Our 8:15 AM arrival at Sunset Point snagged us an upfront parking at the trailhead and also meant no shuttle bus! We hiked down Wall Street then on to Queens Garden to see “Victoria” and finally 0.7 miles down and back on Navajo Loop to see “Thor’s Hammer”. Truly one of the most spectacular hikes anywhere. Even the most imaginably challenged person is gaped mouth at this wonderland. “Surreal, amazing, awesome, incredible, breathtaking, fabulous, thunderstruck”, are words muttered by the throngs of people held in a trance of gob smacked wonderment. Around each corner or even looking back at what you had just passed your mind garnered a different interpretive magnificence. God alone made this place as well as the rest of his creation to let us know he alone made all this by his spoken command. To wit, we should always give him thanks for our fragile, precious lives. Or, in human terms as the parks namesake Ebenezer Bryce said when asked about the canyon, “One hell of a place to lose a cow!”
Along the way there were frequent stops to marvel, rest, snack, and to look for the Canyon’s wildlife. Among the denizens were: Townsend’s Solitaires, Mountain Chickadees, Pigmy Nuthatches, Stellar Jays, Magpies, Williamson Sapsuckers, White Chipmunks, Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels, Mule Deer, and people, lots of people.
Our hiking sticks created quite a lot of fascination from people we met along the way. With so many compliments, questions and inquires it was hard not to attract a crowd when some passersby stopped to examine them closer. It’s just what their creator Harry Johnson would have wanted: us making friends with everyone in the canyon.
The Queens Garden Trail culminates in her majesty Queen Victoria in rock effigy. Along the way her royal horticulturalist’s handy work is on vivid display.
Finally, we went down Navajo to Two Bridges Trail and along it as far as Thor’s Hammer before retracing our path to reach the rim closing our loop.
After hydrating and dropping the backpacks we walked over to the Lodge gift shop, the Park General Store and stopped to see the vintage tour bus at the old timey gas station. Our stop at the main visitor center came after “snacking” on a pizza near the lodge. And after hiking 6.4 miles, “a good time was had by all!”
One Response
I could do with all of those critters minus the humans