Grand Canyon National Park Read online

  “Hey, look at that!” Dad called out.

  The lizard dashed toward the side of the trail and paused.

  Morgan, James, and Dad watched the lizard. It moved its body up and down.

  “It looks like it’s doing push-ups,” Morgan said.

  “It’s so big!” James said. “And look at that yellowish green ring around its neck.”

  “I think it’s a collared lizard,” Dad said. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  James took a step toward the lizard, but it scampered into a crack between some rocks.

  Collared lizard

  James walked back toward the middle of the trail. “I guess we better watch where we step,” he concluded.

  6

  Morgan, James, and Dad continued hiking down. Soon, they came to Cedar Ridge, a resting point one and a half miles from the rim.

  They spent a few minutes there nibbling on snacks and drinking water. The thermometer posted in the sun by the bathrooms read 104 degrees.

  Farther down the trail they came to the Tonto Trail junction, a faint path in the Inner Canyon.

  “I’m sure glad we’re not going that way,” Morgan said.

  “Me too,” Dad agreed after gulping down water. “That trail looks like it leads to the middle of nowhere.”

  James and Morgan got out their water bottles. It was still hot, with a dry, biting wind.

  Dad scanned the canyon and horizon with his binoculars. Morgan and James each took turns looking through them.

  Morgan saw a bird flying in circles high in the sky. “That bird seems so big!” Morgan exclaimed. “I wonder what kind it is.”

  Dad looked up at the bird. “I’ve read that condors were released in northern Arizona, not too far from the Grand Canyon. They’re the largest flying bird in North America.”

  “Can I see?” James asked.

  Morgan gave James the binoculars. He found the bird and followed it. “It’s so far away,” he said. “It’s hard to tell how big it is.”

  Morgan, James, and Dad put their packs back on and shuffled down the steep switchbacks.

  They came to an abandoned backpack lying next to the trail.

  Morgan, James, and Dad stopped to look around for people, but they saw no one.

  “That’s strange,” Dad said.

  They turned a bend in the trail and found another backpack. This one was flat on the ground with its shoulder straps facing up. Several of its pouches were unzipped.

  James stopped and called out, “Is anyone out there?”

  The only sound they heard was the whistling of the hot, dry wind blowing up from the canyon.

  “Hello up there!” Morgan shouted. Then she looked down the trail. “Hello down there!”

  “Is everyone okay?” Dad yelled.

  There was no answer.

  “Maybe it’s the trail crew,” Morgan said.

  “It could be,” Dad said. “But there’s no sign of a camp anywhere. Besides, there’s no water in this area, so why would anyone leave their packs here?”

  They hiked on and came to an overhanging rock. James, Morgan, and Dad stepped onto the rock and looked down.

  “There’s the Colorado River!” James exclaimed. “Phantom Ranch must be up that way.” He pointed toward a side canyon lined with trees. It had a creek running through it.

  “Look,” Morgan said, pointing to the trail a few switchbacks below them, “there are two hikers down there without packs on!”

  Morgan, James, and Dad watched the two hikers. They sat down on a rock for a minute. The man bent forward and rubbed his head. The lady leaned back and took a deep breath. Then they got back up and slowly continued down the trail.

  Morgan, James, and Dad picked up their pace. As they did, they closed in on the two hikers. The man leaned heavily on his walking stick with each step. The woman stopped and put her hands on the rock wall to brace herself.

  Morgan caught up to them. “Are you two okay?” she asked.

  The couple stopped. The woman slowly turned to face Morgan, James, and Dad. She looked dazed, and her eyes were glassy.

  “Not really,” the woman answered. “We ran out of water several miles ago, and …”

  “Hey, it’s Steve and Joanna!” James said.

  “Do … we … know … you?” the man asked in a raspy voice.

  Dad held out a water bottle. “Here, have some.”

  Steve leaned back on a rock and took a deep breath. “No thanks. You need it.”

  “Take as much water as you want,” Dad said. “Really.”

  “Are you sure?” Steve asked.

  “We’ve got plenty.” Dad looked at James and Morgan.

  Steve took a long gulp of water, stopped, and then took another. “Whew!” he said. “I was really losing it there.” He took out some crackers and started nibbling.

  “Now it’s your turn,” Morgan said, giving her bottle to Joanna.

  Steve handed Joanna some crackers. “Here, honey, you better eat too.”

  “We saw a couple of packs up there,” James said. “Are they yours?”

  “We couldn’t carry them anymore. The weight in this heat was just too much,” Joanna answered. “Now I remember you. We met you at the North Rim at sunset a few nights ago.”

  “Why didn’t we see you on the shuttle over here?” James asked.

  “You must have taken the van to the South Rim,” Joanna said. “We’re doing the opposite. We drove our car over here and will return in the van to get to our car. Didn’t you have someone else in your group?”

  “Our mom stayed behind,” Morgan explained. “She is picking us up at the trailhead on Friday.”

  “Hmm,” Dad thought aloud, “do you think you can you make it down to Phantom Ranch?”

  “We hope so,” Joanna answered, “but it will be slow going.”

  “Do you need any food?” Morgan asked.

  HEAT-RELATED ISSUES THAT CAN HAPPEN TO HIKERS

  There are several heat-related issues that can happen to hikers in the canyon.

  1. Heat exhaustion. This is caused by dehydration from over-sweating. Victims who have this may look pale, feel nauseous, have cool, moist skin, and suffer from cramps. Hikers with heat exhaustion need to drink water, eat high-energy foods, rest, and cool down.

  2. Hyponatremia. Hyponatremia has similar symptoms to heat exhaustion. It is caused by a low amount of sodium in the blood. It can happen by drinking too much water, not eating salty snacks, and losing electrolytes through sweat. Victims may be nauseous, vomit, and urinate often. They need salty foods and possibly emergency help. Their mental state needs to be watched.

  3. Heatstroke. Heatstroke is very dangerous and can be fatal. The body’s cooling system no longer works. Two to three cases occur each year at the Grand Canyon. People with heatstroke have a flushed face, dry skin, weak or rapid heartbeat, high body temperature, and poor judgment, and they may be unconscious. Victims need shade, to be cooled down with water, and emergency help.

  It is possible that in extreme or near-death cases, heat issues can affect people’s minds and they can hallucinate.

  “No thanks,” Steve said. “We took some with us. And we can buy food down there anyway.”

  “But how will you camp?” James asked.

  “We haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Joanna answered. “Right now we just want to get there.”

  Dad looked back up the trail. “I’ve got an idea.”

  Dad explained his plan. Then Morgan, James, and Dad pulled off their packs. They left the packs with Steve and Joanna and climbed back up the trail.

  They found Steve and Joanna’s packs. Dad slipped one on. Morgan and James held the other between them. They walked back down.

  Steve and Joanna were sitting on a rock waiting.

  “You two look better already,” Dad said to them.

  “We really don’t know how to thank you,” Steve said.

  “We’re glad to help,” Morgan answered.

  Morgan, J
ames, and Dad put on their own packs.

  Colorado River at its confluence with Bright Angel Creek

  Archaeological site in the Grand Canyon

  Joanna suddenly stood up and looked at Steve. “Why don’t we give it a try too?”

  “Okay. Good idea,” Steve said while standing up.

  “It’s not much farther,” James encouraged.

  Steve and Joanna slowly put their packs back on.

  Morgan, James, and Dad watched Steve and Joanna start down the trail.

  “I think they’re going to make it,” James said.

  Morgan, James, and Dad followed Steve and Joanna. The five of them slowly headed toward Phantom Ranch.

  Farther down the trail, they walked through a long tunnel carved into a rocky hillside. After the tunnel, they stepped onto a metal footbridge that crossed over the wide Colorado River.

  They stopped in the middle of the bridge and looked down at the clear, flowing water. “We’ve made it to the bottom of the canyon!” Dad announced.

  “We’ve come down almost 5,000 feet,” James said.

  “Incredible!” Dad said.

  “We wouldn’t have made it without you,” Joanna said.

  They crossed the bridge and turned toward Phantom Ranch. Along the way, they passed the remnants of an old stone structure.

  “This looks like an Ancestral Puebloan home,” Joanna said.

  “You mean Native Americans built this?” Morgan asked.

  “This and many other things in the canyon,” Joanna answered.

  THE COLORADO RIVER NOW RUNS CLEAR AND COOL

  The Colorado River now runs clear and cool—not much more than forty-six degrees year-round. That’s the water’s temperature when it is released from Glen Canyon Dam 200 feet below Lake Powell’s surface. Before the dam was built, the Colorado River was often brown and muddy. The water temperature ranged from near freezing in winter to almost eighty degrees in summer. The constant water temperature and controlled release from below the dam has changed the Colorado River’s ecosystem. Some plants and animals have almost disappeared, such as a fish called the humpback chub, which is an endangered species in the canyon. Several organizations are trying to restore the natural ecosystem and bring back the beaches along the Colorado River. To do this, they have purposely released extra water in the canyon several times. This has brought some of the muddy sediment back from the bottom of the river into the flow so it can be deposited as sand and dirt along the banks.

  Humpback chub

  ANCIENT STONE HOUSES

  Several structures are along the Colorado River near the junction of the South Kaibab Trail and Bright Angel Creek. The structures are ancient stone houses. Trails, pottery, and other artifacts have been found nearby. The Ancestral Puebloan people built these houses. They farmed and hunted in the canyon between AD 1100 and 1140. Around 1150, they left the Phantom Ranch area, possibly because of a long drought.

  Archaeologists have recorded more than 4,000 archaeological sites in the Grand Canyon National Park area. The sites include structures, pottery, flakes, arrowheads, pictographs and petroglyphs, granaries, and old irrigation dams. The oldest sites date back 10,000 years. But only a very small part of the canyon has been surveyed. New sites are discovered all the time. If visitors come upon archaeological remains, they should leave them alone and report the sites to the National Park Service.

  Farther up the trail, Morgan, James, Dad, Steve, and Joanna came to a restroom with lush plants around it. It also had a water fountain outside. They guzzled down some cool, fresh water.

  “I feel so much better!” Steve said.

  They filled up their water bottles and headed toward camp.

  7

  Morgan, James, and Dad found an empty campsite next to the creek.

  Steve and Joanna set up their camp a few sites away.

  Hikers were wading in the cool water of the stream. Morgan and James looked at Dad. “I know what you are thinking!” Dad said.

  They put their packs on the picnic table and walked down to the creek. James, Morgan, and Dad took off their shoes and stepped into the water. Dad sat down right in the stream. “Ahh,” he said, “I needed this!”

  James and Morgan joined Dad. They sat in the gurgling creek and cooled off.

  “This is the best way to end a hike like that,” Morgan said.

  “Absolutely,” Dad agreed. “Look at how many people are in the water.” He splashed water all over his face and arms.

  James dunked his head under the water. “It’s not quite a shower,” he said, “but I’ll take it.”

  By the time they got out of the creek, it was starting to get dark. Morgan, James, and Dad worked quickly to put up their tent and organize their supplies.

  Morgan got out their small backpacking stove. James got food out of his pack for dinner. Dad found the matches.

  James plopped down on the bench. “It’s too hot to cook.”

  Dad looked at a box of dried curry. “You might be right. How about you, Morgan? Are you hungry?”

  “I don’t feel like having anything hot either,” Morgan answered. “We could just eat cheese and crackers and dried fruit.”

  “I bet Mom’s putting together quite a camp dinner right now,” James said.

  “Or perhaps she’s eating at the lodge restaurant,” Dad said.

  “And looking out the windows, wondering where we are,” Morgan added.

  While Morgan, James, and Dad ate, people kept walking past their campsite.

  “Where’s everyone going?” James asked.

  “To the campfire program,” a person answered.

  Morgan, James, and Dad looked at each other. They hurried to finish their food.

  After eating, they put all their food into a stuff sack and hung it, along with their backpacks, on the tall metal poles at their campsite.

  “Hopefully that will be high enough off the ground to keep the critters out,” Dad said.

  James zipped up the tent.

  They walked over to Steve and Joanna.

  “We’re going to the campfire program,” James said. “Do you want to join us?”

  Steve and Joanna looked at each other. “I think we’ve had enough excitement for the day,” Joanna said. “But thanks for asking. Will you tell us about it tomorrow?”

  “Of course,” Morgan replied.

  By the time Morgan, James, and Dad got there, the talk was already going on. They sat down in the back.

  A ranger pointed to the South Rim far above them. “Look up there,” she said. “Do you see those flashes? Those are from people taking pictures of the sunset at Mather Point. Okay, everyone, smile and wave!”

  The people in the audience laughed while waving their arms.

  “There’s no way they’d see us all the way down here,” James said.

  “Maybe if they have a telephoto lens,” Morgan said.

  Gray fox

  “You know,” the ranger said, “for being in the middle of the wilderness, there’s a lot of nightlife going on around here. Would you like to know where all the action is?”

  Several people in the audience nodded their heads.

  “The main attractions I want to tell you about aren’t human,” the ranger began.

  Morgan and James looked at each other.

  “Many of the Grand Canyon’s animals only come out at night,” the ranger explained. “They are nocturnal. It’s hard to blame them. The temperature reached 114 in the shade here today. And the humidity was only 5 percent. That’s so dry that some streams in the Inner Canyon stop flowing during the daytime! Down here at Phantom, the ringtail cat, the gray fox, the great horned owl, and the spotted skunk are fairly common. And they are all out and about once the sun goes down.”

  “I hope we don’t see a skunk in camp,” James said to Dad and Morgan.

  “And there are nineteen species of bats that live at the Grand Canyon,” the ranger continued. “But the creature I want to tell you about the most is jus
t two inches long.” The ranger held out her thumb and finger a couple of inches apart. “Does anyone have an idea what I’m talking about?”

  “Scorpions?” Morgan guessed.

  “That’s right,” the ranger responded. “The Grand Canyon has two species. The desert hairy scorpion, which can grow to six inches, and the bark scorpion, which is two inches long and is much more venomous. During the day, they rest under rocks, in crevices, and in burrows. But at night, it’s a whole different story.”

  “I hope we don’t run into one of those!” Dad said.

  OLDER THAN DINOSAURS

  Scorpions are arachnids and have lived on Earth for more than 400 million years—since long before the dinosaurs. There are more than 1,500 different species of scorpions worldwide.

  Scorpions give birth to large litters. Their live young climb onto the mother’s back until they can hunt for themselves. Scorpions can live up to twenty-five years.

  Scorpions eat insects and small rodents. A scorpion paralyzes its prey by using the stinger on the tip of its tail. About twenty-five species of scorpions can kill a person, including Grand Canyon’s bark scorpion, although deaths from scorpion stings are extremely rare.

  “Many Phantom Ranch rangers have been stung over the years, some of us more than once,” the ranger explained. “But that’s the risk we take for getting to work here at Phantom. And, by the way, we had two people stung in camp last night.”

  Morgan looked at Dad, then James. “Good thing we zipped up our tent!” she said.

  “By now you’re all probably wondering where these scorpions are,” the ranger continued. “Let me show you!”

  James sat forward. Dad looked at Morgan and James.

  The ranger held up a special flashlight. “At night you can see the scorpions easily with ultraviolet light.” The ranger stepped into the audience and handed out flashlights. Morgan took one.