Grand Canyon and Trout Fishing, May 2008

The Grand Canyon

While fishing in Arizona, we took some time to drive to the grand canyon. Our fishing plans for that day were *snowed* out. Yes snow - Flagstaff had about 4 inches and the drive to the canyon felt like a spring drive here in Canada. The fishing could have been good but with the snow, it was unclear we could get to the lakes we wanted to fish, so, touristing we went.

The scenery was gorgeous, especially with the snow on the rocks. It's one of these places where you can't believe what you're seeing even when you're there. The size, the scale is so big it's hard to tell sometimes. You can look down to the canyon floor and it seems relatively "close", but then you notice the people who are walking on the trails and they are so small, you can barely see them unless they are moving.


The California Condors

We saw the condors of the south rim of the canyon. These are wild big birds with a 3m (9 ft) wingspan ! You'll see they are numbered as part of a restoration program as well as radio tagged. California Condors are endangered and are being carefully managed and tracked. Very cool to watch them fly. When you spot them in the canyon, they look so small against the back drop of the canyon walls. Then when they fly directly overhead, you see how huge they are. These are truly magnificent birds.


We also saw some elk in the woods on the rim of the canyon. This one is just a little guy.


The Trout Fishing

After our canyon adventures we went fishing for rainbows in the mountains. The first lake was next to the highway which made it fairly easy to access. When we pulled up we saw lots of rings on the water and a few jumping fish too.


We weren't the only fishermen there. We saw some blue herons who came for the leaping fish. Note the bugs flying around in the air around the heron, the place was so thick with bugs that the trout were leaping out of the water to catch them.


We caught some nice fat ones too which we kept for dinner. They got a nice comfortable cushioned ride home with us. Yep, it's weird to go somewhere with *no water* and catch fish but it's a very cool place and there are some very nice locations to fish.