Realizing that most people plan for months or even years before making a trip to the Grand Canyon, it's a rather strange feeling to casually drive to the park for a mid-day excursion.
With an excellent suite at very affordable off-season rates
at the Hampton Inn in Flagstaff, we're using the high-speed internet
Tourists at Mather Point
to improve our family history. The weather has been above freezing
and generally sunny during the day and below freezing with occasional
light snows at night, which makes for good sleeping and pleasant
luncheon trips to explore this friendly city and its surroundings.
Actually the locals are upset about the lack of snow this winter;
their winter festival may be spoiled.
Flagstaff is host to the BN and SF trains which pass through
several times daily and sound their long low whistles for the
grade crossing a mile or so east of the hotel. North of the city
are mountains, including 12,000-foot Mt. Humphreys, the highest
point in Arizona. Sedona, Prescott, the Painted Desert and
Petrified Forest, Anasazi ruins and the Grand Canyon are all
Light snow highlights the strata
easy day trips from Flagstaff. Northern Arizona University
helps to fill the city with young people.
So today we took off shortly after breakfast and made our first trip back to the Grand Canyon since we last visited it, 36 years ago. We had been planning to go for more than a week now, but we have had strong winds and occasional rain and snow showers which discouraged us. Today the sun was bright and the wind had dropped.
We drove north from Flagstaff through suburbs, and then state and national forest land. One experimental forest identified its trees as Ponderosa pine, and here and there were birch and aspen trees but most were evergreens. As we climbed we could see traces of the snow which had fallen yesterday afternoon and last night. We spotted a good-sized herd of deer grazing on a cattle ranch, and a lone coyote crossing the highway.
The five miles from the entrance station were slick
with hard-packed snow and ice, and we pushed the button to
Snowy rock at South Rim
keep our truck in automatic four-wheel drive. But the morning
sun and an assiduous cinder truck solved the problem.
A lot of changes happen in 36 years, most noticeably the prohibition of private vehicles from the popular roads. For nine months of the year - March through November - the visitor must travel on foot or by shuttle bus. From the size of the parking lots one can imagine the summertime crowds.
But this is January, and there were just enough visitors from around the world to make the Park seem populated. The wind was light, the morning sun lit the canyon and highlighted its immensity with shadows. We always muse at the fact that tourists love to frame a picture of themselves with a scenic attraction in the background. Often just the sign for the attraction is enough. Perhaps it's to reinforce a memory that they suspect may fail them, or because they believe evidence is necessary to convince their friends and coworkers that they really were there!
At Mather Point, the viewpoint closest to the visitor
Colorado River at the bottom
center, we couldn't see the Colorado River, but we could make
out the canyon walls where it flowed, and we had a fine view of
massive Bright Angel Canyon slicing towards the Colorado from the
north rim. The snow had dusted canyon walls perhaps halfway down
to the river, and brightened the scrubby brush.
The immense Visitor Center seemed hollow, with just a sprinkling of tourists and an earnest grizzled Park Ranger waxing poetic about the geology. They still don't understand why the Colorado flowed across the Kaibab Plateau instead of around it -- 15 million years ago.
The east exit from Grand Canyon is quite spectacular,
with some wonderful overlooks. A tiny strip of greenish water
with some white flecks was actually a hair-raising mile-long
Another view of Canyon walls
rapids! East of the park, every overlook was lined with stands
for Native Americans to sell pottery, jewelry, and other crafts.
Most of the stands were empty. In the distance we could see
octagonal Navajo hogans and marveled at the Navajo preference
for an isolated location. (The head of the housekeeping staff
at our hotel, a Navajo, pronouced it "hoe-gone" with the accent
on the second syllable. Her father, 87, still lives alone on the
reservation, about three hours away, with his horses and his
sheep.) The Little Colorado River has another beautiful canyon
leading to the Grand Canyon.
There's no need for theme parks or even many elaborate displays. The Canyon is natural, it's awesome and incredible, and affords so many breathtaking views that the visitor needs little guidance. The staff just leans back (at least in this slow season) and lets nature do the rest.