Hiking around the rim of the Grand Canyon with children produces anxiety.
We had less than two hundred miles to drive today, Saturday, so we spent the morning trying to see Bryce Canyon through the fog and rain. Remember the Lake Michigan scene in Stranger Than Paradise? It was like that.
We drove south through the afternoon, stopping at a roadside museum/tourist trap with dinosaur tracks and some minerals under black light in a cave in southern Utah. The scenery on the road was beautiful again. It wasn’t as consistently jaw-droppingly awesome as the day before, but close.
We got to the Grand Canyon a bit after three (after turning our clocks back an hour because Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time) and found our cute cabin. We traipsed out on Bright Angel Point, a sliver of rock in the middle of the sky with sheer cliffs on both sides. It’s fun having children running around on that thing. Yep, we all felt perfectly comfortable.
The canyon is spectacular, of course, literally breathtaking, especially given the altitude. I’m not sure I get it exactly. I mean, we’re on top of a mountain and below is the valley. It’s more than a mile down, often straight down. It’s difficult to perceive the views in front of you. But I’m not sure that explains the sense of wonder it engenders. The kids kept trying to take pictures of what they were seeing, not yet understanding how it is impossible to capture what we’re perceiving with a little camera. And how quixotic it is to try to capture, to take and hold and keep, those occurrent perceptions.
We hiked over to dinner, the Grand Canyon Cookout Experience, which was a buffet in a tent with a couple singing western songs at the front. It wasn’t bad. Em and the kids took the shuttle back and I hiked through the dusk along the rim, about a mile and a half, with sunset over the canyon.
We’re all doing great. The driving goes easily, with Em and I splitting the task. The kids continue to be flexible. There were a few little conflicts between them today, but nothing major.
We’re almost done, having driven over three thousand miles.