The forecast for today was wind, and lots of it. I had hoped to be out in front of it by leaving so early but the wind was blowing pretty good even before the sun was up, and it was windy all day – gusts to 50 mph was the forecast; I’m not going to argue.
A lot of the land in this part of Arizona is reservation land – part of what is, without a doubt, the biggest screw job this country has ever done to ANY race of people, don’t get me started but if you want to read a good book, try – Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Anyway – this particular area is Navajo Indian country and one of the things you see every once in a while are these little road-side trading posts. These days though, they aren’t trading for beads, they want cold hard green backs (a little early in the morning for these guys – too much fire water maybe??). Okay, okay – I apologize….
The early bird gets – the best camp site. Camping at the Desert View Campground in Grand Canyon National Park is first come first served and there are 49 sites. It used to be tent only but now they do take RV’s shorter than 30ft. The best time to be there is mid morning so you can pick a site that is being vacated and stake your claim to that one. From Page that campground is only 100 miles away so I figured my 6:00 AM departure should be good enough, and it was. I was at the campground by 8:15 and the site I wanted was vacant. The tent was up and I was off on my exploration of the canyon and in search of breakfast (brunch by now) by 9:30.
One of the reasons I picked Desert View Campground was because this particular place is one of the best places to photograph sunrises and sunsets over the Grand Canyon. I figured as long as I have the whole photo bag with me, I might as well try to get some good pictures. I hiked down to the point and it does look like an ideal place to photograph the canyon – very hazy though with all this wind. 
My stomach is gnawin’ on my backbone though and although I don’t give it much of a chance, I decided to check out the “trading post” here at the viewing area. Brunch this morning – the Navajo Taco. Indian fry bread, ground beef, beans, onions, cheese, lettuce, salsa, and guacamole (no guak please). My belly full, I rode around the canyon for a while.
I had just pulled into the visitors center when this guy pulls in behind me. Oh, he’s got a dog with him, cute. I’ve seen guys that take their dog on the bike with them so although rare, it’s not unique. What, he has THREE dogs – Okay, that’s unique; the Rebel Dawg Adventure Team. I went for a walk around the center while he was walking his dogs (they are all shit-zoos (please forgive my phonetical spelling) and we ended up back at the bikes around the same time. I talked to him for 5 or 10 minutes and we swapped web site information. They’re on their way up the west coast – follow him via that link above.
Back at the camp to start setting up for my sunset over the canyon shot. I’m not too optimistic though, because along with the haze now there’s a decent amount of cloud cover. None the less, I gather my gear and head over. It’s about 90 minutes till sunset but I want to get a good spot and my dogs can use a rest. Hiking around in cowboy boots all day is something I never even thought about when I was 30 – twenty-five plus years later, those boots ain’t made for walkin’. I got my place and met and spoke with several people while I was there. Alas – the socialization was the best part. This was the best I could come up with for a sunset over the canyon on this particular evening.
It’s still very windy and starting to get rather cold. I’m going to hunt my hole and see about gettin’ some much needed shut eye.