GRAND Canyon!

At every turn today, my vocabulary has been reduced to one word: "WOW!" After breakfast this morning we walked over to Mather Point for our first glimpse of the canyon. Spectacular! Mather Point is named for Stephen Mather, first director of the National Park Service. A bronze plaque at the point is inscribed with these words:

He laid the foundation of the National Park Service, defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done.

We recognized these words from the Ken Burns special, The National Parks, America's Best Idea. We've watched the series twice now, and today we watched the episode that included the creation of Grand Canyon National Park again.

After Mather Point we walked to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. It has exhibits about the geology and history, a short "theater in the round" video, and a large information desk staffed by knowledgeable rangers. (We were disappointed to find that the introductory video is "Out of Service" because of a hard drive crash and problems with the manufacturer of the digital projection system.) We stopped by the bookstore/gift shop briefly before heading home for lunch.

After lunch we watched Episode 3 of the National Parks, looked over things to do, and made preparations for dinner. At 4:00 p.m. we got on our bikes and rode over to the South Kaibab Trailhead to check things out. It was only a three mile ride, but at 7,000' altitude and us not having been on the bikes for a while, it was definitely some exercise.

On the way back we stopped at several points to take in the scenery and take photos.  We were surprised by the number of people who seemed very casual about getting very close to the rim of the canyon. One of the useful features of the official vista points is that the railings make it safe to get right up to the edge to look down. You could stop and look down every few feet and see things from a new and different perspective. Looking across the canyon to the north rim, we could see smoke from the Galahad Fire.


Back at home we were glad to have dinner nearly ready. We turned on the news. It was very discouraging to hear that ISIS is taking control of cities in Iraq and heading towards Baghdad, after years of a futile and misguided war that cost American lives and Iraqi lives and billions of dollars. The only good news seemed to be the appointment of a new Poet Laureate, Charles Wright.