The Long and Winding Road from California to Washington, Part 2: The Grand Canyon

October 8-10, 2021

    Leaving Hoover Dam on the 4th day of what would turn out to be a 39-day trip, we encountered rain, a great way to wash off the dust from the Valley of Fire. Our destination was the Williams KOA, just south of the Grand Canyon, for showers and laundry.

We were glad not to be walking through the previous day's slot canyon when it poured rain for much of the day.  

  

    We arrived at Mather Campground in Grand Canyon National Park about 8:30 the next morning, hoping for a first-come-first-serve site. Folks were already in line—bundled up in camp chairs and chatting over hot mugs of coffee. Registration opens at 9:00, and, we learned, one must return each day for the first-come-first-serve sites. However, we were lucky: we not only got a site, but the ranger allowed us to reserve it for two nights.

A large, sunny campsite was welcome after the pouring rain on the drive from Hoover Dam.

    It turned out to be an amazing site with a semicircle drive and lots of sun. As deer sauntered past, we put out our rug and tied our chairs to the table, to show the site clearly occupied.

Deer were unfazed by humans in the campground.

Most people congregate in Grand Canyon Village around the hotels, stores, and food vendors.

    Driving to Grand Canyon Village, the roads were as confusing as we remembered, but we eventually found easy parking near the Mule Barn. (Neither the parking nor the roads show on the park map.) After all the miles of driving, the 1/4-mile walk across the train tracks and up the stairs to the village felt good.

Every time we see the Grand Canyon it is like the first time—it is just so special.

    Near Kolb Studio, we watched a mule train with passengers on board finishing the 8-mile ascent up Bright Angel Trail from Phantom Ranch on the canyon floor. Backpackers stay at Bright Angel Campground. Lots of people were walking the trail, but just to the first tunnel, less than 1/4 mile from the South Rim, for a photo.

Mule Train ascending Bright Angel Trail from the canyon floor.

Looking down at Bright Angel Trail, which does not actually drop off at the end of the plateau.

    Although the first steam-powered passenger train arrived at the South Rim in 1901, Grand Canyon National Park was not created until 1919. In 1903, the Kolb brothers built their photography studio near Bright Angel Trailhead, with the permission of the trail's then owner.

Kolb Studio

    Fred Harvey, who'd been building hotels and restaurants along trainlines to capitalize on increased passenger travel, built El Tovar Hotel in 1905.

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El Tovar Hotel

    In 1914, Harvey built Lookout Studio to compete with Kolb Studio. Mary Colter designed the multi-level structure, which was built into the canyon's rim to allow visitors to photograph it from the edge and look at it through telescopes. Colter was the main architect and designer for the Fred Harvey Company from 1902 to 1948. Like many of her buildings and structures, Lookout Studio appears to grow from its surroundings, uses native materials, and reflects Native American culture.

   Lookout Studio.

    Colter also designed the 1905 Hopi House opposite El Tovar, modeling it on a 1,000-year-old Hopi pueblo dwelling.

Hopi House

    An aside: the Fred Harvey Company was sold by his heirs to the company that eventually became Xanterra, now a familiar name at national park tourist operations.

    Day two Doug dropped Marilyn off at what she thought was Bright Angel Lodge to see the Mary Colter fireplace a friend had urged us to see. By the time he'd parked again near the Mule Barn and walked back to the lodge, she'd figured out she was at the wrong hotel.

Grand Canyon Trails

Rim Trail: Hermit's Rest (west end) to South Kaibab Trailhead (east end): 13 miles.

Bright Angel Trail:15 mi RT; 4,380' elevation change.

South Kaibab Trail: 14 mi RT; 4,780' elevation change.

South Rim-to-Rim Trail (South Kaibab Trailhead to Bright Angel Trailhead): 16.5 mi; 4,780' elevation loss; 4,380’ elevation gain

    We decided to avoid the crowds and walk east on the Rim Trail. It includes the Trail of Time, on which each meter represents 1 million years in the Grand Canyon's geologic history. The exact age of the canyon is not known. It was long thought that the Colorado River began to carve it around 6 million years ago, but a 2012-study indicated the process may have begun 70 million years ago!

How old is the Grand Canyon?

    The Grand Canyon is also missing some rocks. It "offers one of the most visible examples of a worldwide geological phenomenon known as the Great Unconformity, in which 250 million-year-old rock strata lie back-to-back with 1.2 billion-year-old rocks. What happened during the hundreds of millions of years between remains largely a mystery" ("Facts About the Grand Canyon You Never Knew," https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/8-facts-about-grand-canyon-you-never-knew).

West end of Trail of Time.

Elves Chasm gneiss, 1.84 billion years old

Quartermaster granite, 1.375 billion years old

Not quite 1 million years old.

    We followed the Rim Trail to Yavapai Point, where one can return to the village by shuttle, but we opted to walk, a 3-plus-mile roundtrip. A young man we'd chatted with in the registration line the previous day was going to do the South Rim-to-Rim Trail that day, 16.5 miles with equal elevation gain and loss of 4,000-plus feet, and he didn't start until after 10:00!

How does that round rock near the upper right corner stay there?!?

    We got back to Bright Angel Lodge minutes before the history room with the Mary Colter fireplace was closing. It's called the Geologic Fireplace because the stones layered from bottom to top represent the same layering of rock along Bright Angel Trail from the Colorado River to the rim of the Grand Canyon. All of the rock was gathered or cut from the canyon walls.

Geologic Fireplace at Bright Angel Lodge

    From Bright Angel, we walked back to El Tovar and through the bar to the deck facing the canyon.

Grand Canyon is visible above and below the top rail.

There Doug had his traditional Bloody Mary (Marilyn had an IPA). He's not sure how many decades ago it started (maybe 4?) or why, but every time Doug goes to the Grand Canyon, he has a Bloody Mary on the El Tovar's wood deck.

Doug with his traditional El Tovar deck Bloody Mary.

    Our final morning, we took the road east out of the Grand Canyon, stopping at Desert View Watchtower, another Mary Colter-designed structure, built in 1932.

Desert View Watchtower with kiva-like room in front.

    The Watchtower is an interpretation of buildings of ancestral Puebloans of the Four Corners area. The round room resembles a kiva, a ceremonial and community structure, often built underground and entered through the top by a ladder.

Inside the Watchtower kiva-like room.

Carefully selected stones and design elements are all part of Colter's intentional reflection.

The plaque about Colter's design says these are actual petroglyphs with pecked designs.

Ornamental detail.

Trapezoidal window openings typical of ancient Native American buildings.

Support beams.

    From the deck overhanging the canyon outside the Watchtower, we could see the muddy Colorado River far below and Kaibab Suspension Bridge crossing the river near Phantom Ranch.

Colorado River at bottom of Grand Canyon.

    A footnote: In 1956, two planes, United and TWA, showing their passengers the Grand Canyon, collided over the canyon near the Watchtower, killing all 128 passengers and crew. The tragedy led to the creation of the FAA, and the site is a National Historic Landmark.

    Heading east, we entered the Navajo Nation. Few of the roadside Native American art stands, typical of the Southwest, are open due to the pandemic, and most have few stalls open.

Native American Art Stand in the Navajo Nation.

    We'd considered heading northeast through Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, but the weather was forecast to become colder, with possible snow. Though we've equipped the van for snow, we decided we wanted to stay warm. We then did our blog proud by meandering around central Arizona for a 7-day, 1,100-mile total.

Our 7-day, 1,100-mile meander around Arizona.