Down in the Canyon - Arriving at the Park

Sunday Evening, April 13th, Grand Canyon

As we entered the park and approached the first view point, Liam said, "My hands are clammy from excitement!"  

For an hour or so, we wove our way from viewpoint to viewpoint, taking in the enormity of the Canyon.  Words are inadequate  . . . but breathtaking, humbling, staggering, and overwhelming are a start.  The Grand Canyon is not just a single gorge, carved by a river and endless time, but a network of channels separated by mind-boggling buttes, called "temples" originally by an early naturalist with a background in ancient religions.   Looking down into the Canyon, one is challenged to find the Colorado River as it could be at the bottom of any one of dozens of slices within the rock.  

The first stop from the east entrance into the park is Desert View. Contrary to my more general statement above, one can really make out the Colorado from here.

(courtesy virtualtourist.com)

Desert View is the home to a magnificent watchtower, making our first stop one at which we spent considerable time exploring.  The howling wind of Sunday evening made the trip up the watchtower just a bit more exciting!

(again, courtesy of virtualtourist.com)

The Canyon, it turns out, is unique in the world.  While there are other places in the world where deep time is revealed within the rock layers, no other place upwelled so perfectly uniformly!  The Arizona upwellings (not just the Canyon, but Sedona as well, and other sites throughout the state) lifted as a whole, with little to no buckling, tilting, lilting, or crumbling.  As a result, one can see the evidence of ancient oceans, swamps, and deserts in the alternating colors of the rock layers.  The deeper you go in the Canyon, the further back in time one proceeds.

For us, the first 90 minutes or so whetted out appetites.  Liam and Beth took pictures, I gazed at it all through some binoculars, and we wound our way to the Market Plaza to settle down for the night.  We checked in to our lodge, grabbed dinner at the Canyon Cafe, and were asleep by 9 PM.  Monday's plan included a descent into the Canyon!

Canyon Scofflaw: At the Canyon Cafe, I lost track of Liam for a minute.  I wandered back and forth looking for him . . .  then saw him at the far end of the cafeteria, happily eating his hot dog.  I waved him over to the railing that separated those who have paid from those who are about to.  I asked him how he had paid for his meal and he said, "You have to pay???!!"  Apparently, he took his tray, hot dog, and apple juice and skipped the time-honored tradition of going through the cafe line and simply did an end-run (more likely a blithe end-walk) around the outside of the cafeteria rails.  In other words, he walked out the way we walked in.  I got him to return with his meal and introduced him the quaint custom of "commerce."

(screenshot of yelp review of Canyon Cafe)

Tomorrow, we finally head IN to the Canyon with a plan to hike about a mile in on the Bright Angel Trail!