A Day at the Grand Canyon

The combination of Mountain Time (an hour ahead of the west coast) and the breakfast buffet closing at 9am meant that skit and I had to get up far too early for a holiday day. Somehow, we made it down to breakfast at a good time and ploughed into the buffet. Having learnt from the day before, I came clutching my own tea bag this time, something guaranteed to be effective. We had fruit, fry-up and French toast (and maybe pancakes too) and were sufficiently stuffed for a hike.

We parked at the Bright Angel trailhead and got our first proper view of the canyon. I had seen it before (in fact, I had been at Bright Angel Lodge before but had forgotten) and my reaction was the same: strangely underwhelmed.

The thing is, the Grand Canyon is too big and too far outside my usual sphere of experience for me to comprehend. I put on an enthusiastic face though and asked skit what she thought. Her response was muted which I took to mean that she was similarly unable to process what it actually was. Perspective is utterly lost at the Grand Canyon as the other side of the canyon and the large peaks in the middle, carved into existence by the Colorado river, just appear as a 2D backdrop. The rock colours are fantastic but muted into pastels at that distance making for a peculiar painting by someone who clearly just likes rocks too much to be healthy. The canyon is just too insane. One river made all of this? This medley of peaks and troughs extending for 277 miles (and 18 miles wide) was created by a river continuously changing its mind over whether it wanted to go? I don't mean to suggest I find it unbelievable, I just find it hard to grasp that something like this was created using the same physical processes as you find throughout the world. It's so unique, so far from the gorges I am familiar with that I have no frame of reference to determine whether I like it or not. In fact, the way that I cannot form an opinion of the Grand Canyon is enough to frustrate me into disliking it but that brings me to the paradox of now having an opinion and so liking it again.

It's tough.

The goal of the day was to gain an appreciation for the Grand Canyon by attempting to walk down into it.

Signs at the top of the trail stressed how lives had been lost in the attempt to go down to the bottom of the canyon and back up again in one day. I actually know someone who has done it (in the winter no less where daylight hours are limited) but skit and I never considered it at all. We were starting pretty late in the morning and did not want to be caught out after dark.

Our hike down was slow. We each had the mind of a goldfish and would walk five steps and go "ooh, I really do have to take a photo of this view" and then walk another five steps and take yet another photograph. As a result, we took about a thousand photographs of the exact same view at slightly varying elevations. The sunlight was not our friend as the south wall was in shadow and the north was brightly lit so there was no exposure that could get both foreground and background but we kept on trying anyway as the sun moved wondering if the new position might in some way change things.

Skit's camera has a "dramatic tone" setting which was a constant source of amusement in the trip especially when, as was the case with the Grand Canyon, the subject was pretty dramatic to begin with. It also had a "pop art" setting which did madness to the already bright colours of the rocks.

We managed to go down only 3 miles (3 miles on the path- obviously vertically we didn't fall that much as the Grand Canyon is only a mile deep) passing blue jays and ground squirrels en route. We noted the changing rock as we crossed from one strata to another and played with the echoes in a segment of the trail that was in a slight crevice. The path was covered with signs of pack-mules (prints and droppings) but we didn't see any up close.

We had lunch at our 3 mile point in the early afternoon and then turned around to get back up to the top of the rim in time to get somewhere for sunset. Getting to a point for a view of the sunset became our goal several times on this trip. Having already too many photos, we didn't pause so much so going back up was quicker. I felt the high altitude as I gasped for breath to do the climb but somehow survived and enjoyed the exertion.

Once at the top, we decided to follow the rim trail west in a desire to find a different view of the Grand Canyon from the one that had been our friend for the past five hours. It was getting colder and the rim trail was deceptively long so we only walked a couple of miles before hopping on a bus that ran parallel to the footpath. We didn't exactly know where we were going- we just wanted somewhere good for a sunset- but on a whim elected to jump off at Mojave Point. Immediately we were greeted by sundogs in the sky. A good start.

The view of the canyon from here was stunning. We could see the Colorado River and identify the rapids. Maybe the hike down the side of the canyon had done the trick in making us more appreciative of the canyon. Certainly it must have helped us identify the variation in the landscape rather than be overwhelmed with rock. The views east and west from this location were each unique and interesting.

The landscape both darkened and reddened as the sunset progressed and skit and I went from parapet to parapet snapping alternately the canyon and the sunset itself. Against the subtle tones of the early sunset were dark contrails. The "inverse contrails" delighted us. The sunset deepened and grew more vibrant until skit and I just looked at it agape proclaiming "I don't even have a word for that colour!", "Maybe fluorescent cerise?"

It was horribly cold as soon as the sun was below the horizon. All the people there piled on the last bus bus when it came just before the last light from the sky vanished. As we boarded, the sky just decided to become ridiculous with reds, oranges and yellows beyond what we thought sunsets capable of. We shook our heads as we gave up in attempting to capture it with our cameras.

Back in the village, we checked on the laundry but it was closed for the day so skit resigned herself to hand-washing that evening. We were then on a quest for dinner not being excited about returning to the hotel. We didn't really know where we could go but just parked up in the village and started wandering aimlessly in a car park. Someone cried out, "are you looking for El Tovar?" I said yes even though we weren't and got directions. We followed them through the back entrance to the impressive looking El Tovar hotel. We peered into the restaurant and bar but kept our distance, intimidated by the luxury of the place. There was a menu on display for the restaurant at the Bright Angel Lodge and we were somewhat tempted by the not unreasonable prices. I got a map from the gift shop in the lobby and we found our way to Bright Angel Lodge.

It probably wouldn't have been difficult during the day or during warmer weather. But we were definitely below freezing this evening.

The gift shop at Bright Angel distracted us for quite a while but eventually we found somewhere to eat. Not the advertised restaurant but a more down-to-earth and family style eatery. Skit had a huge portion of ribs whilst I had beef fajitas. There was some mocking with regards to my eating skills but I think I coped rather well.

It really was cold outside. So very cold. We were going to head out far from the lights of the village to do some star gazing. But I just wanted to head to warmth and when no obvious spot for star gazing presented itself, we just headed to the hotel. On leaving Bright Angel Lodge, we did see that the sky appeared particularly busy but of course pollution from the lodge and other buildings was still present. I regret not pressing to find a place from which to see the Milky Way. We tried star gazing in Bryce (where it was probably colder but by that point, cold weather was less of a shock to little Californian infected me) but there was cloud cover. And then in Zion we were just a bit too sozzled. In the end, we did get to do some star gazing in Port Angeles. But I bet it would have been better at the Grand Canyon.