Catching Up - 3: "GRAND!"

Brent calls it a "big hole in the ground" and quite frankly was not all that excited to go to the Grand Canyon in the middle of summer.  He had been to the North Rim before - when his sister Ann was working there one summer.  But that was a lot of years ago, and on the heels of a childhood where the only true vacation in the world was a vacation to Disneyland.  Let's see:  rides and thrills on one hand, on the other hand scenery that goes on and on and on ....   yes, seeing it through a young person's eyes, I can see where the canyon is just a "big hole in the ground."

But given our experience with loving nature and loving Yellowstone's Grand Canyon (which, in it's defense, does have those beautiful falls which "The" Grand Canyon really could use), I figured he'd enjoy seeing it again from the perspective of age.   I'm grateful he agreed.  In fact, once he decided we were going to do it, I was bombarded each night with "well, what if we did this?"  or "here's an idea..."  (I really liked the idea of taking a helicopter ride into the Canyon and staying overnight in the bottom but two things ruled that out - the first was the cost, of course, and the second was the fact that the floor of the Canyon can hit temperatures in the 120's in the middle of July - not my idea of a 'cool' vacation - we'll save that for spring or fall and when we are independently wealthy!)

Anyway, Sunday we packed up the car and attended a Sacrament Meeting at a close-by ward, changed into travel clothes, checked out of the hotel and were on our way to the South Rim (which Brent never has seen either) of the GRAND Canyon.   On our way we stopped for lunch at the Jacob's Lake lodge, and stopped for a minute at Navajo Bridge (where it was 108 degrees outside and felt like an oven - so it was only a minute stop).

This could be considered the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon as the Colorado begins it's assault on the landscape.  I took this photo from the old bridge, which they now allow people to use to take pictures like this one.

Then we traveled on, through wind and dust storms and rain and lightening and hailstorms, and ... wait one minute!  This was not what we ordered for our trip to the Canyon!   What gives?????

So this is what I learned on

our trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon:

1.  There are places on earth where history stands still.  Where solitude screams louder than humanity and where the forces of nature shout volumes in a glance:

 2.  The Canyon is much like a human.  When clouds cover the sky, it hides its colors and sulks in a corner.

But give it a ray of sun, even the smallest hint of light, and oh,

the colors...

the beauty...

the  Grandeur...

the WONDER!

(Photo by Brent)

 3.  To truly understand the Grand Canyon one must 

taste its air with your tongue,

let its gentle breezes brush your hair

touch its earth with your fingertips

walk with the ancients

and

explore its depths.

And even then, it will bury itself in a shroud of mysteries that have eluded mankind for generations.

Sunday we kept our activities at the Canyon very low key.  Our first stop upon arrival was at the Watchtower at the east gate.  We arrived as a heavy desert cloudburst was just lifting and people were still scrambling for cover.  The temperature had dropped from the 108 at Navajo Bridge to 65 at the rim (in a little over an hour's time).   We weren't too sure we'd be able to see anything of value, but grabbed our hats and our jackets, our camera bags and our ponchos and took the short walk to the rim.   There I got my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon in person (okay, I flew over it once in a jetliner when the sun was shining and it opened in a great golden slash through the green forests below, but that doesn't count any more than looking at photos in a magazine).  I was in awe from the first glimpse to the last.

Looking down at Brent from the top floor of the Watchtower to the second floor.  

Monday we woke early and caught the hiker's express shuttle out to the South Kaibab trailhead.  Brent figured this would be the safest direction for us to try a hike into the canyon because there was a point about 9/10ths of a mile down the trail where the vista opens up to reveal canyon on all sides.  The trail itself goes all the way to the Colorado where Phantom Ranch offers shelter and some comforts for the weary hikers.  We knew we would never survive trying to climb out from that depth.  I had serious questions about even making it to "Ooh Aah Point" where we were headed - not too worried about climbing down to it, but very worried about making it back up to the rim.

Turns out that hiking back up did make me sweat - a lot - but the hiking down was the riskiest.  I slid on a sandy part of the trail and hit the ground hard.  Thank heavens for a loaded backpack that somewhat buffered my landing.  Brent had visions of our entire vacation ending right then and there.  I was haunted from that point on with how quickly I went down, how out of control I was, and gained an instant respect for the dangers hiding amid the beauty.  I kept thinking ... if that had happened at the edge of a cliff?

This is what the trail looked like we went down -
From above:

(Brent's photo  - if you look on the left side at the point where the foreground touches the frame? that was our destination)

Looking back from the trail below to the switchbacks  (look closely - there are people all along the trail):

Brent carried his tripod the entire distance just so he could set it up at Ooh Aah Point and take this picture:

4.  The fourth thing I learned while at the Canyon was that difficult things can be accomplished by simply taking one step and then taking another.  It was actually easier to climb out of the Canyon, as I said, than to go down into it.  I regretted not going another half mile to Cedar Ridge.  That would have been doable with one more bottle of water in our packs.

The Grand Canyon really captured the bulk of our picture taking while on our vacation.  But so many of the pictures are of the same thing (ummm - the Canyon?) that I've just taken my favorites from the ones I took and posted them on Facebook. After our hike into the Canyon we took shuttle tours along the rim for the rest of the day.   Click here to see more pictures from our time in the Canyon.  It may be a "big hole in the ground" but what a thrilling experience it is to stand near the rim and look into it's many wonderful vistas.

(Did I ever tell you I'm deathly afraid of heights?  I could never really stand on the rim, and it made me sick to my stomach to watch other people do it - that was the part I hated about the visit.  Then to top it off there is a book in their bookstore that documents the most spectacular deaths that have occurred there from people taking chances where they shouldn't have ...  Yeah, that was the part I did NOT like about the South Rim).

(photo by Brent)

(photo by Brent - these were both taken at the Watchtower)

Brent did not want me to post any of the pictures he took on Facebook but said I could post them here, so I'm including below some of my favorites of the ones he took, besides the ones I already used above:

(photo by Brent)

(Photo by Brent - see the remote in his hand?)

(Photo by Brent - Honestly, I had dusted off my pants after my fall, but that silt sifted through all layers even to my skin)

(Photo by Brent - the only thing I could accept sitting on the rim)