California Condor....CHECK

Awoke Sunday morning at 8.  Well, actually it was 7.  I’ve already mentioned the importance of noting which time zone you are in when driving across country.  I guess I don’t listen to my own advice, as Arizona is actually part of the Pacific time zone, an hour behind the Mountain time zone which I thought I was still in.  I actually went by most of the day living my life an hour ahead of the actual time.  It didn’t catch up to me til later.  I hiked a beautiful slot canyon down to the Colorado River in the northern part of Grand Canyon NP.  The water at this part of the river is always a frigid 45, as the water  at this point has just recently come out of the bottom of a lake held behind the Glen Canyon Dam.  So I didn’t go swimming. 

Original Cliff Dweller homes.  These people built their houses under rocks.  They lived under rocks.

more sculpted sandstone while walking down Cathedral Wash

The towering slot canyon I walked down to get to the Colorado

All that hiking, and THIS IS THE COLORADO RIVER!!....

Just kidding, this is the Colorado River.  The view looking south.

Somebody munched off this guys tail.  Didnt seem to slow him down. 

I spent an hour hiking around the rocks at the river, then hiked back out and make my way to the Navajo Bridge, one of only 2 bridges that spans the Colorado for hundreds of miles in either direction, making it a popular byway for those traveling between Utah and Arizona.  It’s also a local hangout for some of the California Condors which have not left the area for better feeding grounds further north.  Some of these birds have been imprinted by humans who will throw them scraps of food from the bridge, which is why the birds will hang  out there.  Fortunately, there was only 1 bird there when I arrived, a juvenile.  All the birds have radio transmitters on them, as well as a tag for personal identification.  The bird I saw was J2.  It is 1 of only 100 or so wild California Condors in the world.  I was ecstatic to find one.  I’ve seen condors before, in the San Diego Zoo, 10 years ago, a time when only 20 or so birds were flying around in the wild.  The fact that I got to see a wild condor is really special and a tribute to not only the resilience of this prehistoric bird to survive, but also to the field crews that have worked endlessly to bring this bird back from the brink of extinction.If I never see a condor again (which I pray wont be the case), Ill always know the exact individual bird I saw.   I  finished out my time at Vermillion Cliffs with a big bbq burger at the local restaurant in “town”.

Navajo Bridge spanning the Colorado

The best pick of the California Condor I could get.  Taken through my fieldscope.  note the wing tag J2.