" and perhaps "dramatic" my experience has been that, more than any other place I hike, the Grand Canyon seems to attract the unprepared and just plain stupid. On one hike, down from the North Rim to Thunder River, we found two groups of hikers that were in serious trouble. One group was wandering aimlessly on the Esplanade totally disoriented and lost. Hopefully, we put them back on the trail. The second group was caught without water. According to my conversations with Park Rangers, it is a very common occurrence.

On one trip out of the Canyon, we passed a man who was limping up the trail, his boots held together with Duck Tape. Another group, a man and two very small children passed us with the children crying from exhaustion. A short time later I passed the young boy laying down in the middle of the trail. Apparently his father was too tired himself, to help him up the trail.

Stepping off the Rim, either accidentally or intentionally on a trail, is a serious business and requires preparation and planning. Once we left the North Rim where the temperature was 27 degrees Fahrenheit, by the time we reach Phantom Ranch, the temperature was 97 degrees in the shade. Although I am not sure how helpful it is to know about foolish people who fall off the Rim but here are a few stories:

Canadian falls to his death in Grand Canyon

Services Held for Canyon Death Victim

Junction man recovering after Grand Canyon hiking accident

The list goes on and on. A word to the wise, the Grand Canyon isn't a theme park.

My Christmas Card to Everyone

We wish you the most joyous Christmas and a happy New Year.

This is my Christmas card to everyone this year:

Joy to Everyone This Christmas

Please feel free to share this wonderful message with everyone.

The Grand Canyon a place or an institution?

Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is the hub of a complex transportation and communications network. People can travel to the Canyon by air, train, bus or automobile. Thousands of tour groups travel to the Canyon each year, many from distant foreign countries. It is evident that the Grand Canyon is a destination attraction. But how does it compare to some other attractions?


According to InfoPlease, France is the world's top country for tourists, followed by Spain and then the United States. However, the United States earns the most in the world in tourist dollars. In 2003 Arizona was not even in the top ten of the U.S. States visited by foreign travelers and none of the top ten cities for foreign visitors was in Arizona. According to The Travelers Zone, the Grand Canyon was number twenty among the top visited tourist attractions in the U.S., far behind Times Square in New York and Temple Square in Salt Lake City. To give you an idea of popularity, Walt Disney World in Florida was number five and Disneyland in California, number six.
In Arizona, the Grand Canyon is, by far, the most popular and visited attraction in the state. According to the Arizona Department of Tourism report "Arizona 2007 Tourism Facts, Year-end Summary," the Grand Canyon led in numbers of tourists by more than a million people over the second place destination, Phoenix's South Mountain Park. The next three attractions on the list, number two, South Mountain Park, and number three, Saguaro National Monument near Tucson, and number four, Tempe Town Lake, are located adjacent to or actually in, large metropolitan areas.

It is apparent that the Grand Canyon has become an institution with a visitation to the specific facilities at either the North or South Rims as practically the only major activity. An examination of the statistics in the Tourism Report show that only about 10% of the Arizona resident visitors actually hike or camp in any of Arizona's natural attractions. The number one activity is dining out at a restaurant. When non-resident visitors are counted, only 6% either hike or bike and camping isn't even a measured activity. It is clear that the commonly portrayed image of the outdoors as a place for camping and hiking involves only a very, very small minority of the tourism population. This probably isn't surprising given the fact that the average age of a tourist in Arizona, whether resident or non-resident is between 40 and 50 years old.

There are two entirely different and divergent poles of experience at the Grand Canyon; those who view the Canyon from above as an attraction, a commercial institution, and those who experience the Canyon from below and see the real Grand Canyon, a huge and complex ecosystem. Think about it, how many photographs have you seen in Arizona Highways Magazine taken from down inside the Canyon? (Not counting the rafting photos).

What would Arizona be without the Grand Canyon?

In a recent edition of the Grand Canyon National Park newsletter, handed to visitors as they pay their $25 fee per vehicle to get into the Park, it said that the Park's free shuttle buses had carried 85,000,000 passengers since the service's inception. While sites like Coal Mine Canyon might get a hundred people a year, the Grand Canyon is host to roughly five million visitors each year.
The Arizona Hospitality Research and Resource Center, School of Hotel & Restaurant Management at Northern Arizona University did a Tourism Study of the Grand Canyon National Park in April, 2005. Not surprisingly, they found that the Grand Canyon National Park is one of the world’s premier attractions, with the power to draw visitors from great distances. to quote from the survey: "This survey documented visitors from all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, plus visitors from 41 foreign countries. Overall, 83% were domestic visitors residing in the United States; California (12.2%), Arizona (8.9%), Texas (4.8%), Florida (3.4%) and New York (3.2%) represented the top domestic markets. Seventeen percent of visitors were of foreign origins, and the top foreign markets were: the United Kingdom (3.8%), Canada (3.5%), Japan (2.1%), Germany (1.9%) and The Netherlands (1.2%). "

Although these facts may not be so surprising, the study also says: "Grand Canyon visitors averaged 48.5 years of age. Nearly half (47.5%) of survey respondents were between the ages of 46 and 65. Those 26 to 45 years comprised over a third of the sample (35.2%). Visitors over age 65 years (11.5%), and those 25 years or younger (5.8%) completed the age segments. GCNP visitors were highly educated. The vast majority of respondents (85.2%) had attended some college. Of these, one-fourth (24.8%) had completed a 4-year degree, while another 34.3% engaged in graduate study or earned graduate degrees."

The economic impact of the Canyon is substantial, the study states that: "Grand Canyon visitor expenditures averaged $536 per travel party in the park and $595 per travel party within 90 miles of the park. The total annual economic impact (direct, indirect and induced) of Grand Canyon National Park visitors was $687 million of output into the regional economy, which supported 12,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the area.

Only a very small percentage of the visitors descend below the rim. Even fewer hike to the bottom of the Canyon. It is something to be viewed, but not experienced, I guess.

Coal Mine Canyon, a study in contrasts

Coal Mine Canyon is a study in contrasts. It is a relatively small place with unworldly beauty. It is almost entirely unknown and yet is located only a short distance from a major highway. There are no signs marking the turnoff or identifying the canyon. No interpretive sites. No visitors' center. No guardrails. No signs telling you not to fall into the canyon. No vendors. No IMAX movie. No Japanese or European tourists. No shuttle buses. No Rangers in uniform. No hikers. No campers. No newlyweds taking each others' pictures. No curio shops. Not much except the canyon.

You can see Coal Mine Canyon in the morning and be to the Grand Canyon National Park by lunch if you want all the other things listed above. Or you can spend a week exploring its nooks and crannies.

It is one of the jewels of Arizona and it is hard to find. Even if you know where it is, it is hard to find. The roads are not only not marked they are dirt and don't go directly to the canyon. It cannot be seen from any paved road. It is not on any map of Arizona. Here are some pictures.

The rim of the Canyon and the view points are extremely unstable and undercut. Walking too close to the edge could dump you 200 feet down to the bottom of the canyon.
The upper edge of the Canyon is a low grade coal. The Hopi Indians used to come here to mine coal. The red rock is shale and is said to have oxidized as a result of the burning of the coal. In examining the beds of shale, I disagree, they are highly oxidized but the shale is in narrow bands separated by other clay bands that do not appear to have any coal content. The read shale beds have fossils.

This site is on the Navajo Indian Reservation and subject to Navajo Nation laws and police. A Navajo Nation permit is required to camp anywhere on the Reservation. The Canyon is practically in the backyard of someone's home and they would certainly be aware if you were camped there.


The wind blows all the time and there are no restrooms, water or anything resembling civilization other than five cement picnic tables. Some of the accounts mentioned a lot of garbage, we didn't see much, it must have been removed by the Navajos or some other civic minded people.

Remarkable Antelope Island

There are many places in the vast Western United States that are so beautiful that they defy description. One of those places is Antelope Island State Park. Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake, the largest lake in the Western U.S. and probably the largest salt water lake in the world. Although it is only a short distance from a large city, it has a remote and unworldly feeling. The level of the Great Salt Lake determines how much land there is adjacent to the island. In years of high water, these pictures would show the lake covering all of the flat land. This picture shows the "beach" made of oolitic sand. I talked about oolitic sand in a previous post but on this trip we found out that the little spherical grains are mineral deposits on salt water shrimp fecal matter. We lost some of our fascination with the sand upon learning this fact. There really is water way out there in the distance.


This next picture shows the lake disappearing into the haze.



In the distance you can see the dramatic Wasatch Front



There are almost no trees on the whole island.

But there is a herd of around 800 North American Bison



Even though this blog is called Walking Arizona, I do walk, ride and fly to other places now and again. Antelope Island is one of the most spectacular places to visit especially if you like wind, sand, no trees and bison.

Beautiful sights in Arizona

It is almost guaranteed that in any given issue of the Arizona Highways, there will be one or more pictures of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and/or the Oak Creek Canyon area around Sedona. I do have to agree that all of these places, and more, warrant the attention they get from the media. But I am equally impressed with a lot of other areas that are just as beautiful, if not as well known. In the next few posts I will give my impressions of some of these other, less well known, locations throughout the State.

First on my list are Big Lake and Mount Baldy. Located in eastern Arizona, just about midway from the north and south borders, this area known as the White Mountains is spectacular. Mount Baldy is the second highest mountain in Arizona and can be easily climbed by anyone with the stamina to walk up to 11,391 feet. On some lists it is ranked as low as number eight, due to the fact that the San Francisco Peaks, including the highest peak, Humphrey's Peak at 12,562 or thereabouts, have the first seven highest peaks.

Arizona has very few natural lakes. Almost every lake in the State has its origin as a man-made reservoir and Big Lake is no exception. When I have taken people to see this area of Arizona for the first time, almost with out exception, they declare that they had no idea that Arizona had such a beautiful place.

The White Mountains are volcanic in origin and are now covered in thick stands of Ponderosa Pine and Fir, with open meadows called cienegas. Intermixed with the pine and fir are stands of quaking aspen and the fall colors are spectacular.

There are dozens of Web sites that tell the story of the mountains, here are a few of them:

http://azwhitemountains.net/
http://www.go-arizona.com/White-Mountains
http://www.wmonline.com/
http://www.arizonawhitemountains.com/
http://www.biglakeaz.com/Big%20Lake%20AZ.htm
http://www.go-arizona.com/Big-Lake

Check these sites out.