The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is certainly named appropriately. Grand is the word that best describes this 277-mile-long crevasse. I have seen countless pictures and heard from many who had witnessed the majestic scene, but finally seeing it for myself was a dream fulfilled. The Grand Canyon is the second most visited National Park in the United States, following the Great Smoky Mountains. It is estimated that about 6 million people visit the canyon every year. The annual visitation in 1919, the year of birth for the park, was 44,173. What a difference!

The park rangers at Sunset Crater told us the day before, that they were expecting snow at the Grand Canyon. A lot of it, too. Sure enough, we woke up the next morning to snow gently dancing down from the grey sky.

By the time we made it to the park and got out of the car, the snow was blowing so wildly that it was all you could do to keep your eyes open. We hastily made it to a sheltered place and waited for the other bus load of our family to come along. Zero visibility were the words I heard murmured a few times. How long would this keep up? Are we going to be able to see anything?

The others came along and after watching an informational video in the park theatre, we opened the door to the outside and lo and behold, the sun was shining, and the snow had slowed considerably. We walked along the path to the overlook. I was so excited. We were really at the Grand Canyon and were about to see a sight I had been looking forward to for as long as I can remember!

We made it to the railing and at first, we could not see much. Then, as we stood there for just a few minutes, the clouds slowly began to roll gently away. As they rolled back, they revealed a sight that was enough to take your breath away. It was beautiful, majestic, breath-taking. It was the Grand Canyon! It was really there after all!

Tears were shed by some, exclamations of wonder by others, and still others, (myself included), just stood there in the sheer wonder at it all.

Every turn on the trail would bring a new snap of pictures from every camera. We would all gather around at a beautiful viewpoint and take family pictures.

After a good long look at the Grand Canyon and walking the trail, we took a trolley ride through the park. We saw quite a few elk including one decent-sized bull elk. That was exciting!

There were two gentlemen from Germany on the trolley with whom my sisters struck up a conversation. They were visiting the States and had hiked down into the Canyon and back up that day! They started at the top early in the morning when it was -2°C (28.4°F) and then made it the ten miles or so to the bottom where it was 14°C (57.2°F). They said they were quite bundled up at the top and were in T-shirts at the bottom! I had never thought of a temperature difference from the bottom to the top! The elevation of the Grand Canyon is anywhere from 2000 to 8000 feet, so there definitely would be some variety in the weather conditions. The temperature usually increases about 6 degrees with every thousand feet elevation loss. They said it was a long but beautiful hike. They did not seem tired in the least!

We went to several of the viewpoint locations to see as much of the canyon as we could. The Grand Canyon is 1,904 square miles in total. That is 692 square miles bigger than the state of Rhode Island! Every window with a view looked like a lively picture. We all had a great time. I am thankful to now be able to say I have been to the Grand Canyon and witnessed the miraculous sight. It was indeed wonderful. It was in fact… Grand!               

~ Jayla