September 22, 2010

It's taken almost a week, but I think this will be the final installment of the great into the canyon adventure from last Sunday.

As we turned around and drove toward the mouth of the canyon and toward home, it was nearing 5 p.m., and the shadows were lengthening quite a bit. We hadn't realized when we passed up the opportunity to photograph The Window on the way in, that the shadows would have lengthened to the point that they obscured one of the most interesting things about it by the time we passed it on the way out. From our original viewpoint, the triangular opening had a perfectly centered cave behind it, making it look sort of like the Eye of Providence symbol usually seen atop a pyramid. We had had quite a conversation about that symbol on the way to Spider Rock, in fact, after seeing The Window.

Now, coming back out, the cave was completely engulfed in shadow, so although it's as beautiful as any other arch, it doesn't have the mysterious image of the cave centered in it. The other mystery is that when I searched the pictures, I found some that had been taken before the pictures of Spider Rock, when I clearly remember Budd saying he couldn't spend the battery power on those. If he took any at all before, why wouldn't he have taken one with the cave?

It's a mystery that will never be solved. But here's what it looked like later in the afternoon:

The cave is in the deepest part of the shadow and was barely visible in person, if you knew it was there. Maybe sometime we'll have the opportunity to photograph it again at a better time of day.

The final adventure of the afternoon was rounding a corner and flushing a covey of wild turkeys! Both Budd and Mick were scrambling for their cameras, which was a little scary because Mick was also still driving. The road kept curving, and the turkeys kept running, so it was hard to catch them. Mick finally stopped (probably 10 seconds after we first saw them, but it felt like longer) and we all got out of the truck to try to spot them in the trees, where they had run for cover. Then I spotted them climbing the rocks! Here's the best shot Budd was able to get:

As the guys went crashing through the underbrush trying to get a vantage point, two of the birds took off from the rocks and flew across the road into the trees nearer the wash. Although you can only see a wing in this picture, here's what it looked like:

The funniest part of this episode was that a few seconds after the birds that flew off must have landed, an unseen horse in the same area let out a startled whinny. It cracked us all up, and sent us home in a great mood from seeing something that you don't get to see every day.

Tonight Budd and I have been invited to attend a 'musical presentation' by one of the Navajo park employees at the Holiday Inn just outside the park. We don't really know what to expect, but we're looking forward to it.

That's all for now...until next time.