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I am going to attempt to keep folks informed as to the major changes taking place at the Grand Canyon National Park and local area.   A MUST READ!!   Quite lengthy  and not necessarily in chronological order.      Click on any of the images for larger view.      

Last updated 14 Sept. '08

                                 Grand Canyon: Look, but don't breathe deeply

                                    Smog at the Grand Canyon from elsewhere is worsening, posing a threat to plants and humans.

By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter
Saturday, September 13, 2008

Summertime smog is reaching levels that could damage plants at the Grand Canyon, and is nearing controversial air pollution limits for humans set in March.

In the past, pollution at the Canyon -- likely from Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles -- has periodically exceeded levels the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said were harmful to children, the elderly, and people with respiratory illnesses. In March, EPA officials overruled their own scientists and set less stringent standards.

But now, even those levels are close to being exceeded, both at the Grand Canyon and in Flagstaff.

OZONE THE PROBLEM

The problem is ozone, a reactive form of oxygen that combines with other pollutants in the midday sun to form smog.

The National Park Service has found a steady upward trend from 1990 to 2006, including a record reading in the summer of 2005.

Flagstaff has broken EPA limits for ozone three times this year -- in April and May -- since the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality installed monitoring equipment here on April 1, according to agency records.

That compares with more than 10 times this summer for the Valley.

ADEQ last collected ozone data in Flagstaff more than 20 years ago.

Grand Canyon joins Canyonlands, Death Valley, Glacier, Mesa Verde, North Cascades, Petroglyph, Ross Lake and Rocky Mountain national parks in reporting troubling levels of ozone, according to reports from the National Park Service.

HAZIEST DAYS UNIMPROVED

The Canyon is supposed to be managed to have some of the cleanest air in the country. Overall, visibility at the Grand Canyon has improved on the best days, but the haziest days have not improved.

It is likely the pollution at the canyon is coming from the Phoenix, Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas, but that is not confirmed, said Carl Bowman, who monitors air quality at the Grand Canyon.

Pollution from Phoenix shows up in air quality measurements at Petrified Forest National Park, said Jay Theuer, an archeologist who measures air quality there. That park remains well below EPA limits, however.

The last couple years have not seen ozone levels as high as one brief spike in 2005.

"Hopefully, we're breaking the increasing trend, so we're leveling off," he said. "The problem is, the numbers are high enough to cause plant injury."

PLANTS MORE SUSCEPTIBLE

Ponderosa pine, aspen and skunkbush can be injured by air pollution, and are more susceptible to harm than people.

The National Park Service has recommended more plant surveys at Grand Canyon due to rising ozone levels.

The EPA came under scrutiny this March, when it set a less- stringent air pollution standard than its scientists recommended to protect human health. Levels of ozone at the Grand Canyon sometimes exceed what the agency's scientists deemed safe for people, though they have stayed just under the new limits.

"Obviously, it's a problem," said Sandy Bahr, Grand Canyon chapter director of the Sierra Club. "Those levels are too high for a national park. Obviously, they're too high relevant to the health- based standards that should have been implemented."

Canyon defying the odds

As foreign tourists ignore high gas prices, early-summer visitation to Grand Canyon National Park is up 15 percent over each of the last two years.

Four dollars for a gallon of gasoline?                                                              

No problem, say foreign visitors to the Grand Canyon, where early-summer visitation is up a whopping 15 percent over the same period during each of the previous two years. The result has been a banner early summer for businesses at the gates of the South Rim.
"This is the best we've done," since at least 1996, said Julie Forsythe-Aldaz, who tracks business at Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan.
The lodge's occupancy rates and rate per room are up from last year. She attributes it to more European visitors.
Grand Canyon officials agree.
"Our impression is that we're getting a lot more visitors from overseas with the weakness of the dollar, but we have no way of quantifying it," said Jim O'Sickey, who totals visitation and fee collection at Grand Canyon National Park.
Also surprising has been the number of visitors headed to the North Rim. They are up by about 22 percent so far this year over last, at 88,714, even though it requires more driving for most visitors to get there.
A number of Tusayan business managers attributed the strong early summer to the weak U.S. dollar and a steady or increasing number of international visitors.
Carvel Ice Cream and Grand Canyon Airlines are also reporting more business this year than last, with the airline saying this is one of their best years on record.
Meanwhile, the Grand Canyon IMAX Theater reported an estimated decline of about 1 percent.
European visitors have always been a core group of the Grand Canyon's demographic, and they differ from United States tourists in a few ways, said Freda Rahnenfuehrer, director of sales and marketing for the Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Inn in Tusayan.
While American tourists skip a big dinner and forgo gifts to stick to a budget during tight times, the tourists from Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and Western Europe don't.
"They do still eat in your restaurants. They do still shop for gifts. They do still take helicopter tours," she said.
Her inn is doing "quite well," she said, and netting 5 percent more per room this summer than last.
The weakness of the U.S. dollar has also greatly offset gasoline costs for a number of international visitors, she said, making gas prices less of a factor for foreigners.
Her hotel is booked through mid-October, and she expects that to be the case again next year unless the cost or availability of international flights changes greatly.
But with more airlines cutting flights and inevitably raising rates, she worries what that might mean for future travel and for towns like Tusayan, Flagstaff and Williams.
"In the park and in Tusayan," she said, "we have such a dependence on the international visitor."

Grand Canyon visitors
May and June
2008: 1,106,642
2007: 958,879
2006: 961,032
2005: 1,038,663
Grand Canyon visitors
January through June                                                                       
2008: 2,025,907
2007: 2,017,664
2006: 2,018,987
2005: 2,059,872

June 30, 2008

Sad day here today.  I knew Tom Caldwell, one of the pilots.  He actually designed my first website in 1995.  Terrible loss of some great people!

Early yesterday evening the Blackfeet Nation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the
fire community, and Flagstaff and Grand Canyon communities suffered a
tragic loss.  Six people lost their lives in a mid-air collision between
two medical transport helicopters over Flagstaff.  A firefighter from the
Chief Mountain Hot Shots was killed in the accident as well as Tom
Clausing, a medic for Classic Lifeguard Aeromedical Services and previous
employee of Grand Canyon National Park and Tom Caldwell, a pilot for
Classic and a previous employee of Papillon Helicopters who flew many
missions for the National Park Service.  Three people, a pilot, medic and
patient on Guardian Air also lost their lives.

The firefighter, a crew member from the Chief Mountain Hot Shots, was being
transported to the Flagstaff Medical Center for a medical condition not
directly related to firefighting when the incident occurred.

Our condolences go out to the families, co-workers and friends of all that
were lost in yesterdays crash.  I want to thank all of the rescue and
medical personnel that responded to the incident yesterday as well as to
those of you who assisted with the medical and transport of the Chief
Mountain Hot Shot crew member.  We appreciate the heroic efforts of
everyone involved  to save the lives of others at the risk of their own.

Out of concern for our community and employees, we have scheduled an all
employee meeting today at the Shrine of the Ages at 1:00 p.m.   Palma
Wilson, Deputy Superintendent for Operations  will provide a briefing and
answer questions.  Charlie Strickfaden and others will offer Critical
Incident Stress Management for those who have been affected by this
incident.

A meeting will also be scheduled for the North Rim community and employees,
later today or early tomorrow, as well as a meeting for the Grand Canyon
community.  As soon as details for those meetings have been confirmed,
information will be distributed.

We know that this has hit our community hard.  Please take advantage of the
CISM that has been offered and take care of yourselves.  If the Management
Team can be of any assistance, please let us know.

Steve Martin

http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2008/07/09/news/20080709_front_177121.txt

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for Grand Canyon's South Rim Visitor Transportation Plan was signed last week by Michael D. Snyder, Regional Director for the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service.

The actions implemented through this Plan will accommodate current and anticipated future levels of visitation to the South Rim, enhance visitor experiences and protect park resources. The actions will be funded by entrance fee revenues and will be adaptively managed to respond to visitation changes over the next dozen or so years.

Under the selected action alternative - Alternative B - the park will construct new visitor parking at Canyon View Information Plaza (CVIP) and initiate a new shuttle bus route to the gateway community of Tusayan.


The initial phase of development is expected to begin in early 2009 and will include the following key elements:

• Vehicle access to the park's visitor center at CVIP with parking for up to 600 vehicles (including RVs) and 40 commercial tour bus parking spaces (and other physical improvements);

• An adaptive management program responding to monitoring and evaluation of traffic patterns, parking and shuttle use;

• A coordinated program of visitor information and marketing strategies to encourage visitors to travel into and through the park on shuttle buses.

CVIP will serve as a stopping point for visitors who plan to continue in their own vehicles and as a transition point for those who wish to park and use the free shuttle system.

The pilot shuttle route between Tusayan and CVIP started Monday. This project was also the subject of a separate analysis approved in March. Depending on its success, the park may also run the pilot program again next summer.

If needed, the park will add up to 300 more parking spaces at CVIP and/or up to 400 outside the park with supporting shuttle and visitor facilities.

"This is an exciting step for us," said Park Superintendent Steve Martin. "Grand Canyon is a world class national park and we want to provide a first class experience for everyone who comes to see it. The new transportation system will provide visitors with enhanced opportunities to plan their visit at Canyon View Information Plaza."

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona, April 6, 2008 (ENS) - A federal judge Friday evening issued an injunction against the British mining firm VANE Minerals and the Kaibab National Forest, halting uranium exploration on public lands within a few miles of Grand Canyon National Park.

The order came after a day-long hearing in a case brought by three conservation groups - Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and Grand Canyon Trust - to challenge drilling taking place close to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River with no public hearing and no environmental review.

"This order stops uranium exploration on the banks of a national treasure," said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Forest Service had allowed drilling to begin while the case was pending, so the order comes as a major relief. We're elated."

In December, the Kaibab National Forest approved exploratory uranium drilling by VANE Minerals at up to 39 locations across seven project sites just south of the Grand Canyon.

The approval was granted using a "categorical exclusion," the least rigorous public and environmental review available to the agency under the National Environmental Policy Act.

In March, environmental groups sued the Forest Service, demanding that a more complete analysis be conducted.

The suit focuses on the Forest Service's failure to fully consider the controversy and cumulative impacts attending all uranium exploration slated for the area. It cites National Environmental Policy Act, Appeals Reform Act, and Administrative Procedures Act violations.

"The Grand Canyon is too important for the Forest Service to give short shrift to the possible and significant negative impacts of uranium mining exploration," said Sandy Bahr, conservation outreach director for the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter.

"The Forest Service should take a hard look at the impacts and the public should have an opportunity to review and comment on this mining exploration," Bahr said. "We are pleased that the judge recognized the importance of protecting the Canyon and the possible significant impacts this exploration could have."

The Forest Service claims it has little power to deny uranium development under the 1872 Mining Law. But the groups argue that the mining law does not go against the agency's separate obligation under the National Environmental Policy Act to carry out in-depth public and environmental reviews of such proposals.

Thousands of new uranium claims have been staked on public lands surrounding Grand Canyon in recent years. VANE's project is the first of five major exploration projects slated for the area.

Vane Minerals had already begun to drill while the court case was pending. (Photo courtesy Vane Minerals)

The Forest Service has also been in discussions with Denison Corporation about opening of the Canyon uranium mine in the same area.

"The judge's decision reinforces our belief that the current uranium boom poses the most significant threat that Grand Canyon has faced in many years," said Richard Mayol, communications director of Grand Canyon Trust. "Grand Canyon just isn't the place for new uranium development."

While the suit was pending, the Forest Service and VANE Minerals began uranium exploration drilling at three project sites. That drilling is now on hold.

On February 5, the Coconino County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution opposing uranium development on lands in the proximity of the Grand Canyon National Park and its watersheds.

The resolution requests the Arizona Congressional Delegation to initiate the permanent withdrawal from mining, mineral exploration, and mineral entry all federal lands in the Tusayan Ranger District of the Kaibab National Forest and the lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management in House Rock Valley.

Dinosaurs roaming the American Southwest 65 million years ago may have teetered on the edges of an ancient version of the awe-inspiring cliffs and gorges we see today in the Grand Canyon, a new study suggests.

The mile-deep canyon in Arizona was formed as the Colorado River scoured through ancient rock layers millions of years ago.

The most widely-posed theory of the canyon's formation is that the Colorado River connected drainages on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains with the then newly-formed Gulf of California, incising the plateau surface to create a canyon when the plateau was uplifted. A study just last month dated the initial carving of part of the Grand Canyon at 16 to 17 million years ago, farther back in time than had been thought.

Now scientists suggest pushing the date much farther back.

"The Colorado River, with some help from the wind, ultimately carries the detritus away pebble by pebble, sand grain by sand grain," said one of the authors of the new study, Brian Wernicke of Caltech. "From this point of analysis, the unanswered questions about how and why the canyon formed start to pile up."

Contrary to this previous theory, the new thinking, detailed in the May issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin, indicates that the canyon, or at least a prototype of it, actually formed about 55 million years ago - and possibly sooner - in younger rock layers that lay above the ones the canyon is cut into today. Erosion wore down these layers while water continued to carve out the canyon, essentially moving the whole landscape down through the rock sequence until it got to its present-day position.

Helium and heat

Wernicke and his team used grains of the mineral apatite in the canyon's ancient sandstone walls to find clues as to when the different rock layers were uncovered by erosion.

Apatite contains the radioactive elements uranium and thorium. As these elements decay, they spit out helium atoms. By comparing the relative abundances of the elements scientists can date the apatite grains.

These crystals form deep in the Earth, where temperatures are much hotter than at the surface. (Diamond miners in South Africa who work nearly two miles underground must use elaborate air conditioning systems to battle the stifling underground heat, Wernicke noted). With each mile of depth, temperatures increase by about 72 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).

At temperatures above 158 F (70 C), the helium escapes from the mineral, but once the grains cool below that temperature, the helium becomes trapped. So the date of the apatite grains tells scientists the last time the rock layer was buried deep underground.

Rapid erosion

The dates the team got from samples taken from the bottom of the Upper Granite Gorge and the top of the surrounding plateau show that the two different rock sequences were both about 131 F (55 C) from 55 to 28 million years ago, then cooled to near-surface temperatures about 15 million years ago, Wernicke said.

If the rock sequences were at the same temperature for all those millions of years, they must also have been at the same depth, Wernicke and his team surmised. This suggests to the researchers that a canyon must have existed at least 55 million years ago in the younger rock layers that once lay atop the southwestern plateaus. It might have emerged sooner, they say.

"Because both canyon and plateau samples resided near the same depth since 55 million years ago, a canyon of about the same dimensions as today must have existed at least that far back, and possibly as far back as the time of the last dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago," Wernicke said.

A rapid pulse of erosion from 28 to 15 million years ago is thought to have lowered the already-formed canyon and the surrounding plateaus from a position in the upper Mesozoic-era strata down through older rocks of the Paleozoic era - close to the position we see it at today.

The finding challenges the notion that the upper layers of the rock sequence were eroded away before the canyon formed. Instead, the team's findings suggest that a canyon had formed in the upper layers and then the top rock layers were eroded away, with the river-cutting of the canyon keeping pace and continually lowering the position of the canyon.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Finding that air traffic over the Grand Canyon is louder than federal rules allow, the National Park Service is proposing to exempt certain aircraft from the rules.

A proposal released Wednesday would essentially ignore the noise of about 2,000 high-flying jetliners per day at the Grand Canyon. It would say that airliner noise above 18,000 feet no longer counts against specific noise-pollution restrictions.

Noise from tour planes and helicopters, emergency and science flights and private pilots would still count.

Environmentalists and air industry reps are saying they aren't certain what changes this may bring.

But one outcome is apparent: The proposed change would make it easier for park managers to say the Grand Canyon meets goals to reduce noise pollution after years of noncompliance.

The Federal Aviation Administration has promised to take other steps to quiet the skies above the Grand Canyon, park Superintendent Steve Martin wrote via e-mail.

The FAA hired a consultant to look at the feasibility of re-routing jet traffic from around the heart of the Grand Canyon. The 2006 study determined such action would "have a significant impact on the users of the airspace, would add thousands of extra miles and flying minutes to the routes and the safety of the airspace and operation would be negatively impacted."

NATURAL QUIET DEFINED

A law passed in 1987 called for restoration of natural quiet at the Grand Canyon -- or a requirement that at least half of the Grand Canyon be quiet for at least 75 percent of a day.

That's not the case now, by the park's own admission, and existing regulations "have not resulted in substantial restoration of natural quiet at Grand Canyon National Park."

And it might not be the case under this future plan, as noise from high-flying aircraft won't be included in this calculation.

The Park Service's own modeling showed hikers, rafters and wildlife hear airplanes across 96 percent of the park for one-quarter of a day now, according to data published in the Federal Register.

Alan Stephen, chief operating officer of Grand Canyon Airlines, signed onto legislation in 1986 that limited flights over the Grand Canyon, called the National Parks Overflight Act.

At the time, "we were flying everywhere at the Grand Canyon, including inside the canyon," he said, which was unacceptable to him.

Now, air tour operators are limited to certain routes, certain hours, and a maximum number of flights per year.

His company flies about 3,000 tours over the canyon annually.

Once flying over 87 percent of the park, tour pilots now cover about 13 percent, Stephen said.

The real noise-pollution producers, Stephen said, are the high-flying jets that aren't restricted to daytime flights, specific corridors or limited trips.

"The high-flying noise spreads all over the canyon," he said. "... It's not as audible, but it's audible, and it's over a much larger area of the canyon than just where we fly."

TALKING TO LAWYERS

Hiker Jim McCarthy, of the Arizona chapter of the Sierra Club, has been following this issue for years, but isn't sure what to make of this latest plan.

"This definition, depending on who uses it at the Park Service, could either improve the situation from what it is now, or it could be used as an excuse to make no improvements in the situation, and the current situation is unacceptable," he said. "Much of the canyon has air tours audible for most of the day."

The Sierra Club will be talking to its lawyers, McCarthy said.

Then-President Bill Clinton directed that a plan to reduce aircraft noise over the canyon be implemented by this month.

This latest proposal will be part of a study released in early 2008 or 2009, which would precede any action.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

More than 1 million acres of public federal lands abutting Grand Canyon National Park would be put off-limits to uranium and other mining under a bill introduced in the U.S. House.

If passed by Congress, the proposal would effectively stop most new mining and exploratory drilling in the Kaibab National Forest near Tusayan, along the South Rim, bordering Marble Canyon and in the Kanab Creek watershed. A similar measure was used in New Mexico to put a rugged area about 90 percent smaller off-limits to mining and other energy development.

Introduced by U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, the measure is supported by the Coconino County Supervisors and environmental groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Grand Canyon Trust.

The number of mining claims along the Arizona Strip has surged into the thousands in recent years as the price of uranium has rebounded.

One company has announced plans to explore for uranium a few miles from Grand Canyon National Park and elsewhere in the Tusayan Ranger District of the Kaibab National Forest -- the subject of a lawsuit from environmental groups.

The proposed exploratory drilling has been tentatively approved by forest managers, under an 1872 federal mining law. Conservation groups have filed suit to force a more comprehensive environmental review before the test holes can be drilled.

One uranium mine was supposed to reopen last year near Fredonia, and is still slated for re-opening.

Another mine near Red Butte, south of Tusayan, could open as well, the Center, the Trust and the Sierra Club said.

"Grand Canyon is a national and international treasure facing a massive new uranium buildup on adjacent federal lands," Taylor McKinnon, of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a written statement. "This bill affords the protections it deserves. We applaud the congressman's efforts."

The environmental groups point to a history of uranium-related contamination on the Navajo Nation, where uranium mining is banned, and to Superfund sites and a large tailings pile on the banks of the Colorado River in Moab as evidence that uranium mining hasn't been conducted responsibly in the past.

One of the companies proposing to explore for uranium in the Kaibab National Forest, Vane Minerals, has vowed this operation would be clean and safe, with bonds posted to ensure Forest Service requirements are met. Vane Minerals Chief Operating Officer Kris Hefton declined to comment Monday regarding this legislation.

Canyon creek still flows radioactive
 

By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter
Sunday, March 30, 2008

About two miles west of Grand Canyon Village sits a tall metal tower, fenced off from the public.

The walking trail along the canyon's South Rim detours around it, and hikers are told to avoid drinking the radioactive water that flows from it. Formerly a copper mine beginning in 1983 and later one of the richest uranium deposits in the United States, the Orphan Mine once fed uranium mills near Tuba City and Grants, N.M., during the Cold War.

The mine went bust, along with the rest of the uranium industry, shortly after President Ronald Reagan opened the uranium market to global competition. By the 1990s, Russia was selling nuclear weapons to the United States to be downgraded into fuel for nuclear plants, said Michael Amundson, Northern Arizona University history professor and author.

Eleven uranium mines, in all, were operated on either side of the Grand Canyon at an investment of more than $200 million, said Kris Hefton, chief operating officer of the company that is proposing to drill for uranium on the Kaibab National Forest near Tusayan.

His company, VANE Minerals, and others exploring for uranium in the area have spent more than $6 million in northern Arizona since 2004, he wrote in testimony to a U.S. House subcommittee that was in Flagstaff on Friday.

The Orphan Mine is a tourist attraction, or "a symbol of the powerful attraction that brought early settlers westward," Wenrich wrote in testimony.

Grand Canyon National Park management typically doesn't bar the public from entering any of its other "tourist attractions," Amundson countered.

The mining industry's attitude of "trust us," hasn't changed, he said, and "the industry spin is the same as it always has been."

Claimed in 1893 as a copper mine on private property, the Orphan Mine was mined for uranium from 1956 to 1969, when it was owned by the Western Gold and Uranium and then the Cotter Corporation.

The former owners threatened to build a large hotel on their claim, and down into the Grand Canyon, if Congress and President John F. Kennedy didn't allow them to follow their ore and drill into the national park below-ground, Amundson said.

Congress and J.F.K. allowed it.

The former private inholding became part of the national park in 1987.

Radiological surveys showed gamma radiation at the Orphan Mine that is nearly 800 times higher than normal levels elsewhere around the Grand Canyon, wrote Chris Shuey, an environmental health specialist and a director at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque.

One study conducted in the 1990s put uranium levels in Horn Creek during floods at three times the level allowed for drinking, under federal drinking water standards.

Horn and Salt Creek had the highest uranium levels of the 20 springs and seeps surveyed, Shuey wrote in testimony.

DON'T DRINK THE WATER

The Park Service posts signs along Horn Creek telling hikers not to drink the water.

"There is water in the bed of Horn Creek about half the time, but unfortunately it is radioactive, so don't drink it unless death by thirst is the only other option," advises one warning in a trail route description along Tonto Trail.

This warning is difficult to find on the Park Service's Web site, as it doesn't lie among other tips and suggestions for backcountry water sources.

And most references to the Orphan Mine are supposed to have been removed from the park's Web site, said Martha Hahn, chief of science and resource management at Grand Canyon National Park.

She was only allowed to provide specific information, she said, based on advice from lawyers.

The Park Service has spent more than $1 million investigating contamination at the Orphan Mine, including radioactive materials and heavy metals contamination.

Mine waste is present on the surface, as well as along the steep slopes of a mine that used to run 1,500 feet below the South Rim.

Further cleanup is likely to cost "several million" dollars, Hahn said.

Although mining operations ceased in 1969 and the former private property became part of the national park in 1987, it has still not been determined what company is responsible for cleanup of the Orphan Mine.

Is modern uranium mining safe?

The most contentious question about the resurgence of uranium mining goes to whether the mining will poison an aquifer, the Grand Canyon, or tributaries flowing into it, adding to the wastes created by a large tailings pile sitting along the Colorado River in Moab.

"The environmental footprint of these mines is small and short-lived," said Karen Wenrich, a geologist formerly of the U.S. Geological Survey and International Atomic Energy Agency.

She advocates nuclear power over fossil fuel as a way to curb the United States' foreign oil demands and greenhouse gas emissions.

Conservationists assert that the potential and unknown cumulative impacts of a number of uranium mines across the Colorado Plateau could lead to irreversible aquifer pollution or pollution.

This would be doubly the case, they argue, if the environmental impacts of each proposed mine are analyzed without weighing the impacts from every other mine.

 Very important to us in the SW region... VERY VERY serious.... Water wars in the West soon!  Mark my word! Pay close attention to the last sentence in this story too....

Mead Reservoir and Powell Reservoir dangerously low!

                    Researchers: Lakes Powell, Mead at risk of drying up ....

PHOENIX -- Climate change and a growing demand for water could drain two of the nation's largest manmade reservoirs within 13 years, depriving several Southwestern states of key water sources, scientists warn.
Researchers at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography said Wednesday that there's a 50 percent chance that lakes Powell and Mead will dry up by 2021, and a 10 percent chance the lakes will run out of usable water by 2013. "We were surprised that it was so soon," said climate scientist David Pierce, co-author of the institution's study that detailed the findings.
But Larry Dozier, deputy general manager at the Central Arizona Project, which supplies Colorado River water to the Phoenix and Tucson areas, called the Scripps study "absurd."
"I think they must have made some pretty outrageous assumptions to come up with some outrageous conclusions," he said. He said his agency's own study of the water levels in the two lakes showed they were in no danger of drying up.
"You can't get there from here," he said. "You can't make it go dry in that situation using any rational set of assumptions."
Scott Huntley, a spokesman for the regional Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas, said 90 percent of the region's water comes from the Colorado River, and that government officials are committed to not letting the Lake Mead reservoir dry up.
He pointed to an agreement signed in December by the seven states and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to conserve and share scarce water if the Colorado River drought continues.
"Really, the main underpinning of this is not just supply side, but also demand side," Huntley said.
"First, we continue to monitor the lake levels to determine if states need to come back together for more dramatic and drastic measures," he said. "Second, we diversify our water sources. Third, of course, is continuing our community's efforts to conserve."
The December agreement established triggers that would reduce river water deliveries to states if Lake Mead's water level falls to 1,075 feet above sea level. It also calls for states to create agreements for further restrictions if the level drops to 1,025 feet. The current lake level is 1,117 feet.

   POWELL AND MEAD HALF FULL!

The study, which was released Tuesday, found that if current conditions persist, there's a 50 percent chance the reservoirs will no longer be able to generate hydropower by 2017.
Lake Mead, on the Arizona-Nevada border and the West's largest storage reservoir, and Lake Powell, on the Arizona-Utah border, have been hit hard by a regional drought and are half full. Both lakes were created by dams built on the Colorado River, which provides water for about 27 million people in seven states.
Researchers said that if Lake Mead water levels drop below 1,000 feet, Nevada would lose access to all its river allocation, Arizona would lose much of the water that flows through the Central Arizona Project Canal, and power production would cease before the lake level reached bottom.
Pierce said the conclusions in the Scripps study are based partially on an estimated reduction in runoff of 20 percent over the next 50 years. He said that figure was used because it split the difference between the 10 to 30 percent decrease in runoff the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts will occur over the next 50 years.

SUSTAINABILITY TO REQUIRE ACTION
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano said that while the Scripps findings differ from the Central Arizona Project's, she agrees with the fundamental point made by Scripps, "which is to say that as our population grows, sustainability is going to require action with respect to water."
"We're still the second-fastest growing state in the country and we still have to be planning on that in terms of sustainability, which is a good concept," Napolitano said. "Water needs to be a part of that, obviously."
Launce Rake, a spokesman for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada in Las Vegas, said the issues of water usage and population growth are often overlooked in a rush to meet the needs of the influential building and development industry.
"Developers have an inordinate amount of clout with our elected leaders," he said. "They have dictated our growth patterns and our water use for years. That's got to end."

In an effort to restore Colorado River ecology altered by Glen Canyon Dam, researchers plan a two and a half day high-volume water release to redistribute sediment to beaches and sandbars down river through Grand Canyon.
Anticipating an early March date to carry out the experiment, the Bureau of Reclamation released the environmental assessment last week. The deadline for public comment is Friday, Feb. 22.
According to Randall Peterson, manager of environmental resources division for the Bureau of Reclamation, lead agency for dam management, the target date to start the release is Wednesday, March 5.
As the bureau did in 1996 and 2004, they will open the dam's bypass tubes for 60 hours, releasing about a quarter of a million acre feet of water down river at around 41,000 cubic feet per second - enough to drop the level of Lake Powell by two and a half acre feet.
The difference in this release is based on what they learned from the previous two - that the one million or so tons of sediment they had to work with then wasn't enough.
"It was very effective in the upper reaches of Marble Canyon but a mixed result further downstream," said Peterson. "The 2004 test showed that those beaches could be rebuilt when there are sufficient sediment concentrations in the main channel."
This year, sand inflow from the Paria and other tributaries down river from the dam is at a 10-year high and three times what was available previously.
"The biggest answer was that we would have to have a lot of sediment for this to work," said park Science Center Director Martha Hahn, whose staff has been key role in preparing the environmental review and will dispatch plant, animal and social biologists to assess results.
The National Park Service is one of some 25 stakeholders with a voice in dam management through the Glen Canyon Adaptive Management Work Group, the Park Service. Also represented on the group are state and federal land and resource management agencies, commercial recreation interests, Native American tribes, electric power companies and environmental groups.
According to Peterson, under the adaptive management structure adopted in 1997, stakeholders monitor and research the effects of their actions and adapt future actions accordingly.
"We determine how well our actions are meeting resource protection mandates," he said. "This relies on scientific monitoring and research efforts to provide scientific recommendations to guide future policy and management decisions."
For example, based on past studies, scientists were looking for exceptionally sediment-rich conditions under which to repeat the test flow.
The past two releases and follow-up research have also provided insight into how beaches, sandbars and native fish habitat erode over time and what can be done upstream to mitigate it.
"They are learning the types of flows subjecting the beaches over time," said Hahn. "For example, how vulnerable to certain flows is a tree stand once it becomes established over when it was first established?"
She said they have a very specific focus on native fish habitat, creating what she says are the kind of "backwater opportunities" that fish like the humpback chub need for spawning and early life.
"The indicator is that this will provide more backwater, which is most critical to the species," Hahn said.                                                    Archaeologists are studying potential benefits above the water line as well, where there are more than 100 sites of importance. Increased sand in the environment settles around such sites and buffers them from the elements.
"Especially some of those sites have been losing that kind of windblown sand," Hahn said. "It's not available. Storms come through and wash it away and it's not being replaced. It starts to erode the site itself."
Though a technical subcommittee of the working group recommended the release, the main group voted against it, as they did last year when it was presented.
However, their role is advisory and the Secretary of the Interior is expected to override their recommendation.
"The Secretary of the Interior decided to look further into it as the management group felt strongly it was a better year than the last time," said Peterson.
All of the preparation is under order by the Secretary who, said Hahn, "has asked everyone to get ready, to do what it takes for the possibility of doing this in March."
When Glen Canyon Dam was built in 1963, it radically altered the Colorado River ecosystem for its 277 miles through Grand Canyon. Colder, clearer, more regulated downstream flow replaced the warmer, sediment-rich water that varied according to season and was described by early explorers as "too thick to drink and too thin to plow."
The altered river character led to the loss of sandbars and beaches that served as spawning grounds for native fish and created conditions for introduced species like trout to flourish. Since the dam was built, four fish species unique to Grand Canyon have disappeared - the bonytail chub, razorback sucker, pike minnow and roundtail chub - and four others are in danger - the flannelmouth sucker, speckled dace, bluehead sucker and the humpback chub.
For 45 years, operation of the dam has been shaped by economic forces, changing attitudes, emerging science, citizen advocacy, legislation and litigation

March 3, 2002

Reclamation Releases Final EA and FONSI Authorizing High-Flow and Steady
Flow Experiments on the Colorado River

Salt Lake City – The Bureau of Reclamation today released a final
environmental assessment (FEA) and a Finding of No Significant Impact
(FONSI) that authorizes the initiation of an early-March 2008 high-flow
test and fall steady flow experiment from Glen Canyon Dam downstream
through the Grand Canyon.  The FEA provides an evaluation of the
environmental effects of the proposed action and no action, in compliance
with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
The FEA evaluates the impact of the proposed experimental flows on a wide
range of environmental and socioeconomic resources.  Following release of
these documents, the high-flow experiment and associated research
activities will be undertaken on March 4th cooperatively by scientists and
resource managers from Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),
Reclamation, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The 2008 high flow test will be similar to the previous high flow
experiments conducted by the joint Interior agencies in 2004, but the
amount of sediment available for the 2008 experiment is considerably
larger.  Based on the previous experiments, scientists have concluded that
more sand is needed to rebuild sandbars throughout the 277-mile reach of
Grand Canyon National Park than was available in 1996 or 2004. Currently,
sand supplies in the river are at a 10-year high with a volume about three
times greater than in 2004 due to tributary inflows below the dam over the
past 16 months.
During the high-flow experiment, Reclamation will release water through
Glen Canyon Dam’s powerplant and bypass tubes to a maximum amount of
approximately 41,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) for about 60 hours.
Current operational plans call for the experimental flows to begin
increasing in the evening on March 4th, with powerplant bypass flows to
begin on March 5th.
From February 8-22, 2008, Reclamation solicited public comments on the
environmental assessment.  The final environmental assessment and FONSI
conclude that implementation of the preferred alternative – the March 2008
high-flow test and fall steady flow experiment from Glen Canyon Dam – would
have no significant impacts on the quality of the human environment or the
natural resources below the dam.

Flood No. 3 unleashed into Canyon
 

By AMANDA LEE MYERS
Associated Press Writer                                                                                  
Thursday, March 06, 2008

PAGE -- Two arcs of water roared from the base of the Glen Canyon Dam on Wednesday as federal authorities unleashed a manmade flood designed to help restore the Grand Canyon's ecosystem.

More than 300,000 gallons of water per second were being released from Lake Powell above the dam near the Arizona-Utah border, enough to fill the Empire State Building in 20 minutes, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said. "This gives you a glimpse of what nature has been doing for millions of years, cutting through and creating this magnificent canyon," Kempthorne told The Associated Press after he pulled the lever releasing the water.

The water gushed from the dam into the Colorado River below, creating a churning, frothy pool beneath the salmon-colored sandstone walls of the gorge.

The water level in the Grand Canyon will only rise a few feet as a result of the three-day flood, but officials hope it will restore sandbars on the Colorado River downstream from the dam.

Officials have created a manmade flood in the canyon twice before, in 1996 and 2004, as part of efforts to mimic natural cycles on the river.

Before the dam was built in 1963, the Colorado River was warm and muddy, and natural flooding built up sandbars that are essential to native plant and fish species. The river is now cool and clear, its sediment blocked by the dam.

The change helped speed the extinction of four fish species and push two others, including the endangered humpback chub, near the edge.

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Steve Martin said any benefits from this week's flood will be eroded away within 1Ö years. Manmade floods need to occur every time there's enough sediment to do so, he said, about every one to two years depending on Arizona's volatile monsoon season.

"The science is really clear that's what we need to do, and if we don't, the resources have been so diminished that we could actually impair the canyon," Martin said.

The Grand Canyon Trust, a Flagstaff-based group that has been critical of the federal Bureau of Reclamation's management of the dam, also is calling for more regular high flows.

"The power industry is driving the Bureau of Reclamation more than anything else, as opposed to what's best for the canyon," trust spokesman Richard Mayol said.

Shrinking beaches have led to the loss of half the camping sites in the canyon in the past decade. Since the Glen Canyon dam was built, Martin said 98 percent of the sediment has eroded in the Colorado River.

During this week's flood, flows in the Grand Canyon are expected to increase to 41,000 cubic feet per second for nearly three days -- four to five times the normal amount of water released from the Glen Canyon Dam.

Scientists will conduct several experiments during and following this week's flood, including one that will document habitat changes and determine how backwater habitats are used by the chub and other fish, and one that will look at how higher water flows affect the aquatic food base.

Friday, March 14, 2008

PHOENIX -- The results of a manmade flood in the Grand Canyon last week were immediate and substantial, adding as much as football field-sized areas of vital sediment to sandbars and banks along the Colorado River, officials said.

The three-day flood that ended last Friday was designed to redistribute and add sediment to the 277-mile river in the Grand Canyon, where the ecosystem was forever changed by the construction of a dam more than four decades ago. View a slide show of the flood

The sediment provides a habitat for plants and animals, builds beaches for campers and river runners and helps protect archaeological sites from erosion and weathering.

Some groups, however, said a three-day flood isn't enough.

The Grand Canyon Trust, a Flagstaff-based group that has been critical of the management of the dam, is calling for more regular high flows and plans to legally challenge the Bureau of Reclamation's environmental assessment in federal court.

"It's kind of like when President Bush landed a jet on the aircraft carrier and held up a banner that said 'mission accomplished,"' said Nikolai Lash. "Reclamation has come in with a lot of show and fanfare from last week's event and we're seeing the benefits of doing these high flows. But we know that they're short-lived and the Grand Canyon deserves long-lived benefits, long-lived restoration."

RESULTS ARE PHENOMENAL

Since 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam just south of the Arizona-Utah border has blocked the sediment from the Colorado downstream, turning the once muddy and warm river into a cool, clear environment that helped speed the extinction of four fish species and push two others near the edge.

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Steve Martin, who returned from a five-day trip down the river Tuesday to see the initial impacts of last week's flood, said the results are phenomenal.

"On a couple of big sandbars there were already beaver tracks, bighorn sheep tracks," Martin said. "You could see the animals already exploring new aspects of the old canyon."

He said the new sandbars range in size from small nooks and crannies to ones as large as football fields.

"It changes the feeling of the canyon as you see the sediment along the shoreline from a feeling of increased sterility to one of a greater amount of vibrance," Martin said. "The benefits are substantial."

During the flood, flows in the Grand Canyon increased to 41,000 cubic feet per second for nearly three days -- four to five times the normal amount of water released from the Glen Canyon Dam. Water levels along the river rose between 2 and 15 feet and left sediment behind when the four giant steel tubes releasing the water from the dam were closed.

Officials released similar manmade floods into the canyon in 1996 and in 2004.

BENEFITS MAY BE FLEETING

But those floods actually resulted in a net reduction in overall sandbar size because they were conducted when the Colorado River was relatively sand-depleted, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Officials believe this year's flood will be beneficial because sand levels in the river are at a 10-year high and are three times greater than 2004 levels.

Whatever benefits come from this year's flood, however, will be eroded away within 18 months without additional similar floods every year to 18 months depending on the amount of sediment available, according to Martin.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation calls for no other high-flow releases other than last week's flood until after 2012 in its environmental assessment on Glen Canyon Dam releases.

Scientists will collect data on the flood's effects through the fall. Initial reports will be available late this year or early next year. A complete synthesis of the results, which will include comparisons to the 1996 and 2004 floods, will be finished in 2010.

Results are mixed from a three-day flood from Glen Canyon Dam intended to wash more sand into the Grand Canyon.

The flood eroded some beaches, built up others and doesn’t seem to have had an impact on trout fisheries near Lees Ferry, where most of the trout stayed put despite high water. Those are the findings of researchers at U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, studying time-elapsed photos of beaches, backwaters for fish and more.  

“Some sites I’ll term winners, and others losers, looking at the photos,” said Ted Melis, deputy chief of the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center.

Scientists ultimately hope to tell the Interior secretary and other managers whether a years-long trend of the Grand Canyon losing more sand than it gains can be reversed by experimental measures and floods.

Other possible options include building a pipeline, or using other means, to dump sand into Marble Canyon.

More monitoring over the next 18 to 24 months will help shed light on what happened during the March flood, said Andrea Alpine, director of the Southwest Biological Science Center.

“Now we’re going to operate that dam under its normal operating conditions and we’re going to watch to see what happens,” she said.

The Grand Canyon Trust and the superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park have called for more of these large floods and for flows out of Glen Canyon Dam to be changed to preserve beaches — to the detriment of power production.

The beaches built in a similar flood in 2004 were eroded over the course of 18 months to two years, Melis said.

“Without doing high flows like this, we know it’ll all move down, slowly, to Lake Mead,” he said.

Ninety rainbow trout were tagged before this flood for monitoring in the renowned fishery upstream of Lees Ferry.

Of those, 70 have been found and 69 moved no farther than one-fifth of a mile from where they were released after being tagged, Alpine said.

“The fishery was not hurt initially by this and may have been improved,” she said.  

The majority of the sand that historically flowed into the Grand Canyon has been blocked by Glen Canyon Dam.

Sometimes this sand deficit is blamed for lack of warm-water back channels where endangered fish, such as the humpback chub, might be able to spawn and survive.

It also means fewer and smaller beaches for river runners to camp on.

Water releases from the dam are also ramped up and down over a day to meet power demands, which currently speeds erosion of beaches built in floods like this, Melis confirmed.

HAPPY 100TH GRAND CANYON!!

The place President Theodore Roosevelt called "the one great site every American should see" became a national monument 100 years ago today.

"In the Grand Canyon," Roosevelt said, "Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."
But hotels were built. And automobiles arrived.

Flights, traffic and the operation of Glen Canyon Dam now stand as some of the larger issues to be resolved in coming years, Grand Canyon Superintendent Steve Martin said.
Decades-long arguments over aircraft noise in the canyon, maximum power production versus ecological restoration along the Colorado River, and who gets to raft the river persist today at the Grand Canyon.
CONGESTION TO BE ADDRESSED
Traffic is a primary concern, with lines backing up every summer at the South Rim, Martin said.
"There's no question that we have to begin to resolve the problems" of traffic, he said.
The park management is now considering three options to expand parking at the South Rim and give visitors the option of riding a bus into the park or just expand parking.
That may someday lead to a bus-only option, he said, like the one in Denali National Park where Martin worked previously. "Let's take some significant steps in the right direction and then ultimately there may be systems like that," he said.
But for now Congress has deemed a no-car option "prohibitively expensive."

MAINTENANCE DEFERRED TOO LONG

A recent analysis has found that about one-quarter of the park needs maintenance work on roads, water and sewer pipelines, buildings and other maintenance that has been deferred for years, Martin said.
Fixing this infrastructure and decaying employee housing is another priority.
The Grand Canyon has installed its first "green" -- or LEED-certified -- building, a maintenance facility, and plans more environmentally friendly purchasing and building.
"I think it's something that we really need to get serious about," Martin said.

A CONTENTIOUS SOUNDSCAPE

And then there is a long-running conflict about noise in the Grand Canyon from tours and commercial jetliners flying high above.
The park has been in violation of federal law for years, having too much combined noise from aircraft high above and closer to the canyon.
"It's been going on for 25 years and it is contentious, but I do think there are a number of things we can do to improve the soundscape," he said.
Martin can redefine the requirement that 50 percent of the park be quiet 75 percent of the time of more, or he can call for changes in when, where and how many aircraft fly over the park.
He said he planned to "clarify" the definition of what it means to have quiet in the canyon and to exclude high-flying jetliners from the regulations calling for quiet.
The Sierra Club is asking for more restrictions for the airline industry.
"What everyone would really like is less flights, essentially," said Stacey Hamburg, a Sierra Club employee for Arizona. "They promised the restoration of quiet 20 years ago and in those 20 years we've lost ground because there're more flights than ever."
Meanwhile another group, River Runners for Wilderness, announced plans to appeal a November loss in federal court, saying the Park Service's system of awarding permits to boaters to raft the Grand Canyon was not ecologically sound and unfair to private boaters.
That group opposes allowing motorized boats to operate on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.

Important Grand Canyon dates

1882 First unsuccessful attempt to establish a Grand Canyon National Park
1893 Designated a "forest reserve" by President Benjamin Harrison
1908 Established as Grand Canyon National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt on Jan. 11
1919 Designation of Grand Canyon National Park by Congress on Feb. 26
1975 Grand Canyon National Park Enlargement Act, an act of Congress, approved on Jan. 3
1979 Designation as a World Heritage Site on October 26
Source: National Park Service
Park Service goals for the Grand Canyon for the next 100 years include:

-- Resolving traffic problems
-- Bringing 21st-century technologies to educational exhibits at the park
-- Resolving the conflict over how many air tours and other flights over the Grand Canyon are allowed
-- Studying quieter boating motors in 2008, to create more environmentally friendly boating on alternative fuels
-- Creating a Native American center
-- Adding educational discussions on geology, global warming, environmental change, recycling and human impact on the environment
-- Studying climate change by documenting impacts in differing elevations of land at the Grand Canyon
-- Using "green" practices in energy use, waste management, new construction and park purchasing.
-- Demonstrating the impact of climate change and encourage visitors to reduce their own impacts
-- Powering the Park Service's planes, boats and buses with alternative fuels
-- Rehabilitating more than 2,000 miles of trails within and connected to the Grand Canyon
-- Doubling volunteering in the park
-- Adding advanced, interactive features on the park's Web site to attract young visitors
-- Reconstructing Hermit Road/West Rim Drive this year

Construction Update  3.10.08

Hermit Road Construction 2008-09
Closures / Alternative Activities
Draft 12-3-07
Revised 2-21-08
In 2008, Grand Canyon National Park intends to repave and improve the
seven-mile long historic Hermit Road, located on the South Rim between
Grand Canyon Village and Hermits Rest.
Background
Hermit Road and most of its associated overlooks and parking areas are
historic, designed and constructed in 1934-1935 by the Bureau of Public
Roads and the National Park Service. These structures retain a high degree
of integrity. However, overall road condition is poor and does not meet
current safety standards. The 18 to 20-foot-wide road is too narrow for
safe bus passage, especially when bicyclists and pedestrians are on the
road, which occurs because existing trails are inadequate for both
pedestrians and bicycles. Although the road has received some periodic
maintenance, it was never built for the size of vehicles and volume of
traffic it receives today.
Road rehabilitation and construction will include road widening and
resurfacing to a consistent width of 24 feet; improvements to shuttle bus
stops at overlooks; provision for accessible pedestrian routes from shuttle
bus stops to viewing areas, and improvements to approximately five miles of
rim trails, including a three-mile, multi-use greenway.
Hermit Road is a popular destination for South Rim visitors with
nine overlooks providing canyon and river views,
shuttle bus service only from March 1 – November 30,
popular spots for sunset viewing,
bus tours for train passengers,
access to historic Hermits Rest and Hermit Trailhead, and
seven miles of improved and unimproved rim trails
Construction Schedule and Road Closures
Construction activities will begin in February, 2008, and are expected to
be completed by the end of November, 2008. The eastern portion of the road
will remain open to traffic and trail use through July 7. Closures will
occur as follows:
April 1, 2008: Hermit Road will be closed to all vehicles west of Hopi
Point due to construction activities. The Rim Trail will also be
closed beyond Hopi Point. Pedestrians will not be allowed to walk
along any portion of either the road or the Rim Trail between Hopi
Point and Hermits Rest.
July 7, 2008: The entire length of Hermit Road will be closed to all
vehicles beyond the Hermit Road intersection with Village Loop Road.
In addition the Rim Trail will be closed beyond Trailview Overlook 1.
Periodic trail closures closer to the intersection may occur when
construction activities take place near the trail or near the trail
access.
Recreation Options during Hermit Road Closures
Recreational activities available during the construction include:
Day Hiking Opportunities
Plan ahead and prepare
Grand Canyon trails can be difficult. All hikers are reminded to take into
account and evaluate the following variables prior to hiking: personal
fitness, elevation of trailhead and elevation change during the hike;
distance; time of year and associated weather (especially lightening and
heat). Talk to a ranger and read the free Hike Smart brochure available at
all visitor contact stations prior to any hike. It is recommended that all
first time hikers and visitors new to hiking at Grand Canyon attempt their
first hike on either the Rim Trail or the upper Bright Angel Trail.
Rim Trail (from east to west)
Pipe Creek Vista to West Rim Interchange (3.75 mi / 6 km): open year
round. This section of paved trail can be accessed by several
parking lots and up to six access points served by the Village and
Kaibab shuttle bus routes.
West Rim Interchange to Trailview Overlook 1 (.7 mi/ 1.1 km): This
section of paved trail is steep at times. Trailview Overlook 1 can
be reached by Hermit Shuttle Bus from April 1 to July 6th. (after
July 7th by foot only). The West Rim Interchange is served by the
Village shuttle bus.
Trailview Overlook 1 to Hopi Point (1.5 mi/ 2.4 km): This section of
trail starts off paved and turns to dirt and gravel. This section
of the trail will be closed from July 7 through the end of
November. Access from April 1 to July 6 by Hermit Shuttle Bus.
Hopi Point to Hermit Rest: April through end of November: Closed to
all vehicles and day hiking.
Inner Canyon
Bright Angel Trail can be reached by shuttle bus and private vehicle.
Recommended turn around point for prepared hiker: 1 ½ mile rest
house (3 mile hike round trip) or 3 mile rest house. Recommended
turn around for prepared intermediate hiker: Indian Gardens (9
mile round trip). Potable water available mid May through mid
October. More hiking alternatives and information available in The
Guide.
South Kaibab Trail can be reached by the Kaibab shuttle bus route.
Recommended turn around for average hiker: Cedar Ridge (3 mile
r/t). Recommended turn around for intermediate hiker: Skeleton
Point (6 mile r/t). No water. More hiking alternatives are listed
in The Guide.
Grandview Trail can be reached by the Desert View shuttle bus route
(July 7 – Labor Day, September 1, 2008) and by private vehicle
year round. Day hiking alternatives are listed in the Guide. No
water. This trail is much more difficult than the Bright Angel and
South Kaibab Trails. Do not attempt to day hike to Horseshoe Mesa
unless you are prepared (water/ food).
Visit the Backcountry Information Center to learn about other inner
canyon day hiking opportunities.
Overnight Backpacking Opportunities
Plan ahead and prepare
Grand Canyon trails can be difficult. Extreme caution should be used during
June/ July and August, when temperatures can reach over 110 degrees. Some
experienced hikers do not recreate in the canyon during these months! All
hikers are reminded to take into account and evaluate the following
variables prior to hiking: personal fitness, elevation of trailhead and
elevation change during the hike; distance; time of year and associated
weather (especially lightening and heat). Talk to a ranger and read the
free Hike Smart brochure available at all visitor contact stations prior to
any hike. All overnight backpacking trips require a backcountry permit.
Consult the park’s website for additional information:
http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/backcountry.htm
Inner Canyon
Hermit Trailhead: All backcountry permit holders accessing the canyon
via the Hermit Trailhead are required to use an alternate trailhead to
complete their hike. Hikers will not be allowed to hike out via the
Hermit Trail. Access to Hermit Trailhead will be limited to free early
morning shuttle buses (drop off only).
April, May: Free park shuttle bus will drop off hikers at following
times (no pick-up).
April: shuttle buses will leave the Backcountry Information Center
at 5:00 am and 6:00 am
May: shuttle buses will leave the Backcountry Information Center
at 4:30 am and 5:30 am.
June, July, August: No access by foot or vehicle.
September, October and November: park shuttle bus will drop off hikers
at following times (no pick-up).
September: shuttle buses will leave the Backcountry Information
Center at 4:30 am and 5:30 am
October: shuttle buses will leave the Backcountry Information
Center at 5:00 am and 6:00 am
November: shuttle buses will leave the Backcountry Information
Center at 7:00 am and 8:00 am
Note: Restrooms are available near the trailhead.
Alternate Trails: During construction, access will be limited to the
Hermit Basin; visitors wishing to obtain backcountry permits are
encouraged to use alternative trailheads and safe backcountry
itineraries. Please refer to the Backcountry Trip Planner and talk with
a park ranger at the Backcountry Information Center or at the visitor
center at Canyon View Information Plaza, for additional guidance and
information.
Visitor Transportation Alternative Routes / Opportunities
During normal operations the National Park Service offers free shuttle bus
service to eight overlooks along Hermit Road, including a stop at Hermits
Rest and the Hermit Trailhead. While Hermit Road is under construction, a
number of options will be provided for access to other park locations via
free shuttle bus. The following tables present these changes and
alternative routes by month, and by route with corresponding schedules.
By Month
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 1 - 31Village Route will continue to run service on the entire
Village loop as is currently provided
Kaibab Route will continue to operate between Canyon View Information
Plaza (CVIP), Pipe Creek Vista, Kaibab Trailhead, and Yaki Point
Hermit Route will continue to run service on the entire length of
Hermit Road between the interchange and Hermits Rest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 1 – May 31Hermit Route will run on Hermit Road from interchange to
Hopi Point with possible increased frequency
Village Route will continue to provide service on the entire Village
loop with possible increased frequency
Kaibab Route will continue to provide access between CVIP, Pipe Creek
Vista, South Kaibab Trailhead and Yaki Point with possible increased
frequency
Hermit Trailhead Express will provide access to Hermit Trailhead for
overnight permit holders (drop-off only). Shuttle will depart from
the Backcountry Information Center twice daily (early morning
only). See above or shuttle matrix for times. (provided by Paul
Revere Transportation)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 1 – July 6Hermit Route will run on Hermit Road from interchange to
Hopi Point with possible increased frequency
Village Route will continue to provide service on the entire Village
loop with possible increased frequency
Kaibab Route will continue to provide access between CVIP, Pipe Creek
Vista, South Kaibab Trailhead, and Yaki Point with possible
increased frequency. CVIP stop will be relocated to the western side
of the plaza.
Tusayan Pilot Route will provide access between CVIP (Visitor Center)
and several locations in the gateway community of Tusayan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 7 – September 1Hermit Route is closed due to construction
Village Route will continue to run service on entire Village loop with
possible increased frequency
Kaibab Route will continue to provide access between CVIP, Pipe Creek
Vista, South Kaibab Trailhead, and Yaki Point with possible
increased frequency (CVIP stop is now located at the western side of
the plaza, adjacent to the Village Route stop.)
Tusayan Pilot Route will provide service between CVIP and several
locations in Tusayan
Desert View Route will replace Hermit Route and will provide service
between Canyon View Information Plaza (CVIP) and Desert View with
stops at CVIP, Grandview Point, Moran Point, Tusayan Ruins and
Museum, and Desert View.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 1 – November 30 (or until construction is complete)Village
Route will continue to run service on entire Village loop
Kaibab Route will continue to provide access between CVIP, Pipe Creek
Vista, South Kaibab Trailhead, and Yaki Point (CVIP stop is now
located at the western side of the plaza, adjacent to the Village
Route stop.)
Hermit Trailhead shuttle will provide access to Hermit Trailhead for
overnight permit holders from the Backcountry Information Center and
Hermit Road interchange at several times each morning (provided by
Paul Revere Transportation)
Dates by Route
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Village Route March 1 – November 30: Will continue to run service on
entire Village loop with some possible increased frequency
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaibab RouteMarch 1- November 30: Will continue to provide access between
Canyon View Information Plaza (CVIP), Pipe Creek Vista, South Kaibab
Trailhead, and Yaki Point.
June 1: Beginning June 1, the CVIP stop will be relocated to the western
side of the plaza, adjacent to the Village Route stop.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hermit RouteMarch 1 – March 31 : Will continue to run entire length of
Hermit Road between interchange and Hermits Rest

April 1 – July 6 : Will run on Hermit Road from interchange to Hopi Point
with possible increased frequency
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Desert View RouteJuly 7 – September 1 : Will replace Hermit Route and
will provide service between Canyon View Information Plaza and Desert
View with stops at CVIP, Grandview Point, Moran Point, Tusayan Ruins and
Museum, and Desert View
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tusayan Pilot RouteJune 1 – September 5 : Will provide service between
CVIP and several locations in the gateway community of Tusayan
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hermit Trailhead Express (Hiker Shuttle) Drop Off at Hermit
TrailheadApril 1 – May 31 and September 1 – November 30 (or until
construction complete) : Shuttle will provide access to Hermit Trailhead
for overnight permit holders from the Backcountry Information Center
twice daily (early morning only). See above or shuttle matrix for times.
(provided by Paul Revere Transportation)
Schedules for Tusayan, Desert View, Hermit Trailhead Express and Waldron
Trailhead Routes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tusayan Pilot Route
(June 1 – September 1)8:00 am (first Tusayan stop) to 1.5 or 2 hours
after sunset
15 to 20 minutes between buses 8:00 am until sunset
30 minutes between buses after sunset
Stops at CVIP and various locations to be determined in Tusayan
CVIP stop on east side of plaza
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Desert View Route
(July 7 – September 5)First bus leaves CVIP at 7:00 am. Last bus leaves
Desert View at 6:00 pm.
Approximately 20 minutes between buses
Stops at CVIP, Grandview, Moran Point, Tusayan Ruins and Museum, and
Desert View
CVIP stop on east side of plaza
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hermit Trailhead Express
(April 1 – May 31 and September 1 – November 30 or completion of
construction)April 1 – April 30 : Leave Backcountry Information Center at
5:00 am and 6:00 am
May 1 – May 31 : Leave Backcountry Information Center at 4:30 am and
5:30 am
September: shuttle buses will leave the Backcountry Information Center
at 4:30 am and 5:30 am
October: shuttle buses will leave the Backcountry Information Center
at 5:00 am and 6:00 am
November: shuttle buses will leave the Backcountry Information Center
at 7:00 am and 8:00 am
Operated by Paul Revere Transportation
Xanterra Tour Bus Alternative Routes / Opportunities
Xanterra currently offers guided bus tours to visitors and Grand Canyon
Railway passengers; Hermit Road is the destination for some of these tours.
Changes and alternative routes are as follows:
Grand Canyon Railway Tours (THESE ARE JUNK TOURS FOLKS!!!)
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March 1 – March 31Regular tours on Hermit Road
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April 1 – July 6Tours on Hermit Road to Mohave Point
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July 7 – November 31 (or completion of construction)Tours will switch to
Yavapai Observation Center, Yaki Point and Duck on a Rock on Desert View
Drive (AZ 64). No more than three buses at Yavapai Observation Center at
one time
Hermit’s Rest Tours
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March 1 – March 31Regular tours to Hermits Rest
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April 1 – November 31 (or completion of construction)Additional tours to
Desert View (up to three per day)

    GRAND CANYON, Ariz., April 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Operational
problems and visitors' disappointment with the much-hyped Skywalk 240 miles
west of Grand Canyon National Park has sparked national criticism from                     
visitors and media, and is raising concerns among the canyon's South Rim
area residents and businesses that the new attraction is more of a curse
than a blessing for the region.
    A recent Denver Post article (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5587027),
TripAdvisor.com as well as other travel sites have detailed criticisms
ranging from a lack of shelter from the blazing Arizona sun, unpredictable
attraction hours, no bathroom facilities, no water and an unimpressive view
of a side canyon -- all of which have been heard by South Rim businesses
and residents, creating major concern that Skywalk turning the state's most
beloved asset into a disappointment.
    "First they rob you with the $50 bus ride," explained one angry
visitor, "and then the platform itself is so, well, it was not at all what
they said it was or what the brochure drawings show."
    The visitor added that the platform is not suspended 4,000 feet above
the Colorado River as the brochure and website claim. "The river is way off               
in the distance," he said. "And the cliff comes out at an angle so most of                   
the time the rocks are just 300 or 400 feet beneath you. ... We're going to
ask for some of our money back."
    The trip to reach the site itself has also come under intense criticism
and has been described as, "the eyeball-rattling drive back toward
civilization -- if you call Kingman, Ariz., civilization -- on a 14-mile
washboard-rutted dirt road."
    "The only good thing about any of this," said visitor Paul Harriss,
trying to hide his first grin of the afternoon, "is that we will drive that
horrible road in a rented car."
    Nearby residents agree and are becoming increasingly alarmed by the
potential long-term impact of the negative experiences.
    "By going to Skywalk people think they are going to the real Grand
Canyon. They are not," 35-year Grand Canyon resident and business owner
Clarinda Vail said. "Skywalk is a 240 mile drive from the Grand Canyon
National Park. By showing up at a glorified side canyon and then having
things not open or disappoint, as this and other articles have described,             
is terrible for regional tourism. It's comparable to a restaurant in a food
court opening with really bad food or someone thinking they are going to
experience Bellagio only to wind up at the Barbary Coast. It will
disappoint and ultimately hurt business and the lure of the Grand Canyon
for everyone."
    "In my 35 years I have yet to hear one person who hiked in Grand Canyon
National Park, witnessed the unsurpassed view of the Canyon and the
Colorado River, come away disappointed. Because they have misled people
about the location of Skywalk, bad word of mouth won't just hurt the
Hualapais, it will hurt all of us in northern Arizona," Vail said.                                                
    Vail noted the contrast between her community's successful fight in the
late 1990s against a massive, Italian-financed development called "Canyon
Forest Village" adjacent to the South Rim boundary of Grand Canyon National
Park, as well as the natural, authentic Grand Canyon experience the
Havasupai Tribe provides for visitors to the region. The Havasupai Tribe is
located between the Hualapai Tribe and Grand Canyon National Park.