Grand Canyon

I spent the last 3 weeks in Texas up in the Hill Country getting rained on. There have been record torrential down pours almost like North Carolina in the hurricane season. Not really something to complain about given the average rain fall in Jeddah, and it's pretty and green and the birds and flowers are really going to town (pics in a later post.)

But in the mean time, I'm in Arizona visiting Tom and Aaron who live in Phoenix. Tom was out of town when I got here leaving Aaron to squire me about. Sunday we went to the Grand Canyon.

We ran into some locals on the way in.




and of course, it rained:

Which led to some quick thinking on Aaron's part regarding rain gear - we had to give up the umbrella because it was attracting electricity from the storm... which is what the ranger is telling the folks above, and seen demonstrated by my hair.


But it led to some pretty spectacular photos of the canyon, with the layers of light and atmosphere.









On our way out we stopped at one of the Native American run overlooks on the Little Colorado River, unfortunately all of the stands where empty because it was well after 6:pm so no pots this visit.


I got some pretty amazing shots of the river rapids - the river was muddy brown from the runoff.

And despite Aaron's urging, stayed well away from the drop off. The picture below was taken looking straight down into the canyon from a tiny railed barrier. (foot included to show off my pretty toes).

and finally a mouse who ran across the trail as we where leaving. I thought his camouflage was all but perfect, as did he.