Day 69-71: Grand Canyon

Years ago, around 1970, I came home from college and informed the family that this was probably the last time we could take a family vacation together as I expected to be involved in the theatre production the next summer. So, when I got back from England (touring Hamlet), we packed up the car and headed West. We camped along the way and stopped at the Grand Canyon. I’m pretty sure we were following I-15 and went to the North Rim. Since the Canyon wasn’t our destination, we stayed for a couple of hours, walked around and looked into the hole, and then pushed on toward Las Vegas. Eventually we found our way to El Centro, CA and visited my grandfather and Eloise (his wife). It was the first time I met my grandfather, even though we had corresponded for several years.

Having worked my way north in Arizona, I decided there were multiple reasons to attempt this northern trek. There was U.S. Hwy 66 of course, but there was also Williams, AZ. I have an Uncle Nathan (after whom I was named) who last visited Bellevue in 1993 just after Q was born. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since. So I started working on tracking him down. I had a couple of phone numbers and a couple of addresses in Williams. The phones just kept ringing and ringing with no answer and no machine. When I got into Williams, I went directly to the most recent address and knocked on the door. No one answered. The next day I went to the Grand Canyon South Rim. I’ll talk about that in a minute. I also managed to get some info indicating my aunt lived at the second address I had.

I went there and got no answer. I went up to the Forest Service office (where Uncle used to work) and a friend of his said that she thought he’d passed away, but his granddaughters worked at Safeway Starbucks (yeah. Get that irony.) and she was sure she’d seen my aunt in town. I went to Starbucks and asked the barista if we were related. It turned out she was a cousin of my cousin. She said she was sure Uncle was not dead but would pass on the word of my arrival to her cousin.

I went again to Aunt’s house and this time she was home and very surprised to see me. She called my Uncle and we went over to visit for a while. Hard to believe that I actually succeeded in tracking them down. They simply don’t answer their phones if they don’t know who’s calling and Uncle can’t get to the front door.

So, I do have living relatives. Nathan is my last living uncle and prefers not to be contacted so he doesn’t “have to lie to people and say he’s fine” or go through the various aches and pains. He’s on oxygen all the time and was having some trouble with his meds the day I visited. In a way, it was sad to say good-bye, but I’m thankful I had the opportunity.

So, on to the Grand Canyon. It’s about 70 miles north of Williams and my $10 Senior National Parks pass saved me $25 at the gate. My memory of the visit to the North Rim is admittedly vague, but I don’t recall much in the way of commercial endeavors there. The South Rim, on the other hand has more hotels, lodges, curio shops, art studios, and restaurants than I could believe. And yes, I actually did buy a small Navajo rug to put my Goddess on. She likes it.

 

In spite of all the people and businesses and traffic, the deer are quite at home here. I saw these crossing the street just a few feet head of me and they were just headed into the tall grass in front of the cabins for a bit of a snack. There was the more mature buck, a young buck, three does and two fawns. At one point when I returned to the truck, I passed within a couple yards of where they were all lying down for a nap.

And here’s what you were waiting to see. Me in front of a great big old hole in the ground. It was a bit chilly early on. Below freezing overnight in Williams (23) and I learned to take my water hose in at night. So I wore a jacket and my winter hat. Carrying my survival bag over my shoulder (water, toilet paper, knife, slingshot, gloves, maps) and using my cane. I’d slept awkwardly the night before and lower back was in a good bit of pain, but it loosened up as I walked during the day. All fine now.

There are two hard things about taking pictures of the Grand Canyon. One is keeping other people out of your shot. The other is getting any true sense of perspective that will show just how huge this thing is.

You look over a drop a mile down and know that you wouldn’t stop falling until you reached the bottom. This shot is from Bright Angel overlook. The ribbon path on the point at the center is the Bright Angel trail. No, I did not walk down into the canyon or climb out again. Neither my back nor my lungs were equipped for that. I walked a couple of miles along the rim, though and finally got to the main overlook at the East end of the park.

At the center of the photo is the same promontory with Bright Angel trail from the previous photo, just taken from two miles further up the trail. Oh yes. And at the bottom of that center gorge is the Colorado River.

I made it back to Williams in time for dinner and found Aunt and Uncle the next day.

I’ve been a little disappointed in this blog. It seems like I’m doing nothing more than a photo journal travelogue—not what I intended at all. So the next post will be a little different. A lot more story about a spiritual adventure as I move from Grand Canyon into the Navajo Indian Reservation.