Grand Grand Canyon

I'm back in the hotel room at three with one eye on the window, ready to rush back to the park if the sun comes out. I knew when I decided to come here that an overcast sky was predicted in place of yesterday's sun, and the forecast was right. I was on the South Rim of the canyon before 7 a.m., a few minutes before sunrise. The sky was low and leaden, apparently more than one layer of clouds because the gray got brighter at times, but the sun never came out and the colors I've seen in photos never appeared.

Still, the views were majestic - click on this image to see a larger version. The 7,000-foot rim is covered with snow, while down in the canyon, as much as 5,000 feet lower, there is none. The Colorado River is down in the jagged gorge you can see in the near distance, invisible in this view but it can sometimes be glimpsed as a tiny triangle of muddy yellow. The lower canyon is an assortment of reds while the highest levels, near the rim, are light-colored gray rock as you see at the left.

Access to much of the South Rim and all of the North Rim is blocked by snow. Walking on the Rim Trail and the many overlooks I sampled is sometimes an Olympic skating event but in my case less graceful. Still, I walked the entire 3.5 miles or so of the Rim Trail that are open, from the Village to Pipe Creek, and only fell down once (though a couple of other times I was saved by the handrail). It was a workout with the changes in elevation, all around 7,000 feet above sea level.

Then the North Rim began to vanish in mist as bad weather moved in, and flurries eventually crossed the ten miles to the South Rim and then another five or so to the village of Tusayan where I'm staying. With the view gone I was only too happy to stop for lunch and take my tired feet back to my room. It's 3:45 Mountain Time and right now a nap sounds like a great idea.

Tomorrow night I'll be in Los Angeles. I'm bracing myself for culture shock.

Today's trivia: Lunch options are so limited in Tusayan that I ended up at Wendy's, the first fast food of this trip's nine days. I listened to kids joking around and sounding like kids at the table behind me, but couldn't quite pick up a word in a language I know. When they left and I got a peek at them I realized that they must have been speaking a Native American language. Around here anyone - gas station cashiers, hotel staff - is likely to be an Indian.