Grand Canyon

From Flagstaff we drove north to Grand Canyon National Park.  This seems to be on everyone's "must see" list.  There were many visitors from around the world - we talked with a couple from Australia and it was common to see Japanese people or overhear people speaking French or German.

We arrived in the late afternoon and were informed about viewing the sunset.  Oh, no, we expected another disappointment like Sedona!  Well, once again, we watched the sun set as we got colder and colder and the surrounding area just got darker and darker.  No spiritual events, no glowing skies or canyons.

As you can see, there were many others sharing the same experience.  There was one group of young Japanese woman who, to pass the time, would jump in the air and try to capture it with a picture.  This was fairly close to the edge.

 The Japanese group eventually settled down...

On Saturday we took a short walk with a Ranger and learned some of the history of boating on the Colorado.  To get an idea of the speed and strength of the Colorado River, the Mississippi has a drop of 6 inches per mile while the Colorado drops 8 feet!  The shortest ride through the park is 4 days, camping by the river side each night.

We took tour buses to various lookout points, but never ventured over the edge.  Perhaps Matthew's favorite memory will be lunch at El Tovar, this classy hotel built in about 1905 by the Santa Fe railroad and run by the Fred Harvey company.  He got a dessert with an edible spoon!

 We saw quite a bit of wildlife - elk, a coyote, mule deer, and a California Condor.  These are being reintroduced into the canyon and are being monitored closely by the park service.  You can see the tag on this guy's wing.

We soaked up lots of geology and local lore about some of the early promoters (the famous Kolb brother photographers, for example).

Fred Harvey's hotel/restaurant operation and the famous "Harvey Girls."

And the architect Mary Colter, who designed some of the local buildings as well as others for the Harvey organization (for example, La Posada, which I wrote about in Winslow).  Here is the famous Hopi House, a gift shop based on local designs.

There are so many things about the Grand Canyon that are kind of mind-boggling such as the size and colors.  Another interesting thing is the age of the rocks.  The rocks at the bottom are 1.8 billion years old, half the age of the earth, more or less.  And at the top, it is estimated that over 5,000 fee of stone and soil has already eroded.  That is, there are no fossils of dinosaurs in the top layers because any rock with those fossils are already gone.

A few more images.

 You can see the river (with rapids) in this one.