July 26 & 27, 2016
So many possibilities for camping on the Kaibab. Just about every gravel Forest Road (FR) offers obvious opportunities within a couple miles of pavement, or much farther if you choose. Our choice was at the western edge of the old 2006 Warm fire where I hoped to maybe see some condors.
Instead we saw cows in our shared meadow and pine forest at Mile-and-a-half Lake along FR212 on the Kaibab National Forest. But they kept their distance and no other people stopped by.
Sunlight streamed through the trees highlighting grasses and the deep ruddy bark of ponderosa. The sweet smell reminds me of cookies fresh out of the oven.
A rather open forest from some obvious selective cutting and burns yet the trees march on out of sight.
Several fire rings indicated others have camped here before but at that time there was still a fire ban on the Kaibab.
Bill enjoyed the open sky inside our ring of trees. He suffers from dendrophobia you know. And Sasha sniffed her way around the perimeter leaving her social media messages on every blade of grass.
Unlike the almost hot day before at Crazy Jug looking for shade we moved our chairs to follow the sun at this higher elevation.
Birds singing lovely songs flitted in and out far too fast for me to photograph. A few “pies” scattered around yet all in all a nice quiet place to spend a night camping under the stars.
In the morning under better light conditions we took a short walk to look down on the lake. It was more like a mud wallow for cattle. The fence didn’t slow them down a bit.
No rush to leave so relaxed in camp and watched the morning light play on the grasses and trees.
Hit the nearby pavement around noon after saying goodbyes to head home in opposite directions. I drove south on SR67 past more meadows with shrinking waterholes like at Crane Lake.
Past the North Rim Country Store and the Kaibab Lodge.
Through the entrance back into the park. Can you see the station building at what appears the end of the road?
And just inside the park saw the bison causing a traffic jam.
Plus a Touron stupidious maximus.
Back on the nexus, have given up with the laptop. Looks the perfect place to camp to me, pity the birds were so fast but that is what they so often are!! Keep well and enjoy the place while you can. Best wishes from us both.
I always struggle with bird photos. Unless they are outside the windows at feeders.
You sure have your humor hat on today. You had me laughing at some great lines. Especially “Touron stupidious maximus”. PERFECT! And he isn’t even looking at the Bison. DUH! Love Sasha’s “social media messages”. What a nice spot to camp with no TSM, plenty of sweet Ponderosa smells and the stars above. Sounds wonderful to me. Sorry to hear you are apparently rain deprived with the shrinking water holes. It looks like we’ve just missed the Finger Lakes the way they should be. After a 9 month drought, it is raining there with 100% and 90% predicted for the next 5 days. Of course we left this past Sunday. We were there for more than a month. I’d have been happy to wait it out for 5 days to see those waterfalls at their best. DRAT!
Thanks Sherry, some days I’m in better humor than others. I Love the smell of Ponderosa. We’re finally getting rain but don’t think there will be enough to fill these water holes. Too bad you missed more water at those falls.
Well it is a toss up whether I liked the cluster of trees, the fence or the ‘touron stupidious maximus’ best in this wonderful series of photos. I felt more relaxed just having read this one.
Thanks Jackie. I always feel relaxed when I’m out camping.
Enjoyed the photos and your humor made me smile. I can always count on you to send me to Google. “dendrophobia” – a fear of trees.
Thanks Jerry. Guess I made you work for this one. 😉
Hi, Gaelyn,
Got a kick out of the subspecies of Homo sapiens, the Touron stupidious maximus. See you in a couple of weeks.
I’m sure you’ve met a few of this subspecies. Won’t be long now.
Wow… Touron stupidious maximus is right!! Great post.
Looks like such a peaceful and lovely spot. And cool enough to follow the sun sounds like heaven to me! Love the pretty white flowers along the road. Glad the bison is smarter than his invader species.
I’ll bet with your equal heat and humidity you’d like somewhere cool. Stupid is…
I’m with Bill when it comes to trees. I must admit that they have been a welcome to give us chance to hike a little with some shade while drowning in heat and humidity. Glad you got a cooler time together. Love your parting comment:)
Problem with no trees is it’s too hot to hike. Glad you’re finding a bit of shade. We drove out on House Rock Valley road yesterday and barely got out of the truck.
I learned something new when I googled dendrophobia. So I guess no Forest Bathing for him right? I love a ponderosa pine forest. I could almost smell the smell. What a great retreat you had.
I think Bill would prefer desert bathing. Ponderosa is my favorite tree.
You are always visiting the coolest places. Oh, and I can only dream of traffic jams consisting of just a few cars.
A few cars is enough traffic jam for me.