Rain & Serenity All to Ourselves at The Grand Canyon

July 23, 2020
   Woke up to glorious rain in the canyon. That would be this canyon.

Early morning rain over there,

 near Phantom Ranch

   We feel like we have the whole place all to ourselves. Check this out.

Empty pathway at Kolb Studio

See, I wasn't kidding. Empty.

 This is the normally packed courtyard

in front of Bright Angel Lodge.

And this is looking the other way in case you thought I was padding this. (That is a park employee sweeping at left.)

   The Park Service offered 30% off rooms earlier this month, so we took them up on it. We are here to celebrate our anniversary and here's what that looked like.

Dining apart in El Tovar dining room.

   The food was excellent, the seating was appropriate and the ventilation superb.

A view of Indian Gardens in mid-distance.

It looks close, but I can assure you

that is one long hike.

   We made this hike with Dan and Darlene Harshberger, forty years ago, and going down was fine but coming back up it's three miles straight up (technically, it's one mile straight up, but with the switchbacks you are basically walking up stairs for three miles) and we were so sore, the following day, when we stopped in Flag on the way home we had a hard time stepping up on the curb, to go into a cafe, we were so sore.

   On the way out of the lodge I stopped in the bookstore and bought a book I have been hearing so much about: "Over The Edge: Death In Grand Canyon." Such an odd and dark subject in such a bright and beautiful place, but as it says in the preface, "Alcohol and the world's most frightening dropoff is a lethal combination. . ." Details and amazing examples to follow.

"The Grand Canyon wasn't built by attorneys and engineers."

—Tom Jensen, Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Trust, explaining why the canyon isn't "idiot proof."