Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Apr 9, 2005

The Grand Canyon

The van tour picked me up from the campground and about a dozen of us went up there. The guide, Ben, was literally bursting with facts about the place and was truly knowledgeable. He is a parent, an art manager, and a freelance guide for several different companies. He knows the canyon like the back of his hand.

I think the link is http://www.americandreamtours.com - if you ever go there and have a choice of days, make sure you ask for Ben.

If the link is bad, let me know and I’ll look it up properly.

His introduction to the Canyon was to take up via the back way, where all the staff (800 full time, 2000 in the summer) live in a kind of village. There you pass through the Bright Angel Lodge, designed by a female architect who, in her time, couldn’t get certified as an architect because of her gender, and he led us out - requiring that we look firmly at the ground. Then he told us to stop, and look, and there it was.

Wow.

As I said before, and echoed by TW, there just aren’t enough superlatives. It was the most beautiful, wild, stunning place I have ever seen.

I then got to see the other group and their reaction. It was pretty neat.

We were taken to a number of different vista points. By far and away my favourite was the desert tower, where you jut right out over the canyon. The heights make me dizzy, and I am not one of those people who can sit and hang their feet over the edge. Whenever I looked, I had to anchor myself to something so that my mind knew I was not about to fall off.

Speaking of falling off, when we passed the airport Ben told us about a guy who’d insisted on a window seat in a helicopter, but couldn’t get one and was upset. They told him to come back the next day, he did, and he got the window seat. And then opened the door and jumped out.

Among the rules of the tour were “do not throw rocks into the canyon”. Apparently they hit climbers and other extreme sports people. I wish my feet and ankles were up to the climb down to the canyon. Not because I want people to throw rocks at me, but I saw the paths snaking down the side and they make you want to go.

We had a picnic lunch at the Tusayan ruins - I thought there would be more there - apparently not. I did see my first kiva, though. We also got an introduction to lots of different plants and animals. The tour was tailored to what interested us, and we also got a quick run-down of the way the canyon was (probably) formed. It was interesting to hear Ben’s disclaimer at the beginning: If you are of a creationist viewpoint, no disrespect, I am just passing on the latest scientific view point.

I wonder if he’d been in some arguments before.

I liked the informality of the tour, how there were few rules, and the guide was very approachable.

We didn’t see condors, but turkey buzzards soared around.

At the end of the tour I was dog tired, not just because of the lack of sleep the previous night but also because there was so much. I got to the point where I had to stop. One could spend a week there taking in all the different things, the Kolb studio, the architecture and, yes indeedy….the snarfs. I found several. ;-)

I’ll be back. Oh yes indeedy. ;-)