Grand Canyon

April 21 and 22
The 21^st was a travel day to the Grand Canyon driving in from the east. We got a couple of glimpses along the rim before setting up at Mather Campground. We were glad we had done our homework with reservations as the campground was full. What a nice campground! It’s big, set in the trees and private. We went down to the village area stopping to check out the grocery store and found that it has everything! We ended up at the famous El Tovar Hotel including picture taking and gazing over the rim.
What a gorgeous morning with bright blue sky and no wind. The shuttle system is great and the only way to see the west area of the canyon. We caught the shuttle going out to Hermit’s Rest which stops at various view points. There is a trail that goes the entire way. We got off at one of the first stops and walked for a couple of miles stopping at every turn and twist. With the blue sky and clear air, it was a sight to see! There are just not words to describe the magnificence and breadth that was before us. With 5,000,000 people visiting annually we were not expecting to find ourselves walking along the rim by ourselves. I guess starting off in the morning is the thing to do. What an unexpected treat! I think most people come for an afternoon or a day and don’t have time to take the walk along the edge. I have been here at different times in my life and of course each one has been memorable but I was always one of those people with a short visit going from view point to view point. This time we have time to stop and smell the roses and see everything on the rim. We are definitely not going down into the canyon. Intellectually knowing the short version of the geological forming of this grand canyon, it still seems impossible that nature with earth shifts, water erosion and ice, seas rising and falling and mountains forming could possibly work on one layer after another for this amazing result. We could see tiny specs moving down the Colorado River below, knowing they were rafts going over rapids. I was taking one picture after another and will have quite a job of editing them. Hermit’s Rest is one of the buildings designed by Mary Coulter back in the early 1900’s that fits so beautifully into the landscape both culturally and architecturally. Back at the village we stopped at the Bright Angel Hotel again designed by Mary Coulter. The Bright Angel Room now houses a museum on Fred Harvey and Mary Coulter and the early development of the hotel and visitor industry here at the canyon. Christy has been reading a book on Fred Harvey, Appetite for America by Stephen Fried, and has been regaling us with stories of this fascinating person. To be here and see the results of his efforts still standing for millions of people to enjoy each year is both fun and interesting. I knew the name Fred Harvey but certainly not much about him. A quick overview - He came to the US from England at 15 in 1850. and soon was working in the early days of tourism as a pot walloper, dishwasher. Before Fred came along, tourists experienced considerable hardships, poor food, rude service and highway robbery prices. He was certainly a visionary. “He teamed up with the Santa Fe Railroad and together created a legacy that endures to this day - a legacy of comfortable travel, elegant dining, and memorable experiences.” He became the father of the American service industry. He invented the lunch counter and service from the well trained young single women called Harvey Girls (girls brought out west in a safe environment). At his peak he had over 65 restaurants and lunch counters, 60 dining cars, a dozen large hotels and all of the restaurants and retail shops in five of the nations largest railroad stations. El Tovar, one of his finest and few remaining of his hotels, sits on the canyon rim still offering tourists a delightful experience a 100 years later. We were included in that delighted group of tourist and had a wonderful dinner in the dinning room on one occasion and lunch on the porch on another.
Before heading back to camp be stopped at the Kolb Studio perched on the side of the rim. The brothers came to the canyon in 1901 to photograph the canyon and offer photos of the tourists as they descended the canyon on mules. They would take the photo, run four miles down the canyon to Indian Garden to the only clean water source for processing the film, and back up again in time to sell the photos to the tourists as they came back up. They would do this 2 or 3 times a day until the late thirties when water was readily available in 1932. Fred Harvey brought water in by tankers on the railroad for the hotel but wouldn’t share with the Kolbs as Fred was interested in getting his own studio going. Old Fred was a ruthless businessman. They were the first to record a trip down the Colorado River through the rapids with a movie camera and showed the film nightly until 1976. Fascinating characters in this neck of the woods! Their projector is on display and the first level of the home is now a book store.
One final stop was to see Navajo dancing outside the Hopi House. Chris and I had stood in the same place in the early 50’s on a family vacation watching Hopi dancers. It’s nice the tradition has continued.

Walk to Hermits Rest

Kolb Studio Hanging on the Cliff



Young navajo Girl Performing at the Hopi House




Navajo Doing the Amazing Hoop Dance




Late Afternoon in Front of El Tovar Hotel

 April 23
Hopi House, built by Hopi craftsmen in 1905, was designed by Mary Coulter for the Fred Harvey Co along with the Santa Fe Railroad to operate as a gift store which it still does today. It was the first of many buildings built here that were designed by this amazing women who was an architectural pioneer. Her goal was “to mold her structures into the landscape and recreate the rustic style of the Southwest’s earliest inhabitants. If the scenery was dominated by wood and stone, her buildings would carry that theme.” She was meticulous with her designs of the interiors as well. She also designed Lookout Studio, Hermits Rest, Phantom Ranch, Desert View Watchtower (my favorite), and Bright Angel Lodge. From the light fixtures to the patterns on the dishes in the dining rooms, the paintings on the walls, her work is still very mush alive. The Hopi House was the first ever to house Hopi and Navajo artisans to make their pieces right on site. The upstairs were their living quarters. Downstairs tourists could see them working at weaving rugs and crafting silver jewelry.
We walked over to Verkamp’s Visitor Center which talks about the community of families living here from 1904 to today. Until last year, the building was owned by the Verkamp family who sold curios to millions of tourists for over 100 years. They sold it to the Park Service and it is now a museum. From here there is a new geological walk along the rim to the Geological Museum at Yavapai Point. Rocks are on display along the walk taken from the very bottom of the canyon to the top layers. Kids were having fun touching them and adults were trying to gain some small understanding of the time it has taken for this canyon to form and the various types of rocks found in the layers. The rocks at the bottom are some of the oldest on earth at nearly 2 billion years old. The canyon is 1,840 million years old! I just can’t wrap my mind around that.
We drove along the rim going east stopping at view points along the way ending up at Desert View Watchtower looking out to the Colorado River. Months of research by Mary Coulter preceded 3 years of construction. The finest examples of masonry and design found in prehistoric ruins went into this structure. It seems to be part of the land. The ancient towers along the rim were thought to be used for food storage and protection. The art in the interior includes paintings on the walls, a sand painting on the floor (now carefully covered with glass) and Katchina dolls all done by various clans in the 30‘s. The tower was filled with people walking up the stairs and not conducive to studying the art but it was beautiful.
I love the quotes we have seen in the visitor centers. Here is one by John Muir. “No matter how far you have wandered, or how many gorges and valleys you have seen, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado will seem to you as if you have found it .. On some other star.



Hopi House





Desert View Watchtower Designed by Mary Coulter



Painting on Wall Inside Watchtower

April 24
Drove south to see the Imax National Geographic film on the Grand Canyon. I had seen it before and would see it again! The film at the Visitor Center was well done also. We went on down to Williams to see what was there. It sits on Route 66 and has a lot of nostalgia. The Grand Canyon Railroad takes off from the old depot. We had lunch in the old saloon, now a Irish/Mexican combo.
We leave this amazing place tomorrow for Kanab, Utah and then onto Zion National Park. I have loved this campground. Our site is big enough for a reunion and surrounded by Pinion Pines. There are a lot of tenters and the nighttime temperature has been down to 29 and 30 degrees. How do they do that? We are cozy with our heater, blankies and quilts. They all seem to be having a great time sitting around the campfire. Looking out my window it looks pretty cold to me. You don’t need to keep food locked up for the bears but the ravens get into anything they can. They are voracious! These birds have pecked their way through two of our neighbors plastic food bags and strewn food around the campsites while they were out for the day. They walk around the campground looking proud and as if they owned it. We heard loud “OH NOs” ring through the campground.


Appies and Beer on El Tovar Porch Looking to the Canyon




ChristyAll Snuggled in Bed with it 30 Degrees Outside