Grand Canyon Flora

Flora seen on a Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim Backpacking Trip

All of these pictures were taken during a Rim to Rim to Rim backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon May 19-21, 2013.  It had rained on May 18, which probably had a lot to do with all of the flower blooms, although we did not realize this at the time of our trip.  The temperature at Phantom Ranch just North of the Colorado River had a high of 95F during this trip, cool for this time of year (or so I was told), and the North Rim had just opened three days before our trip.  Most of the flowers were found along the North Kaibab Trail between Phantom Ranch and Cottonwood Camp.  As we hiked this portion of the trip, there were literally hundreds of flowers on cacti in bloom.  When we came back the same trail two days later, most of the cacti blooms were gone.  I repeated this backbacking trip May 31-June 2, and almost all of the flowers seen here, other than the white Southwestern Thorn Apple, were gone.  Only then did I realize how special the abundance of flowers were on that first trip.  So this album is to commemorate the flowers we saw on this trip. 

Images

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