Vermillion Cliffs National Monument - Condor Viewing area

Saturday, Sept 9, 2017  - Part 2

When we visited the Visitors Center we saw a map that showed a condor viewing area not too too far away. Since the day's weather had improved, we decided to drive there. We are only 3 miles from the Arizona border so the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument is actually in Arizona just north of the north side of the Grand Canyon.

 This shows the size of the California Condor compared to other large birds most of us are familiar with. Condors can fly up to 150-200 miles per day looking for food. Condors do not kill their food. They only scavenge for already dead animals.

This is the viewing area. We are sitting under a covered table looking towards that mountain. A nature tour guide showed up with 2 vans of people hoping to view a condor. Glad they showed up because he found some condors.

The pictures below zoom in one step at a time.  

Above is the section of the rock we were directed to look. Below starts to show some white areas on the rocks, which is actually bird droppings.

 In the picture above you can barely see 2 black dots at one of the white spots.

Now they are little more evident.

Now you can see one of the condors flying in. It eventually lands there with the other 2. The tour guide said the 2 condors already there are young ones.

 The white spots on the condors are number tags. All condors are tagged since they are endangered. California condors were introduced to this area about 20 years ago. In the last 10 years they have started to multiply here. We were blessed and highly favored to be able to see condors today. Thank you Lord!

Above and below are the mountains along the 3 mile drive from Highway 89A to the condor viewing area.

On our way back to Kanab, coming down from 8000', we got a different view. Tic took this picture, but it is not able to show the magnitude of our view. 

We had a beautiful sunset this evening also. We've had another God blessed day!