The views from Point Imperial stretched out forever - overlooking the Marble Canyon area toward Page, AZ and southeast back into the Grand Canyon. With the many benches overlooking the views, we were able to sit for a while as the kids began drawing, measuring and identifying various flowers, birds and insects. Abby focused on the Scarlet Bugler, a red wildflower that we had been seeing all over the park. Isaac honed in on ants - excited that they would crawl onto his ruler so that he could accurately measure them. The observations continued at various overlooks and picnic areas on our way to Cape Royal, where we ate a picnic lunch very near the canyon rim. Matt walked out to the edge and sat down, taking my breath away as I saw where he was... He promised that it was an optical illusion - that there was really another rock about 2 feet directly below him. So of course the kids wanted to sit there too. Gulp - a pretty scenic spot to eat a PB&J though.
After lunch the kids worked to finish up both their Junior Naturalist and Junior Ranger programs as we hiked to Cliff Spring - a place where two layers of rock come together in the canyon wall and water seeps through. In such a rocky, dry place it was easy to see animal tracks leading from every direction to the small bit of water. In fact the deer had completely worn down the side of the cliff beside the spring - making it look almost like cattle had been there. While we were there, we saw several birds coming toward the spring and a raven taking a drink (and making a rather loud statement that he wasn't crazy about our presence at his spring).
But the real gem of the day was our last hike - to Cape Final. Walking along the wide, well-worn trail through the forest meadows, we began to wonder what we could possibly see at the end of the trail that we hadn't already seen. There were a few places where others had obviously gotten impatient and made a social trail to the rim's edge when it was clearly visible near the trail through the trees...but we forged ahead. "Cape Final" sounded very - well, final. We knew that the end of the trail would be obvious - and so it was. We popped up over a small cactus-covered hill to a rocky outcropping that appeared to be the edge of the world. Matt was lagging behind taking a few more cactus flower pictures, so the kids and I went ahead, making our way out to the edge of the furthest rock we could find... I carefully picked my way out and helped each one of them over one at a time. When Matt finally crested the hill, he gasped - loudly. And looking back, it probably wasn't the most responsible thing to do - taking the kids to the very tip of a sheer cliff edge that falls a mile to the bottom of a canyon...the Grand Canyon. But man, it was awesome. And Matt found the more parentally-responsible route to where we were and helped the kids out that way to a shadier, safer place to have a snack before heading back.
And so we walked back - me with Abby and Matt with Isaac - two-by-two in the wide trail: talking about the adventures we have had in our journey this summer, dreaming of where we could go next, discussing possibilities of backcountry camping and backpacking, knowing that this was likely our last long hike of the trip. We returned to the Visitor's Center to have the kids sworn in for all of their efforts and enjoyed a wonderful evening at the campsite with a family from Holland, camped next to us. When it was really dark, we loaded into the truck and drove out to a nearby meadow. All four of us sat along the tailgate, leaning back and gazing into the night sky. It was absolutely clear and the Milky Way was as bright as I've ever remembered seeing it. Shooting stars went by one after the other and we tried to point them out to the kids. A bat circled over us several times, audibly echo-locating, until it finally came within a few feet of us - amazing. It was the perfect end to one amazing day.
Tracy
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