Grand Canyon!

NOTE: This is the 11^th post of a multi-part series chronicling my family's two week vacation in the summer of 2010.

For links to the entire series, click here.

We left the cubs of Bearizona behind and pushed north on Arizona highway 64, headed for the Grand Canyon! The ranger at the park gate took our entry fee and handed us a packet of literature similar to that we received earlier when we entered Yellowstone.

It had been more than 20 years since I had visited the park, but my wife and daughters would see it that day for the first time. On my previous visit I accompanied my grandparents, an aunt and uncle and their two small children. I recalled being awed by the gaping gash separating the north rim from the south, but not much else. We must have done nothing more than drive up, get out, and shoot a few pictures at the lookout, because there was a lot to see and do that I would discover on this trip along with my family.

For instance, I had no idea there were so many hiking trails. My visit two decades earlier didn't reveal the developed area of the South Rim Village. I'd heard of the mule rides available to descend into the canyon, but we didn't get close enough to see the skinners guiding tourists over the rim. I was blessed on this trip to experience many of these things along with my wife and daughters for the first time, even though it was not my first visit to the park.

After leaving the entrance, we continued north on highway 64 to the parking area at Mather Point. The observation area was fenced off and under construction, but the South Rim hiking trail separated the parking area and the construction zone. So we set out afoot heading east.

I was surprised, but grateful, to find no guardrails after we left the Mather Point area. The rim (the real rim with its sheer drop of hundreds or thousands of feet in places) was as accessible to us as it was to a jackrabbit! Some points jutted into the seemingly endless space and provided adventurous mini-hikes when I navigated their less traveled trails.

We could see Yaki Point soon after we left the parking lot and began our hike. It looked close, maybe less than a mile. Visible below Yaki Point was a gash in the cliff face that appeared to be a trail that would take me down into this famous natural wonder known as Grand Canyon. The temptation to enter this famous landmark was great and I wanted to find that trail.

So, with a few side adventures of me climbing out onto the rocks jutting over the expanse, we continued to wind our way east along the rim. But our daughters were tired of hiking by this point in our two week vacation, and we had not planned on a long hike when we disembarked from our Blazer. My wife and I relented against their complaints and permitted them to return to the visitors' center at Mather where they could charge their indispensable cell phones and wait for us.

We pushed on though, but never reached Yaki. A light rain began to fall, and we decided to turn back about a mile from Mather. The precipitation didn't really stop us, because we were already thinking about reversing course before the drops began to fall. The real kicker was, after hiking a mile or so along the rim, Yaki Point appeared no closer than it had when we first spotted it. It still appeared close, but no closer than before we began our march. So we turned back toward the west to link back up with our daughters.

By the time we were all four together again at the visitors' center, the rain had stopped. We walked around and viewed a few of the exhibits, but these were not what had drawn us to leave interstate 40 and pay the fee to enter the park. The beauty created by God, not the trinkets built by man, was what drew us to this awe-inspiring masterpiece sculpted by our Creator.

The map we received at the gate showed South Rim Village a short distance to the west. Lodges, a train station, and more hiking trails were marked there so we decided to head that direction. But first, we took advantage of the picnic tables provided at the Mather Point parking lot and enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches and chips prepared on the tailgate of our vehicle.

The drive west was slow, but beautiful. Our map left much to be desired as to scale and accuracy. It took several loops of the Village area to get the feel for where everything was and to find a parking spot. Parking was extremely scarce here as the Village area seemed to be the most popular on the South Rim. Our parking spot was a good distance from the rim, so it took a short hike to get back in position to enjoy the view.

By the time we reached Verkamp's Store, the girls were already tired of hiking. Once again, we allowed them to remain behind while my wife and I explored. (With much of the previous two weeks spent in areas with no cell phone service, and many nights spent in campgrounds with no electricity for charging them, all it took to make them content at this point was a charged phone with service.) With orders to stay at Verkamp's and go nowhere else, we left them behind and walked westward along the South Rim Trail.

The lodges here were beautiful, but again, these were not what attracted us. We came for the scenery and the experience. There were two man-made structures that did interest us though. The Lookout Studio and Kolb Studios protruded out over the abyss. They virtually hang over the side of the cliff and provide outstanding vistas to canyon visitors.

On the right side of the door entering Lookout Studio hangs a plaque with the subtitle to this blog, Psalm 104:24. This inspirational plaque provided an essential part of the motivation for this website, which is why I chose that verse as the subtitle and the web address. God truly blessed us with His creations, the Grand Canyon and others, and it made me feel really good to see the credit for this natural work of art given to whom it belongs. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Bible verse posted so boldly on an edifice in our National Park, with so many attacks on religion in general and Judeo-Christian religion specifically.

The view from Lookout Studio was so inspirational, my wife and I pledged to each other to bring the girls back here before we left the park to get their pictures. But not quite yet. First, we intended to continue on our westward track along the South Rim Trail.

Not far west of Lookout Studio sits Kolb Studio, where the most famous of Grand Canyon photographers lived for decades. Just outside the studio is the Bright Angel Trailhead, the mule skinners' route into the canyon. The lure of the inner canyon was too much to resist. Though my wife had no interest in dropping below the rim, she indulged my spontaneous quest to descend and promised to wait at the top.

I hadn't planned on plunging into the canyon so I was not prepared to journey deep within the walls. Seemingly everywhere along the rim were signs posted to warn adventurers of the dangers lurking below the rim. One prominent sign told the story of a 24-year-old marathon runner who embarked on a one-way journey into the depths of the canyon. The intended message was clear: if this conditioned athlete could die here, so can you! So my adventure would have to be short, due to my lack of preparation and my waiting wife and children.

My mini-adventure into the canyon took me only a couple of hundred feet down in elevation, and maybe a half-mile along the trail before I turned around. But this short journey both quenched my thirst to hike below the rim and whetted it to hike to the bottom. Though this vacation would start and end without me reaching the river that created this snaking scar across the northern Arizona desert, I pledged to return one day and reach the Colorado.

Heeding the warning signs and common sense, I turned back long before the hike and the heat got the better of me. As I climbed back out, I realized how easy it would be to miscalculate and out walk one's ability in this beautiful, scenic deathtrap. My short hike down seemed to demand little in the way of strength, but the steep hike up quickly works to wear down the muscles in your legs. Because I didn't go far, mine was a pretty easy journey down and back up. However, by the time I again reached the top, it was clear that climbing the 4300 feet from the Colorado to the rim is something one would never want to attempt lacking adequate preparation and conditioning.

When we linked up again, my wife and I continued west along the South Rim Trail for another half-mile or so. Again, distances were deceiving. We could see the rim jutted out toward the inner canyon farther down the trail, then curved back to the west. It looked like a great observation point to look back at the developed area of the Village. But again, we walked and walked and we never seemed to close the distance between where we were and where we wanted to be.

Finally, still short of our initial goal, we decided to turn back because the hands on the clock were still winding the day away. Without stopping we returned to find the girls. Over their complaints, we marched them back to Lookout Studio and descended the steps to shoot their photos leaning against the wall.

On the way back to the Blazer, we stopped and bought an ice cream for each of us. The creamy, cool treat hit the spot after the trek and our family visit to the Grand Canyon came to a close. We left the park and headed for Flagstaff where we would once again hit I-40 and point the vehicle east toward home.