Sunrise, Sunset

Day Two in the Grandest of Canyons, and we were up with the elk.

Just check out this feral wildlife!  And look at the ones roaming behind them, too!

Because it's not every morning you can pose a few feet from elk who could care less that you're taking Facebook profile pics.

As a seasoned marathoner, I know that proper hydration is crucial.

Mother-and-son reunion, getting ready to begin our sunrise descent into the canyon

Taking a tip from Jim Mabry, we opted for the South Kaibab trail to canyon's bottom.  And in case you're wondering, Kaibab which gives the Kaibab National Forest its name, is a type of rock about 250 millions years old.   It's made up of a sandy limestone, and usually gives off a cream or greyish-white color.  I didn't make that stuff up, that comes straight from the National Park Ranger.

Up top, this is the type of trail you contend with.  It changes before long, though. 

Andrew and Heath making a point to have an ooh and ahh moment.  (There's lot of those to come.) 

Turns out Andrew gets a kick out of climbing out onto the edges of precipices and posing in iconic vista shots.  Who knew?  His mother wasn't too keen on him doing this so frequently, but hey, it's the Grand Canyon.

Documented proof that photobombs are not restricted to the home field.

At this point, it wasn't even 8 a.m. yet, and the temperature was already inching closer to 100 degrees.  Which explains our sweat.

This clay staircase is built right into the trail.  Not much on either side of it, though, so don't look down.

A warning we didn't have to repeat too often with Heather, who kept her focus on every next footfall in front of her.

Down, down, down we go

Obligatory surfer dude sign flashing pic

Finally, we reached our destination, Cedar Point, a flat plateau that marked the end of our descent and a chance to chow down on granola bars and water.

And pose with the occasional deadwood tree 

Or smooch

Canyon floors stir the romantic emotions, obviously

Or in some case, lend themselves for a siesta

Before we begin the climb back up, a moment for Simba to pose atop Pride Rock

The colors at the canyon floor are just as breathtaking as they are from above, but even more vibrant

The girls wouldn't venture out to the cliff's end, so they took the shot from above

Kings of the Canyon

Hercules, he's not.

Historic poses done, it's time to start our ascent.  Trust me.  It's a LOT harder going up than it is going down these trails.  A LOT.

This pic was captured early, when the energy level was still high. 

Mr. August in next year's Grand Canyon Beefcake Calendar 

We've still got to climb all the way to the top of that?!?

One final foursome shot right before we returned to civilization.  Sort of.

After a quick wardrobe change, it was time to venture further down to the eastern side of the canyon for some varying views

Which, like, the southern rim, brings out the romance.  Get a room, you two! 

Time for a stop All Along the Watchtower

Dare to step out

Ain't no sun setting on this love story!

The last hours of this road trip's Grand Canyon pitstop ahead of us, it was time to catch one of the glorious sunsets that you hear so much about.  No picture we would take would ever come close to capturing its perfection.  The solitude, the colors, the panorama, it's all unbeatable.

Bring on the Fiddler on the Roof.  It's Sunset. 

A Grand Time

Like the proverbial Phoenix rising from the ashes, a return to blogging after far too long away from the keyboard.  Blame it on graduations, blame it on proms, blame it on summer malaise, blame it on a West Coast road trip, heck, just blame it on flat-out laziness.

All those excuses aside, it's time to do some SERIOUS pipe-cleaning, a cathartic blogsplosion long, long overdue.  For regular readers of the blog, apologies, and welcome back.  I'm quite confident you've managed to muddle through this summer quite handily without regular check-ins at a Wicked Good Blog.  More than likely, you've had your Cook blog fix satiated with Andrew's new blog, Andy's room, found here: Andy's Room

Anyways, in no particular order, in fact, quite OUT of order, cometh the first in a series of West Coast reports, with sights, sounds, and senses-shattering scenarios from the Great American Landscape.

As readers of Andrew's blog know, this year the Cook family headed West, to expand our horizons to the West Coast, in search of that perfect Mexican restaurant, not to mention new trails to traverse, new roads to run, and new horizons from which to yell Carlooooosss.

First stop?  Arizona, home of the dry heat, a ceaselessly repeated oxymoron, which really, only grates on you more and more with each bead of sweat that trickles down the center of your back or rolls out from beneath your hatline.

(You may have seen a few of these pics via Andrew, but I'm aiming for a variety here to avoid TOO much overlap)

First stop, the Grand Canyon, so naturally, here's the three Grandest people I know

 

Lots of romantical photos to come in the days ahead, so run away if the sight of two people married for nearly 23 years yet still madly in love with another makes you tremor with revulsion

Andrew had a blast posing with the panoramas, as will be made abundantly clear in the posts ahead

He dared to step out for the peek down to canyon's bottom.

His sis?  Not so much.  Heath preferred the relative safety provided by standing a few steps back from the precipice.  Still all smiles, though!

Andrew spent considerable time just taking it all in.

And occasionally, Dad would step in to ruin the portrait shots

No camera can do the photo ops justice.

One of my favorite things about vacationing anywhere is the ability to run some new courses and explore new pathways, roads and trails, all while continuing to log the running mileage.

This trip would be no exception, and in fact would lead to some historic outings.

The first night, trails right off our hotel's driveway would run for miles and miles heading into the Grand Canyon National Park.  And while Andrew and I may have been the only humans out on these dusty trails that night, we certainly weren't alone.

While it wasn't the Moose race in which myself, Barry, John and Nate claimed an historic team victory a few years back (see: previous Remember the Moose posts), this animal was the genuine article.

Clearly, he didn't care that we were in his neighborhood.

And while I'm always on guard for the errant cougar back in Massachusetts, the cougars out west are a  bit more savage, though not nearly as predatory.

Day One wrapped up with a return to the Canyon for some nighttime stargazing.  Wasn't able to capture much by way of pics, but did catch the solitude of the canyon when the only light to be found for miles around was a tiny campfire on the canyon floor below.  Andrew vowed to someday return to the Canyon walls and take part in one of those selfsame canyon floor overnight outings, fire and all.  I have no doubt it'll happen.