November 26, 2010 ~ THE GRAND CANYON
We arrived at the entrance gate at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park about 2:00 pm on a Sunday in November which gave us 2 or 3 hours to check things out the first day. The conditions on this day were hazy smog, which happens often in The Canyon according to the information we read. Our second full day there was cloudy, gray and overcast, with a period of rain and hail. An evening snow shower was underway when we went to dinner leaving a little more than a trace in the morning, but the day warmed with beautiful blue skies.
The initial approach to the rim is quite overwhelming and almost takes your breath away. The rocks exposed within the Grand Canyon vary in color and in age with the oldest rocks in the inner gorge at the bottom dating back an unimaginable 1,840 million years!!! We walked the rim trail stopping every other step, each of us with camera in hand trying to capture the grandeur of this incredible place. Needless to say we wound up with hundreds of images. Both of us contributed to the "Grand Canyon" album. We hope you enjoy it.
On our way into the park on day two, a herd of elk just inside the forest at the edge of the road had attracted quite a crowd. People abandoned their vehicles right where they stopped to get a closer look. I’ve never been that close, and with their huge racks, they appear enormous. Fortunately, they were very well behaved. I respect my hunter friends, but all I could think of being so close to these gentle creatures was ‘how could you shoot such a beautiful animal?’
At the east end of the park’s South Rim is the Desert View Watchtower. Built in 1932, it is not a restoration or copy of any particular Indian building, but a re-creation of the strange prehistoric towers found scattered over large areas of the Southwest. Pictographs representing Indian ceremonial paintings and designs adorn the inside walls and ceilings of the tower, and are still preserved in some of the ancient ruins of the Southwest.
The Tusayan Ruins at the east end of the south rim offers a glimpse of Indian life at the Grand Canyon 800 years ago, with the well preserved remains of an ancestral Puebloan village. The Tusayan Museum houses artifacts that span the last 10,000 years. Some of most fascinating pieces found in the Grand Canyon and my personal favorites were the split-twig figurines. The little deer-type figure in my photo was created with only one twig, split down the middle and then carefully folded into an animal shape. While their exact function remains a mystery, recent research suggests that they were totems associated with the Late Archaic hunting and gathering culture. Their occurrence in remote, relatively inaccessible uninhabited caves indicates that these figurines were not toys. They are usually found under rock cairns, indicating careful placement.
It’s uplifting to spend time in this remarkable place, wondering what life was like thousands of years ago for the earliest humans and trying to fathom that this immense work of nature began to take form almost 6 million years ago. The Grand Canyon---one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and one of Earth’s most powerful and inspiring landscapes.
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