About a month ago, my 10 year old son and i took a week trip to the southwest to see my parents in Gallup, NM. While down there, we heading to the Grand Canyon to test his hiking ability. Before i take him to a week long hiking trip, i want to see how well he handles a all day hike. The last time i was there was in 1979, and hiked down it twice. It was so nice to be back in the area.
At badlands of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation called the Painted Desert. Breath taking

Petrified Forest National Park. Note, if you go there, do not collect any rocks.

At the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. A lot of control burn in the area.

Heh, he wasn't sure about the view. We are 6,785 ft from the rim, the Colorado River is 4,285 ft below but can not see it from the look out point.

Bright Angle Trail. I will take him to the three mile point (4,760ft), about 2025 ft drop from the rim, 2-3 hour hike down 4-6 hr round trip. It is the white/black building on the far left of the center of the pic. The wooded area in Indian Garden camp ground (3,800 ft) 4.6 mile hike with a drop of 2990 ft, about another 1.5 mile hike from the three mile point. I just couldn't push him that far for the fact that temp was getting 110 and it would take us over 8 hours to hike the the top.

Taken 6 in the morning. So peaceful.

Taken 8 late afternoon. Once again, so peaceful.

Here we go, the beginning of the trail. I am so excited. I dont know who this guy is but the young lady has a nice a**.

You can not see all of the trail, it just zig zag all the way down the the Indian Garden

Her we are on foot, some people took the mules down instead. pfff.

We are lucky to see these guys. Desert Bighorn sheep.

Here we are at the 3 mile point. way up there where i was looking down in the 5th pic. It is about 102 degree right now and resting.

Where we hiked down. Like i said, it is hard to see the trail yet trying to figure out where you can down.

Dam Rock Squirrel stole my caprisun out of my bag. I try to scare it away but he choose to ignore my presents. So i garbed him by the tail and toss him off to the side. He really wanted that drink.

What a site. We sat there for about a hour enjoying a site that many don't get to see.

I seen sign on deer, elk, even cattle crossing, But never seen one for Mountain Lion.

We are about 50 miles north of Gallup, NM on the way to Droango, CO. This is Shiprock, composed of fractured volcanic breccia and black dikes of igneous rock called "minette". It is the erosional remnant of the throat of a volcano, and the volcanic breccia formed in a diatreme. The age is about 27 million years old. There are a dozen others in the area.
