Peak Grand: One Canyon's Story

This week, we drove to the Grand Canyon and toured the South Rim. I walked along the ridge and looked over the edge at the endless depth. As your eyes descend, the stones grow more ancient, the deepest ones are billions of years old. It really is deep. Deep enough to tell much of the story of Earth, and it does it with some truly fantastic colours. Such vastness defies comprehension, where an inch of depth measures generations. Did I mention that it's deep?

It's Deep, but it's also Dark

The Grand Canyon is "you can’t go out at night without a flashlight" dark.  We stayed in a lodge inside the park and when you go outside there is only light from the stars. We arrived during the day, and noticed the black out shades in the room, but it wasn't until night time that I realized that those curtains were not meant to keep light out, but rather to keep it in. From the outside, you might guess that the lodge itself was empty, it was completely dark with no outside lights or rogue particles escaping through the windows.

The Grand Canyon is a dark sky preserve, which means that people make a concerted effort to avoid light pollution. There are no street lights at all. No signage that could pollute the pristine dark sky. And the stars are amazing.  Another opportunity to peer into history in a way that just makes you feel small - a tiny piece of a story much bigger than you. It was my birthday while I was there, and it was humbling to think about how thin of a sliver of rock represented my whole existence.

Looking over the edge makes my stomach jump up to somewhere near my throat and reminds me that I am a foot away from a fall that doesn't end well. Then I notice a tiny squirrel, perched with an air of nonchalance inches from the edge of this mile high cliff. Utterly serene, he relaxes and breathes in the morning air. Trees cling to the rocky edge, growing at angles beyond imagination. Big horned sheep walk along steep cliffs, gracefully going about their day or laying down for a rest.

Birds dive and swoop, spinning together in a helix shape as they dive from the ridge to the depths of the canyon. They genuinely seem like they are having fun.  We see three titans of the sky - the California Condor. This largest bird in North America was on the brink of extinction, but due to some great efforts, there are now around seventy in the park. It's lucky to get to see them, even from above. Lauren snapped a photo, and later we will look at the images and confirm our good fortune.

Williams - A Little Route 66 Along the Way

On the way out of the park, we stopped in Williams, a small but mighty town along Route 66. They have awesome neon signs that look great at night. We enjoyed some live country music, reasonably priced food, and good drinks at Sultana bar. It had a lot of taxidermy - some of it was certainly imported. My wife sometimes says that I am a "moose" because of my inability to regulate my own temperature, so naturally the big moose at the door was my favourite. I'm not a big taxidermy guy, but Lauren mentioned that the eyes were really well done, and I have to say, I agree.