Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I'm ending the year with the final photo post from the Grand Canyon--which was also my last trip of the year (aside from that insane drive to CA and back to check out the house my daughter is buying!). Part 1 here . Part 2 here . We quit last week in the middle of Day 4 of the backpack trip, as we lounged for several hours in the shade at Deer Creek. I'm picking up the story at the point late in the afternoon when we ambled up the creek to the last point with water and ate a very early dinner. Looking up at the canyon walls through the last big trees we'll see, and worrying a little about those clouds. We headed up the trail--and I do mean up--about 3:45, figuring just over 2 hours should be enough for the 2-mile, 1400' climb. The trail was worse than I remembered from my 2021 visit. Looking back at the green strip of Deer Creek. Alex is a tiny figure among the rocks. There was a particularly nasty section of rock slide I swear wasn't there before (though I also can...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there--like the one I'm reviewing today.   Title: The Long Way Around Author: Anne Nesbet Publication Info: Candlewick Press, 2024. 185 pages (Kindle edition) Source:   Library Publisher's Blurb:* During a hiking trip with their parents in the mountains of California, cousins Owen, Vivian, and Amy are finally allowed to camp for one night at a little lake all on their own. But when a massive earthquake blocks their return path, there’s only one way: the long way around, through a wilderness filled with fierce animals, raging rivers, unstable weather, and high passes. The hardest challenges the cousins face, however, are the troubles they’ve brought with them: bold Vivian’s fear of starting middle school and of changes she c...

There's been a lot going on at my house lately, but I'm chipping away at editing the photos from the October trip to the Grand Canyon. See last weekend's post for photos of the first couple of days. Today we're looking at another night or two, which (true confessions time!) is as far as I've gotten with the photos. The account left off last weekend as we were settling for the night in our camp at Upper Tapeats Creek.  Day 3 Back on the trail at first light, we studied the creek, which we were meant to cross--somewhere--for the better and easier trail, and decided to stick with the west side trail, which does a lot more up and down, not always on the best trails. I'm no fan of wading fast-moving water, even that shallow enough that getting knocked off my feet would mean a dunking, not a threat to life. Getting my pack wet was no part of my plan, however. Petey Possum enjoying the sunrise from a vantage point high above the creek. Too many bits of trail like th...

Back in October I went in a matter of days from the onset of winter in the Canadian Rockies to some too-hot weather in my favorite big hole in the ground--the Grand Canyon.  This year's trip was the toughest I've tacked yet, coming down off the North Rim on the Indian Hollow and Bill Hall trails (we got spooked off the Bill Hall trail for the initial drop, and anyway, I really like the Esplanade so didn't mind a longer walk on that platform). I went with my friend Alex again, and we took 5 nights to do the classic Thunder River to Deer Creek loop.  We'll take a look at the first two or three days. Day Zero We needed to cache water for our return trip, a final night on the waterless Esplanade, so we did a pre-hike the day before our permit started to take care of that. Because it was still getting very hot--there was that heat dome thing going on over most of the country, so temps weren't what they should have been in October--we camped near the trail head and made a...