Editorial

We drove north on highways 64 and 180 in Arizona in search of the Grand Canyon. It would be hard to miss, first because the National Park rangers stop you at the gate for some money. In our case, it was 25 dollars for two people. And even if you do somehow get around the entrances, it’s a pretty big hole.

How big?

Well, most people measure the canyon in river miles, along the course of the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. By that standard, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long. It begins at Lees Ferry and ends at the Grand Wash Cliffs.

At the South entrance to the park I had two choices on which line would move faster, and, like every other line I’ve ever chosen, I picked wrong. Not only did the three cars that came to the gate area behind me get through first, but when at last I did get to the gate, the rangers switched out and I waited a little bit longer while the new gal set up her cash drawer. “Are you here for just one day?” she asked with her geologist’s demeanor.

“Yes ma’am,” I answered back, trying for some semblance of southern charm. Bless my heart.

She didn’t flinch, so I tried something else. “Can’t wait to see Old Faithful.”

Again, nothing from my ranger. “Heard that one, huh?”

“Just a few times today,” she said through what I believed to be, at long last, something that could have been a grin.

Going by the recommendation in the guidebook, I drove past the Visitor’s Center, a little further to Yavapai Point, which at nine in the morning was mostly deserted. We parked and walked north, my anticipation building for a live viewing of one of the natural wonders of the world. I’d seen pictures for as long as I could remember, but when you walk up the path and suddenly there it is, as far as you can see in three directions, the word grand, as magnificent as it is, doesn’t seem like enough.

At the South Rim, where we stood, it’s a vertical mile from rim to river. At its deepest, it’s 6,000 feet. The width of the canyon at Grand Canyon Village is 10 miles (rim to rim), though in places, it’s as much as 18 miles.

Here’s another way to look at the size: a trip to the bottom of the Canyon and back (on foot or by mule) is a two-day journey. Rim-to-rim hikers generally take three days one way to get from the North Rim to the South Rim. A trip through the Grand Canyon by raft can take two weeks or longer, and experienced backpackers have spent weeks in the more remote areas of the Canyon.

In the Yavapai visitor center, we heard something interesting. On the morning of June 30, 1956, a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation and a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 departed Los Angeles International Airport within three minutes of one another on eastbound transcontinental flights. Approximately 90 minutes later, the two propeller-driven airliners collided above the canyon while both were flying in unmonitored airspace.

The wreckage of both planes fell into the eastern portion of the canyon, near the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. The disaster killed all 128 passengers and crewmembers aboard both planes.

There are six other natural wonders in the world. They are the Great Barrier Reef, the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Mount Everest, Aurora (Northern and Southern Lights), Parícutin volcano, and Victoria Falls.

So now, I’ve at least seen one. For the other six, it will be a pretty tough act to follow.