Ahh! The good photos, in my opinion at least.Thursday and Friday: Hiking out. These detail the hike up from Deer Creek, past Deer Spring (a really refreshing place to wet your whistle) with some of the climb up to Surprise Valley (ooh! look, a fossil in the rock!)
while being chased by a thunderstorm (which never hit, but looked pretty),
to the deep red sun of sunset in Surprise Valley.
We got about 1/4 of the way up the second climb, from Surprise valley to the Esplanade by the time we had to stop and pull out flashlights. We got to the base of Esplanade by 9pm, at which point we took a 2 hour snooze on the rocks waiting for the moon to come up, so we could hike in moon light across the Esplanade. By 11pm(when the moon was supposed to rise), it was still dark, but we were cold, so we moved to a more protected rock face. Also, there were less creepy crawly things, it was flatter, and I pulled out my air mattress pad.
We got up with the sun around 5am, and started hiking by 5:30. We did the 3 miles across the Esplanade in shade, and started the climb up to Monument Point.
The sun finally hit us about half way up the climb, and fortunately didn’t get too hot. Unfortunately, going up the grade, my knee gave on me again, and I had to drop my pack, and continue on foot. Bob went on ahead, left his pack at the truck, grabbed a cold Hawaiian Punch, and came back for my pack. He had to back track 1.8 miles, if I recall correctly. But even so, we were out of the parking lot by 12:55pm, on the way to lunch at the Marble Canyon lodge, by Lee’s Ferry.
Bum leg/knee? Certainly not a sign of old age! The horror! 😉
I do hope your leg is recovering well. The pictures are beautiful. I especially like the one of the sunset in Surprise Valley. I might have missed it, but did you mention why it’s called Surprise Valley? I’m just curious…
I’m walking pretty good. It’s just the stairs that send shivers down my spine now…
Surprise Valley…. is just it’s name. I can guess, and say that it is a geographic formation (Tonto Plateau I think) that is not usually found in that part of the Grand Canyon, but more so only in the eastern sections. Also, it’s not readily apparent from the Colorado River that there should be a valley up there, 1500 feet above the river.
Oo! Fossils! Fun-fun. 😀 What do you think that one is?
And oooooh, that’s a lovely sunset shot. The storm just makes me shiver. I’m glad you didn’t get caught in it. Nature is beautiful, but… can be cold when she’s violent.
And knees… Don’t get me started on knees… We’d like to move downstairs because ours are getting to be such a pain.