The First Time I Saw The Grand Canyon

May 20, 2008

Some see it as a big hole in the ground. Probably because that’s what it is – a very, very big hole in the ground. But consider John Wesley Powell:

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features… The glories and beauties of form, color and sound unite in the Grand Canyon… It has infinite variety and no part is ever duplicated. Its colors, although many and complex at any instant, change with the ascending and declining sun… You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view…but to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths…but if strength and courage are sufficient for the task, by a year’s toil a concept of sublimity can be obtained never again to be equaled on hither side of Paradise.

Many of those who know it equally well fondly refer to it as “the big ditch.” Or, take Teddy Roosevelt:

The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison–beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world …. Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.

All of this sounded very enticing – so much that I applied online to work in the kitchen of a tourist facility on the canyon’s south rim. I was hired through an email, without ever speaking to a human being. The message contained all of the most important information, including the low hourly wage and employee housing arrangement in a dormitory with a random roommate who may or may not even speak good English. I could not have been happier.

So I rode down to the Philly airport with some friends, flew to Phoenix (My arms were tired), rode a Greyhound (A fine, fine mode of transportation) to Flagstaff, and spent the night in a cheap motel. The most novel sight of the day, for me, was the vegetation surrounding Sky Harbor International Airport. The way that trees and cactuses grew straight out of the dry dirt was completely foreign to me. Also foreign to me was the 110 degree afternoon in Phoenix.

The next day, May 20th, a shuttle van transported me from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon National Park, and dropped me off in front of Bright Angel Lodge. Through the breezeway and there it was – The Grand Canyon.

It did not take my breath away – no, not at first sight. It was very big. And very pretty. But there were no epiphanies, no significant floods of emotion, etc. If anything, there was an underlying feeling that I had arrived (Well… I had been travelling for over 24 hours).

There behind Bright Angel Lodge, the canyon was a thing to be seen – something to pose with for a picture – not unlike a grown adult in a Mickey Mouse costume. So I looked, and then went about some more pressing business.

I checked in at the Xanterra human resources office, and filled out the necessary employment paperwork – was given basic information – where and when to attend orientation, etc. I located my dorm, and met my roommate. He seemed normal enough at first impression (And ended up being a great roommate). I dropped my bags, and with sufficient settling-in-business complete, went to see the canyon.

I walked in the general direction of the rim, following a path behind Park Headquarters – the old visitor’s center. At the canyon’s edge I picked up the Rim Trail, and turned right toward Yavapai Point. There were quite a few people walking about, but it did not mar this evening’s experience.

So there I was for sunset at Yavapai Point, among perhaps hundreds of others who flock daily to the overlooks in the evening for the same reason. The sun sinking over a jagged, wild, distant, rocky horizon was very nice and all… but maybe ten, maybe twenty minutes before that, the entire eastern side of the canyon lit up with a fiery red glow, and long shadows fell from every butte and mesa and sparse blade of grass in that vast world below – the sheer size and complexity of which I had not even begun to comprehend. Dare I say it took my breath away.

It was in awe of that glowing, colored hole in the ground that I saw The Grand Canyon for the first time. This was going to be a good summer.

You can faintly make out two people standing in the upper right-hand corner.

There on the lower right is Plateau Point – an overlook off of the Bright Angel Trail that sits on the edge of the Inner Gorge, 1,400 feet above the Colorado River.

The lesser canyon on the left side of this photo is Bright Angel Canyon, the base of which the North Kaibab Trail follows to the North Rim. Phantom Ranch is located at its confluence with the river.