Just like the north rim of the Grand Canyon, the south rim here at Black Canyon is not as crowded and the north rim here is even less traveled. So our first glimpse this morning as we were driving to the visitors center, I kid you not, was breathtaking! And to know this canyon is just a few hundred yards from basecamp was a little shocking too.
Just past the South Rim Visitor Center, along the South Rim Road, there are about eleven lookouts with short hikes plus a few at the visitor’s center. We guess this road from the campground to the end is about seven miles. For Tim and I to take our time and do all the look outs but two, took us about five hours.
I’ll leave you with some facts and mostly pictures today. And like you hear all the time … pictures don’t do the beauty of this landscape any justice.
Basecamp: 8,390’
Depth at Painted Wall: 2,250’
As a reference: Eiffel Tower 1,063’,
Empire State Building 1,454’
Width at the bottoms narrowest point: 40’
Width at the tops widest point: 1,100’
Structure: Pink Pegmatite, dark blue-black Gneiss, Granite and Schist
A few of the animals that resides here: sage-grouse, chipmunks, mule deer, ringtail (at canyon bottom), eagles, hawks, peregrine Falcon, swifts and swallows, wild turkeys, big horn sheep, coyote, bear and mountain lions. (As if the bears weren’t enough to worry about)
Notes: Some sections of the canyon floor only receive 33 minutes of direct sunlight per day … note the above photo looking straight down. It was difficult deciding what photos of the 100+ that I took today. Thank-goodness for a wide angle lens … it definitely paid off on this stop!
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