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I Can See Time!

This morning, I walked out of my hotel room, and there before me was the Grand Canyon in all of its glory.

Genevieve and I sat together on a low stone wall and talked about the beauty that surrounded us.

Ahhhhh. It was so peaceful.

Genevieve continued to work on her Junior Ranger activities.

One of the assignments was to pick up some litter. It is hard to believe that people actually throw their garbage down on the ground at the Grand Canyon—but they do. Among other items, Genevieve found a squashed coffee cup and put it in the trash.

Last night the temperature dropped down to 15 degrees. The water had frozen around this support beam.

A bird flew high in the air.

Another bird rummaged around in the snow at the base of a tree.

There were not many people out this morning. While Genevieve and I were sitting on the wall, we were joined by a man named John, who was getting ready to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with his family. He was from California, and had been to the Grand Canyon many times. Then a woman named Larisa stopped by; she was from South Africa, and this was her first visit. The rest of her group was riding mules down into the canyon this morning.

John, Genevieve and Larisa:

Ben saw the mules being led to the corral area:

Genevieve and Sebastian in front of our hotel:

The highlight this morning was a ranger program called “Rim Walk” with Ranger Patrick.

Ranger Patrick was a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide.

The first question that Ranger Patrick asked us was, “What do you see when you look at the Grand Canyon?” We had about 15 people in our group, and many answers were called out: Colors, layers, rocks, canyon walls, land formations. Ranger Pat let the voices die down. Then he said, “When we look at the Grand Canyon, we are looking at time.” In fact, we are seeing 1.7 billion years of time, which represents 40% of the earth’s history.

I can’t be the only one who thought, “WOW!!!” Almost half of the earth’s natural history is revealed in the layers of the canyon walls! I took a moment to breathe in and process that amazing bit of information.

We walked about a mile, up and then back, along a snow-covered trail next to the rim.

Ranger Patrick stopped in several places along the way to explain more about the canyon’s natural and cultural history.

We learned that humans have inhabited the Grand Canyon for thousands of years. One group that is still around today is the Hopi people. Their nearby village of Oraibi was built in about 1100 A.D. and is the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States.

In 1901, a railroad line was completed to the south rim, bringing masses of tourists to the Grand Canyon.

Architect Mary Jane Colter designed the “Hopi House” to resemble a Hopi pueblo; she used local stones that were layered in a manner so that the building looked like the layers of the canyon.

The Hopi House once served as a living museum, where some of the local Hopi people lived, worked and sold their items to visitors. The Hopi House is now a gift shop that sells many items, including jewelry and other items made by Hopi people.

Ranger Patrick also talked about the pine trees along the rim.

Lightning strikes are common in July and August, and the heated bark emits a caramel/vanilla smell after being hit. We could hear a helicopter chugging away while Ranger Patrick was talking. We looked into the canyon and could see a small helicopter.

Ranger Patrick explained that no commerical helicopters are allowed in the national park portion of Grand Canyon, so any helicopters that we see out there are either transporting construction supplies or transporting people who have life-threatening injuries. 

After walking a bit further, we came to an old juniper tree that appeared to be dead.

Ranger Patrick told us that the tree was about 1300 years old, and it was still alive. He challenged us to find the part that was still living. We circled the tree, looking for sprouts of green or other signs of life. All of the parts appeared to be dry and grey.

Then Ranger Patrick showed us some small branches in the neighboring pine trees--the branches were juniper, and they were from the old tree!

He explained that a juniper tree will sometimes give up on parts of itself in order to keep other parts growing. Here, the tree was apparently giving all of its nutrients and energy to several small branches, high in the air, that appeared at first glance (and second) to not even belong to the juniper tree at all.

Ranger Patrick was full of information and covered many more topics. However, the last thing that sticks in my head is that 2 to 6 people die every year from “goofing off” on the Grand Canyon rim. So be careful!

Attending a ranger-led program was one of the requirements for Genevieve and Sebastian's Junior Ranger badges. After the Rim Walk program, Ranger Patrick signed their booklets to verify their attendance.

Then we posed for a family photo near the rim:

More pictures of the Grand Canyon:

Genevieve:

The children then took their Junior Ranger booklets to Lynn, the store manager at the Verkamp’s visitor center. She carefully reviewed all of the responses and assignments.  While she talked with Genevieve and Sebastian, she shared her joy in being at the Grand Canyon.

She then swore the children in as Junior Rangers, and presented each with a badge.

Back outside, we walked some more along the canyon rim, not wanted to tear our eyes from the gorgeous view.

We passed by Lookout Studio, which was also designed by Mary Jane Colter.

Lookout Studio was originally a photography studio, but now is a gift shop and viewpoint.

One final look at the canyon--we really CAN see time! 

We hiked past the train depot:

A small stream ran along the railroad tracks:

The train came rolling in while we were there!

Outside of Grand Canyon National Park, we passed the Air Museum on our way south:

We watched the desert landscape gradually become covered with dark bushes:

We briefly backtracked west on Route 66, through Seligman, Arizona. We had all been anticipating thick milkshakes at the Snow Cap restaurant, which had been closed when we had passed through last week. Alas, it was still closed.

We were intrigued by the Roadkill Café and decided to stop.

Outside was a big elk:

The cafe's motto was “You kill it . . . we grill it!”

All jokes aside, the food was excellent, and the service was fast and friendly! Here are Genevieve and Sebastian with their mugs of root beer—Cheers!

Next door was the Historic Route 66 Motel:

We decided to stop in Kingman, Arizona, tonight (where we had stayed for two nights previously on this trip). The location would be ideal for starting out on our trip to the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas tomorrow.

On the road west, we passed these two neighboring homes, quite different in their styles:

I just love looking at rocks balanced in seemingly precarious patterns on a hill—perhaps I am awed by the huge amount of potential energy that will be unleashed when each rock eventually comes tumbling down.

We could see the line of buildings that followed Route 66 northward; we had traveled through that line earlier on this trip (on the day we had met Giganticus Headicus).

Kingman declares itself to be the “Heart of Route 66”:

Tonight we shared a fun game of putt-putt at our campground.

It had certainly been an incredible day!

<< Day 11: Dinosaur Tracks in the Desert | Day 13: Just Take the Dam Tour >>

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