Trip report.
     Most of us VIPs carpool to the North Rim late afternoon of October 10th and greet each other as we arrive at the CCC Hill (Civilian Conservation Corps) administrative camp site. It's the first I've met AZT (Arizona Trail) sawyer Bill H, and the Salt Lake women, Mary and Jean. I'm riding with Bill J, and Barry has arrived separately from up North in Utah.
     Bill J. and I detour to the South Rim Pack & Fly to drop off the accumulated food buckets on the way to the North Rim. These are the 5-gallon plastic buckets that the VIPs had previously dropped off on the South Rim, at my house, or mailed to my house. They will be delivered to Manzanita Ranger Station, along with painting materials. We VIPs will be hiking to Manzanita from the North Rim.
     The sunlight is gorgeous sifting through the Aspen and provides some warmth, but not for long. Being obvious that it would soon go from cool to cold, we start a fire with some of the wood we had cut and stacked in 2019. My old bones appreciate the fire and I am very happy to have brought along my camp chair for tonight so I can snuggle close to the fire.

     Grand Canyon North Rim VIP report, 2019 (link here).

     Everyone has extra gear for the coolness of the North Rim, yet even so it's a bit difficult getting up early in the CCC Hill camp. A small fire certainly improves my attitude. Bill J and I reminisce about the steaming hot and scrumptious Dutch oven cakes and such we enjoyed when last at this camp, thinking of the heat and also the wonderful brownies, muffins, and such.
     Out comes the tarp to organize the pack for the jaunt to Manzanita RS (Ranger Station), and before long we are organized and at the North Kaibab trailhead for a group photo. Descending into The Canyon is always a joy, and this time it is punctuated by the luscious red of Rocky Mountain Maples and the screaming yellow of Aspen.
     We spot some pre-dinosaur proto-lizardo tracks in the rubble alongside the trail, while still in the Coconino Sandstone layer. Interesting.
     Down, down and across the Redwall Bridge, down and along the trail etched into the Redwall Limestone cliff, down more to Manzanita RS. I'm very happy to be in a warmer environment, grinning like a lizardo baking in the sunlight.
     It's a happy, familiar feeling to again meet with the best Rangers in The Canyon, Rangers Elyssa S. and Jeff S. These Rangers embody putting the "Service!" in National Park Service, working extra to design and organize these work projects and make sure they go well (see the list of projects in the reports directory on the WV). Thanks to you, Elyssa and Jeff. After introductions of new VIPs, we all start organizing materials and scoping out the projects on the task list. We soon discover that the trim paint is "After the Rain (blue)," not "After the Rain Green." Yikes. We take turns teasing Elyssa about how we might paint x or y with this electric blue. Calls to the South Rim produce promises to send in the correct color when the Hornet (NPS helicopter, yellow and black) again arrives. We end up with the correct color tubs of paint (previously ordered by Ranger Elyssa when this project was first envisioned, pre-MAGAvirus).
     I've asked Barry to be the team leader of the painting projects, and Barry organizes the work, materials, and project plan to great success. The rest of us fit into the plan and make it work well.
     The Hornet had dropped off our previously prepared food buckets along with the paint earlier today, so we set about organizing the food buckets and dinner in the Manzanita Bunkhouse.

Movie: Hornet Arrives, 2mb (Click the image to see the short video)

     Jean and Mary set up a tent near the RS while Bill H and I sleep on the RS porch. The other VIPs stay in the Bunkhouse. It's soothing to be out on the porch/deck, surrounded by the natural quiet of nearby Bright Angel Creek. Natural quiet, a very rare and precious commodity in these days of digital dithering, overflights of air tour terrorists, and an overly commercial society.
     The following days are a blur of activity as we work on the RS. I forego my normal note writing because the days are long and fade into the evening. And, then, everyone is quite tired and goes to sleep early, especially septuagenarian me. It's a lot of preparing to paint and painting. David (an AZT crosscut sawyer) and I cut brush along with Ranger Jeff to make the RS more fire defensible.
     Ranger Jeff uncovers fences and fire pits and other structures from the days when the present RS was the Roaring Springs pumphouse manager's residence. About 2005, the pumphouse operation was automated and the manager (Bruce Aiken) retired from the NPS after about three decades at the current RS, having raised his kids in The Canyon. He also did a lot of watercolor painting while at Manzanita. With the repurposing of the residence into the RS/Bunkhouse, the area was designated as Manzanita after a nearby side canyon, and the day-use rest area facilities were improved, including the addition of a Scenic Toilet (composting).
     Jean and Mary prepare the interior of the RS for painting and also work on scraping the exterior. Bill J and Bill H repair things and work lots on the paint preparation, then the painting. Fixing this and that.
     Golden glow of Canyon walls shimmers on the surface of the Grand Canyon brown paint in the roller pan barely resisting the coefficient of friction perched on the roof of the Manzanita Ranger Station. Yowee. Barry and I have worked our way about the roof vents, prepping them for painting before the sun tops the Canyon walls. After a quick coat of Grand Canyon Brown on the louvers, we return to paint the trim the contrasting After the Rain Green. They look good, like the entire RS now looks. The sun bakes us off the roof and back to working on the trim and beams under the roof overhang.
     We've worked on the walls, awaiting the arrival of an NPS maintenance person to spray paint all this clutter of beams under the roof overhang. Suspecting that the NPS person is not going to arrive, Barry performs the spraying himself as we helpers wrap the previously painted parts to prevent overspray. Concurrently, VIPs are painting the entire interior of the Bunkhouse and Ranger residence. Chenille white is the interior color.
     Delightful odors waft inside the Bunkhouse as Bill H bakes cornbread. Scrumptious. He follows with brownies. Super. Thanks Bill. My food bucket being stuffed, I had reluctantly foregone sending in baking supplies, and Bill is the only one to pull off some bodacious baking.
     Because we have been working efficiently and long days, we finish our tasks early and Ranger Elyssa declares a free day. Yipee.
     It's raining on the earned free day, which I enjoy by hiking to Ribbon Falls and immersing in the ambiance and desert splendor of this calcium carbonate cone covered with jade green mossy dreadlocks. I pause at Cottonwood RS to check on the durability of the work we accomplished there nearly six years ago. The RS and grounds look OK, given that no one consistently stays at the Station, and that very little has been done to maintain it since we worked there. See the report.

     Grand Canyon Cottonwood VIP report, 2016 (link here).

     It's mostly good hiking through the occasional spurts of rain and drizzle. The flimsy-looking bridge to Ribbon Falls is out (collapsed), so a very cool wade of Bright Angel Creek is required to get to the falls. It's worth it. Rain starts falling (again) and I hike up into the overhang near the falls for lunch and to watch the water tumble from the spillway, freefall, and slide down the cone covered with verdant dreadlocks. Spectacular.

Movie: Behind Ribbon Falls - scanning, 15mb (Click the image to see the short video)

Behind Ribbon Falls -stationary camera, 5mb (Click the image to see the short video)

VIP & NPS group at Manzanita (Click the image for the full-size image)

Millie (Click the image for the full-size image)

Vermilion Cliffs (Click the image for the full-size image)

     Mnemonic for the basic GC layers - Know The Canyons History, Study Rocks Made by Time

    Know - Kaibab Limestone
    The - Toroweap Formation
    Canyon's - Coconino SS
    History - Hermit Shale
    Study - Supai Group (including the Esplanade)
    Rocks - Redwall Limestone
    Made - Mauv Limestone
    By - Bright Angel Shale
    Time - Tapeats SS

     Know The Canyon's History, Study Rocks Made By Time.
     Check the links section for lots more geology stuff. Here are versions of this basic schemata:

Grand Canyon Strata (Click the image for the full-size image)

Simplified stratigraphic section (Click the image for the full-size image)

Stratigraphy of the GC (Click the image for the full-size image)

Grand Canyon rocks and layers (Tim, via Canyon Dave) (Click the image to see the pdf)

     USGS GC page (link here).

Terrific and updated pdf about geologic time and layers in the Grand Canyon, pdf, 12mb
Karlstrom, K., L. Crossey, A. Mathis, and C. Bowman. 2021. Telling time at Grand Canyon National Park: 2020 update. Natural Resource Report NPS/GRCA/NRR—2021/2246. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/nrr-2285173

     The CCC: It was 1933 and severe economic depression challenged the confidence of the people of the United States. One in four people was unemployed. Many were homeless. Serious drought gripped large areas of the West and Midwest. The nation’s leaders felt that the economic and social problems demanded immediate action. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn into the presidency on March 4. He called Congress into emergency session on March 9, introduced legislation for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) on March 27. By the end of 1935 the CCC employed more than 500,000 men at over 2,650 camps in every state. The creation of the CCC was a model of speediness - something we do not see today because the repulsicans in the Senate will not advance bills. The CCC program became the most popular of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. Grand Canyon National Park’s first CCC contingent arrived on May 29, 1933. CCC crews worked on the South Rim, North Rim, and in the inner canyon until 1942. Companies 818, 819, 847, 2543, 2833, 3318, and 4814 served not only at Grand Canyon, but a few companies also under-took projects near Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona during the winter months. The original purpose of the CCC was to put young men to work on worthwhile conservation projects that would benefit the country. Early in its existence, however, the program added emphasis to teach “the boys” skills and trades. Civilian Conservation Corps at Grand Canyon: North Rim and Inner Canyon Projects. Company 818 worked on the higher and cooler North Rim during the summer months. Projects completed included buildings, fences, and roads. The crews also helped fight forest fires when necessary. The men moved to inner canyon areas such as Phantom Ranch during the winter months. Today’s Bright Angel Campground at Phantom Ranch sits on the footprint of the Company 818 camp. More challenging projects included a number of inner canyon trails. The Ribbon Falls Trail, a half-mile (0.8 km) spur off the North Kaibab Trail, still leads hikers to a beautiful waterfall. Part of this trail leads to Upper Ribbon Falls - about a mile from the crossing of Bright Angel Creek. Even more ambitious was the nine-mile (14 km) Clear Creek Trail (1933-36). (paraphrased from an NPS brochure)

"I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Under the desert sun, in the dogmatic clarity, the fables of theology and the myths of classical philosophy dissolve like mist. The air is clean, the rock cuts cruelly into flesh; shatter the rock and the odor of flint rises to your nostrils, bitter and sharp. Whirlwinds dance across the salt flats, a pillar of dust by day; the thornbush breaks into flame at night. What does it mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime." Ed Abbey