Faye, Javier and family took me with them on a trip to the North Rim of and Canyon and Zion National Park. The Canyon and Zion are Julian's all time favorite places to hike and enjoy the big outdoors. His wish was to return. We did our best to start to grant that wish on this trip. He returned in our footsteps. We remembered him and his love for this country. My goal is to do another trip to the Canyon and Zion next summer taking along more children and family. This picture was taken on the Watchman trail overlooking Zion Canyon just above the mile long tunnel.
The group at the North Rim. The mountain far and faint in the background above Maceo and Niko's heads is San Francisco Peaks. You can't tell it in this size picture, but we could see snow on the top from this far away! Left to right is Nathan, Faye, Carol, Maceo, Niki, Javier and Jules. I think that I also embedded a slide show in this blog. We shall see if that worked.
There are many AZ natives who have never seen the Grand Canyon. Non-native Julian could never see enough of it. He hiked up and down many of its trails
Nana and Jules with lichen covered sandstone in the background. I have always liked lichen. It comes in many colors: various shades of greens, yellows and oranges. It grows very slowly (maximum 1mm per year). I think they are fungus and algae which grow together on rocks or trees.
Notice we are missing Nathan and Niko here. They were sick this day and stayed in the room. We really missed them. The night before Niko and Nathan spent huddled over trash cans. Three or 4 times that night someone would throw up and Jules would wake up and cry. Being a school nurse, I'm certainly used to children vomiting, but I felt slightly nauseated also the next day. We blame it all on Jules who threw up once and was not herself for a day before we left on the trip.
Faye, Javier with Jules asleep and Lower Emerald waterfall in the background. I have seen this waterfall fill up that whole ledge after a rain. We also got to see Steve (who married Faye and Javier) and Deb while we were in Springdale (the little town outside Zion). It was great seeing them again.
This flower is growing in this sandstone.
This is Jules perched all by herself on a rock overlooking Zion Canyon
