Rainy thunderstorm afternoon which is of course normal for this time of year. Good thing I am not traveling with a person or pet who is terrified by thunder. The really loud cracks overhead do make me wince as do close flashes of lightening.
I set up camp near the top of a gentle hill no risk of flash flooding and hopefully not the highest trees in the neighborhood. Also chose this site as the ground is gravelly rather than clay or bare dirt. No sign of trenching by streams of water having run through the camp. No lightening struck trees around.
The paid NFS campground I spent the last two nights in had experienced some fire in the past, scorched tree trunks around. Maybe it was from a lightening storm or a careless camper or even a controlled burn. The answer is probably out there on the NFS site history but I am not curious enough to search it out. The district forest service office is less than a mile from me, right across the turn in to this FR road. The residence cabins for the staff were buit by the Civilian Conservation Corps workers in the era of the great depression years. They did work in this area on all kinds of projects for differrent agencies. They also built cabins at the Grand Canyon Village for the Park Service as well as the rock walls along the rim and trails down into the canyon. Projects such as putting in telephone wires to connect the south and north rims. Quite an adventurous and physically challenging location for those young men to be sent to. A time to rember in their lives to be sure.
For those interested in the story of the CCC at Grand Canyon here is a link to the national park service history writeup. It is not overly long and includes some photos.
https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/historyculture/ccc.htm
Over the years I have come across quite a few CCC projects in parks in various locations in WA state and elsewhere in the West including Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. I know there are a lot of CCC park projects on yhe South Coadtn, but I was not old enough to havfe learned the history of what I was seeing at that time. Not too difficult to spot the park projectsv by the age and by the style of the construction. They did alwaysv use local materials to build with.
Pretty good timber and stone work so much of it is in good shape nearly a 100 years later. Craftsmannship to be proud of and make a life long living from the skills learned. But no doubt some would hope to never see a hammer, chisel or shovel again. It was very hard labor.
