Monday, August 19, 2013

Kaibab National Forest




Both sides of the road assaulted my eyes with blackened left overs from the fire that ran for as far as I could see.  Shocking to see up close. Lightening strikes set off a blaze that spread quickly over 103 acres.

North Rim - Grand Canyon Lodge


Two cabins of many near the lodge. Cabins are built close together.
Kachina doll inside the lodge. There was a grand ballroom on the left side of the lodge and I could see in my mind, back when the lodge was first built, people in fancy regalia dancing to live music.  Now, of course, they have rows of chairs set up for movies or lectures.

Food was more expensive than what I wanted to pay for lunch so I headed back to Jacob Lake for lunch. There used to be a lake there but through the years it has just dried up. Now there are cabins to rent, a motel, a cafe and a large souvenir shop. They had thunder eggs (geodes) from Utah. Get your own hammer and see what color lies beneath the geode - in the jewelry world, they call them druzy.

Met two young men from Switzerland sitting on stools at the cafe. They flew into New York, rented a car and were slammin down the highways of America. They drove down the eastern coast to Florida (which was steaming hot), across the lower states such as Texas and had come up into Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. Next they were heading for Vegas and California after driving through Zion National Park in Utah. Ending their trip in Seattle, another flight back to New York and onward to Switzerland.

A nice comment came when I asked, "do you find Americans friendly"?

 "Yes, very friendly" he said, "more so than Europeans."

Links: Travel Photo Discovery

19 comments:

Jane and Chris said...

Very sad to see the trees,but nature has a way of repairing itself so it should look as good as new in the future.
Jane x

Ginny Hartzler said...

An interesting conversation. I know that the French are not too friendly...maybe we are the most friendly country! Those poor burned trees are a sad sight.

Noel Morata said...

sad how forest fires can spread so quickly, hopefully these come back quickly...love that lodge it's so beautiful

NanaDiana said...

Love those cabins. What a fun thing to run into some tourists and get a kind word from them. Hope you enjoyed your lunch- xo Diana

Cranberry Morning said...

Such sad photos! But it is truly amazing how resilient the landscape is. Reminiscent of Mount St. Helens. And so nice to hear something good about Americans - from a European perspective.

Marisol@TravelingSolemates said...

HI Ruth,
Sad to see the blackened forest. I hope it will heal soon.
Interesting interaction you had with Swiss. It's true American's are much friendlier than Americans think!

EG CameraGirl said...

Fire is one way a forest regenerates but it sure looks awful for a while!

Poppy said...

Hi Ruth,

So sad to see the devastation of such forest fires and loss of life. Lovely photos, though and very interesting adventures you had! Living in Europe for the past 25 years, I have also found the same to be true, generally speaking. I wonder why...

Thanks for sharing!

Poppy

Mary @ The World Is A Book said...

It's always sad to see the devastating effects of a forest fire. What a beautiful cabin!

Muza-chan said...

A great place to visit...

Suzan said...

You go to the most interesting places!! Always on the go!! Lucky you!!

Rajesh said...

Beautiful shots of the place. Nice place for outing.

Jill Harrison said...

thanks for the tour. We have lightning strikes that cause raging bush fires over hundreds of kilometres too.
Have a great week and thank you for stopping by my blog today.

Unknown said...

After seeing the results of the fire in Yosemite, I have kind of an idea about the forest fire you saw! About your comment to be glad I wasn't there.
Thank you for visiting my blog earlier!
About 20 years ago, we WERE there, when it burned at 3 places at the same time, and we left a few hours before more than 20 thousand people were evacuated out of the park.
Was glad not to be in that traffic jam!

20 North Ora said...

It's nice to hear someone from another country say something nice about us here. Beautiful photos.

Judy

Jojo said...

Love your friendliness with the visitors. Beautiful photos.

esplinlin said...

We drove through that same fire in the Kaibab at night, and it was hauntingly beautiful, both next to the road and in the distance. Fire is part of nature.

esplinlin said...

We drove through that same fire in the Kaibab at night, and it was hauntingly beautiful, both next to the road and in the distance. Fire is part of nature.

Anonymous said...

Such a sad picture of the burned trees :(

What fun that would be, what the Swiss guys are doing! Glad they had nice treatment from us Americans.

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