Diane arrived at the Hermit Road trailhead before the sky had any light in it.
She had driven from the housing area on the South Rim in the dark, following the road that curved through the ponderosa pine forest with her headlights on. The road was empty at this hour. The park did not open to private vehicles on Hermit Road until eight in the morning, and the shuttle buses did not begin their first runs until six-thirty, and the few visitors who came to the rim before sunrise made their way on foot from the visitor centre to the nearer overlooks. The western half of the Hermit Road was empty and would stay empty until the morning shuttles began.
She parked at the Hermit's Rest turnaround, where the road ended, and got out of the truck into the cold.
The October air at the South Rim at five in the morning was forty-three degrees. She had checked the station weather on her phone before driving and had dressed accordingly: the wool base layer under the field uniform, the insulated jacket over it, the wool hat pulled down to her eyebrows. The cold at this hour was not the deep cold of winter at the canyon — winter could bring temperatures below freezing — but it was enough to require serious attention to layering. The temperature would rise twenty-five degrees by midday and she would be working in shirtsleeves by noon. She had organised her kit in the truck accordingly, the jacket at the top of the pack where it could be removed easily, the water bottles full, the data sheets in their plastic folder.