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| Last week, Winter into Spring, Kaibab Forest Arizona |
I’ve just had my first trip of the season, which begins May 15, to the North Kaibab National Forest north of the Grand Canyon. My husband, dog, and I had some thunderstorms with hail, which is unusual for June. While sheltering from the downpour I got to thinking about my history in this, one of my very favorite places.
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| North Kaibab Trailhead. I was 28 |
The first visit I can remember was about 35 years ago. I was…a lot younger than I am now. I was with a group and we took a shuttle from
the South Rim, spent a night at the lodge, and backpacked south, camping three
nights along the way. The hike was
unforgettable, including blisters, lemonade at Phantom Ranch, and the healing
powers of inhaled substances, not yet legal.
My stay at the north Rim was, however, forgettable. I hadn’t gotten the bug yet.
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| Z3 Road Trip ca. 2002 |
Next was a trip with a car club. We drove a BMW Z3 two-seat convertible and made the stop at the North Rim as part of a meandering drive. There were maybe 18 cars, and I remember thinking that we looked like a row of jellybeans in assorted colors. Ours was British Racing Green, BTW. I thought the NR part of the park was cool (still do), but again zipped through the forest, missing the best part.
My soul connected to the forest during an Arizona Highways Photo workshop (later called Photoscapes and recently closed down altogether, sadly.) with Pete Ensenberger. Pete was retired from the position of Photo Editor at Arizona Highways Magazine. He would become a mentor and generously review my images for teaching purposes several times. During this trip, the group stayed at the lodge and hit the road very early each morning, mostly into the forest. It was autumn, and I was hooked.
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| My first night solo in Lurch, Kaibab Forest Arizona |
In 2013 we bought our first overlanding vehicle, which I called “Lurch.” I always thought Lurch would be a good Dog name, but neither of us wants a male dog, so I used it for the Tundra-Four Wheel Camper combination we would camp in for 350 nights until we replaced it with our 4WD Sprinter, “Raven.” Incidentally, we sold the Z3 when we jumped into overlanding. Its the only vehicle I wish I still had. When I'm too old to do overlanding, look for me in a sporty convertible again.
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| Marble Viewpoint Sunrise |
Pete told me about a some viewpoints on the edge of the
canyon, and once I’d seen Marble Viewpoint, I was hooked.
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| Crazy Jug Point, Kaibab Forest Arizona. There's nothing like a stormy sunset. |
I did tons of research, finding other lookouts and checking each
of them out in turn. On one of the first of these trips I met Ranger Jess, who
was generous with information about other vista points in the park and
out. For several years she’d invite me
to spend a night in her driveway periodically, and three times I visited as her
guest before the park opened. She gave me the gate codes (Jacob Lake and the
entrance station) and scoot in to experience the North Rim part of the park
with no one but a few rangers there.
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| With Jess in the Moon Room, Grand Canyon North Rim |
We’d have dinner at the lodge sometimes, and celebrated her
graduation from college with champagne (at altitude) in the “Moon Room”
downstairs from the “Sun Room” in the main Lodge building. These are spectacular memories and I’m deeply
grateful for her help.
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| Summer Forest Detail, Kaibab Forest Arizona |
As the viewpoints became increasingly crowded, I had a
growing interest in getting away from others in quiet places deep in the
forest. I loved being far from the throngs,
as well as the opportunity to photograph smaller scenes that are much more
likely to inspire original work than the viewpoint shots.
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| Looking onto a meadow at sunrise, Kaibab Forest Arizona |
Around this time, I developed a love for meadows. There are leas large and small scattered
throughout the forest on both sides of highway 67. They afford an opportunity to compose photographs
with flowers and fall color with less visual chaos than doing so deep in the
forest. They also feel magical to me,
and Gypsy the Wonder Dog loves a good unobstructed run.
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| Aerial Meadow View, Kaibab Forest Arizona |
I found myself pouring over satellite maps to find new meadows and nearby dispersed camping sites. Meadows are also compelling for drone photography, as long as you’re far enough north to be outside the Grand Canyon no-fly zone. I’ll have to say I’m still in the meadow phase. There are so many more to explore.
By now I’ve spent at least 150 nights camping in the North
Kaibab. It’s a cliché, I know, but I
imagine I’ll never be finished finding beautiful spots.
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| Ombre Spring, Kaibab Forest Arizona |
Our family is just back from that first trip of the
season. We explored some but mostly
hunkered down in familiar places because of the weather. Meadows are cooler at night, so the aspens
tend to leaf out later (and change color earlier in the autumn), so we saw some
bright yellow-green trees and some which hadn’t started to turn green at
all. Sometimes these color variations
were all on one hillside. Sometimes the bare graphic of trees without leaves
was juxtaposed on the color riot behind them.
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| Brown on Green, Kaibab Forest Arizona |
Our other stop was a coniferous forest I’d scouted a couple
of seasons ago. There we had hail and a
marvelous juxtaposition of aspens and pines. There will be carpets of
purple-blue lupine flowers when I get back there next month. PT Barnum allegedly said, “always leave them
wanting more.”
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| Hail |
There’s more at the end of the “Spring 2025” Gallery on the
website.
