Wupatki, Sunset Crater and North rim

I camped night before last by a creek outside of Zion National Park. I know this, but I'm still constantly amazed to see the difference water makes to diversity. There were lots of tiny flying insects chasing one another, and iridescent turquoise damselflies and a couple of kinds of dragonflies chasing them. Down by the water there were fingernail-sized toads. Swallows, redwinged blackbirds, some mergansers chased about. Later a fairly large bat swooped efficiently as the stars came out. It was hard for me to sleep; there was a toad whose call sounded like a distressed child.

Annoying toad

Day before yesterday I walked some of the Grand Canyon's north rim, which I really prefer to the south rim. I am starting to 'get' the rock layers now, identifying them during the drive and checking myself later. It feels a little like the first time you dream in a foreign language.

Trying to hide from the sun on July 4th at the North Rim.

At Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument I looked from the cinder cones around Flagstaff to the Painted Desert. Wandering among the Sinagua ruins there I saw something described as a blowhole. It turned out to be a crack in the earth which pushed out midfifty degree air. Refreshing since the day was hot, even at that height. Cracks in Kaibab limestone no doubt exploited by water to create underground passages through which air moves as pressure changes. Ancients described it as the breath of the earth. Camping at nearby Jacob Lake was my favorite tent spot so far. Surprisingly, I had no trouble sleeping at 7300 feet. I was tired, and the wind in the pines lulled me right to sleep.

This Ancestral Puebloan site was built about 1050-1100 and included a ball court.

 

I loved the way some of these trees look like they are growing in asphalt.

You have to be tough to colonize a volcano.