Traveling Thru The Tonda Zone!: I stubbed my toe and was courted by an Elk

N:36.04798 W:112.11990 Elevation: 7000

I am sitting at the Mather Campground at the Grand Canyon National Park, surrounded by wild elk with this one male who is constantly calling on the other females and marking his territory (rubbing his antlers on the trees). He has a seven points on his rack and he is huge. I shot some video of him and he is very handsome.

Speaking of attractive, I saw the most unattractive moment when a raven was carrying a dead chipmunk in its beak, looking for a place to hide it from his other raven buddies. I thought raven were like the crow and only ate dead things they found, not hunted. Now I do not know for sure that the raven hunted it but the limp body of the chipmunk let me know it was a fresh kill.

I saw all of this after a wonderful mid-morning of taking the free bus system through the park that took me to places I had never been before on the Canyon Rim. I saw viewpoints that cover the western and northern edge of the Canyon, whereas during my January trip to Grand Canyon, we mostly followed the mid to south rims.

         I decided to come to the Grand Canyon after I had a dream a few days ago, one that told me ‘he’ was lost at the Grand Canyon. Then after I decided I needed to be on the ‘Blue’ line bus, I was going to meet ‘him’, whoever he was, but that was a dead end dream as I did get on the ‘Blue’ bus and although there was one man my age equipped with camera and hiking clothes who sat across from me, nothing happened the whole trip except the fact I took some awesome pictures and had a nice time being away from camp.
       See, I was in a conundrum as to what to do with Herbette. The temps are around 75 today but to leave her locked in my van where I would need to protect my computer and my gun, she would have been dying of the heat. To leave her on the picnic table would mean she would have been in bright sun for about two hours, again not an ideal situation for my little girl. As it turns out I used a scrub oak Juniper and hung her from the lowest branch and locked her doors with clamps so others critters could not get in, nor could she get out. Feeling she was cool enough in the shade of the scrub Juniper brush and the ongoing breeze, I left on the free bus outside of the campground and did about a three hour tour of the west side of the Grand Canyon Rim.
        Returning back to the campground I proceeded to chow down on a turkey breast sandwich and left over soup from last night’s dinner and a wonderful beer that a friend from Ewok Village gave me made by his friend Ruth McGowan’s at her Brewpub in Cloverdale, CA.   Although, more of an IPA that I like, for a warm afternoon at the Grand Canyon, it was a wonderful tasting addition to the turkey sandwich and soup.
       I have done a lot of walking today and bike riding…both of which took away my breath for short periods of time as this 7000 foot elevation takes its toll on these old lungs. Although, when the breeze blows and the air is crisp, on this warm October day, it truly does feel good to have this scenario as my current living space.
       There are a few things I have noticed being here at the Canyon that set it aside from most places I have been camping at. Other than the wild elk that have been close enough to pet, most of the people at the Canyon are RV or Van renters. There are a couple of large van company’s through California that rent out the van with the logo “everything, including the sink”, while other people are renting from the major RV rental companies. I have seen maybe two civilian cars other than my own while seeing many more rentals than personal owned RV’s or camper homes as well. I am surrounded by the ‘corporate campers’ of America.
         Next I have notice that not many ‘Americans’ are coming to the Canyon, as most of my conversations are with people from European or Asian cultures, filling not only the bus with an International spectrum, but the general conversations within the campground also.
         Across from my space are a German couple with her sister, next door to me are a French couple who have been entertaining to me as the gentleman last night, strung a synching strap between two trees and proceeded to perform an acrobatic show of balance and precision that would rival any circus performer out there. Behind my camp is an Asian group that laughs a lot, despite the fact I have no idea what it is they laugh about, and many people who ride by on their bikes talking in languages I have not a clue as to what they are saying or where they are from.

How did I end up in the Grand Canyon from Sedona a few days ago? I did a complete ‘Tondazone’ moment when I believed I was going to see David Wilcock and have a meet and greet with the man. Joke on me, the event is one month away, at the end of October, where I will need to repeat the same steps I took this past weekend; pay extra to stay in town, pay for a pet sitter, and then spend the twelve hours in the lecture hoping to show David the alien picture I have. What picture, you may be asking, as I have never brought this up in this blog before. Well, back in October of 2011 a friend came over to my home in Maple Leaf and took an odd exposure of my home. The exposure is one that his new expensive camera does by taking three shots within a short time frame, combines all three light phases together to give an all-true color spectrum depicted at the time of the shot. All was great until I saw that reflected back through the window of the picture, is an Alien woman with a small child looking over her shoulder, both caught in a three-dimensional time frame of a parallel moment, showing them in great detail, including a floral shirt, pointed ears, and green pigmentation of the skin. I am pretty sure David Wilcock will be interested in the photo as it confirms his belief in the parallel world and three dimensional time configurations, I think he will want a copy of the picture and hopefully in kind, will introduce me to like-minded souls who will share ideas and concepts with me.

        This is to be a year of collective conscience levels rising to an all-time peak that should begin the changing of the planets overall negative to a more positive and hopeful outlook that has not been seen on this planet since before around 2500 B.C.
      It would be awesome for the planet to remember its past so it could rectify and build a better future for the Humans who live upon Mother Earth. Just the internet alone has pushed millions into the realization that we are a united world with general needs to be met and that there are many still today who lack the essentials of food and clean water, and that as a ‘whole’ we do have the opportunity to change this situation and start caring for the planet as ‘one’. Instead of individual needs, the need of ‘All’ will be seen, heard, understood, and remedied so that the future generations will be able to concentrate their collective energy on educating the masses with a more ‘Macro’ point of view.
        In the meantime, the world of tourist seems to be gathering here at the Rim of the Grand Canyon and I feel the desire to become as one with all who walk this planet, not only in one of the most prestigious parks in the world, but in everyday life, in everyday places.

I will be heading out of this campground and heading to the Desert View campground on the southern Rim of the Canyon and have a night or two there before I start heading further southeast towards San Carlos. After all, the southeast sections of the state are still heating up to the 90’s while I am so comfortable in the mid-seventies that I have a hard time picturing me leaving such a beautiful place as this.

I had an incident after writing this and need to add all the excitement for anyone paying a bit of attention to this blog.

On the way up to the Canyon I had stopped at the store along the way and somehow, even with my sandals that only allow four out five toes to show, I managed to slam my little toe on my left foot and tore the whole toenail off of it. Now, I thought it would be fun to take a picture of the bandaged toe when suddenly through the trees came the male Elk stomping through my camp stopping long enough to ‘bellow’ at me with his mating call. Having camera in hand I snapped pictures until he continued to come towards me while I was still sitting in my chair so I lowered my eyes and looked away, he turned at the table and continued on past me, going away into the trees. He gave me quite the scare as I thought he was going to attack me as I sat there snapping pictures of him. That is the closest to an animal that big since the Moose incident when I was eleven and if it was the last, it would make me feel better.
Well, off to get ready for sunset and for the cool evening it will be.