Thursday, October 26, 2017

The Hawthornes Visit The Grand Canyon.

The Hawthornes left Flagstaff, Arizona,
and headed to the Grand Canyon.
I'm thinking this was a controlled burn outside Flagstaff.








Mr. Hawthorne wanted to stop at a rock shop along the way.

I'm so glad this particular rock was under lock and key.
Else, I'd been tempted to abscond with it.
Heh...






The Hawthornes finally made it to the Grand Canyon!
Here are the Hawthornes at the GRAND CANYON!
 Please click on the link.

We were here 5 years ago
and I wanted to see how much it had changed.
I have nothing to say.
Just enjoy the views.















In the background, just above the western horizon, is Mount Turnbull. 
It is 62 miles away.
Luckily, we can see it today. 

Most days, haze makes spotting this distant landmark difficult.
Sadly, most of the haze is human-caused.
It can be a plume from a local forest fire, 
but usually haze is pollution from urban and industrial areas
hundreds of miles to the south and west,
and even from Asia.
In high concentrations, 
these pollutants can injure park ecosystems
and human health.
To protect the canon views,
the park has been monitoring air quality since the 1970s.
The good news is that the park's clearest days 
have gotten clearer in recent years.
The bad news is that the haziest days
have stayed about the same.


















































































And there's the Colorado River.
Which presumably carved out this little ditch
5-6 million years ago.















These guys were flying a drone out here,
which is verbotten.
People were yelling and screaming at them.















































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