The Grand, Grand Canyon

It's hard to believe that there are such places - where one can be completely out of this world and this period in time. In Arizona the Grand Canyon first comes to mind then Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly.

After viewing several thousand photographs and paintings of the Grand Canyon, we must be the first to admit - only by seeing it can one believe it. And even then it's hard to believe - that from one of the promontories which jut out from the south rim it is ten miles across the chasm to the opposite rim. Looking downward past successive terraces the bottom of the gorge is almost invisible. The great Colorado River appears as a ribbon of light - moving sluggishly after cutting through a mile of rock for millions of years.

There are not many places on this planet where man has so much space and solitude to himself. Although there are scattered evidences that Indians inhabited the area, it is apparent that such an environment was never meant for man to live very long or very well. Instead it seems God reserved this secluded immensity for his smaller creatures. Swallows dip and swerve in and out of the canyon. Ravens soar above the canyon before dropping confidently into the chasm. Chipmunks and squirrels scamper fearlessly below the rim. Lizards dart about and snakes wiggle half asleep, changing mood and direction only to reach for an unwary insect or a new fallen seed. Wildflowers wave happily, encouraging the young junipers struggling for life on the edge of the rim.

It's hard to believe that the How, When and What of the Grand Canyon are not known in terms of specifics. Explanations range from absurd legends to reasonable bits of proven conclusions. The whole puzzle is still missing many important pieces.

Two accepted truths are: the canyon has been many millions of years in the making and it is changing constantly hour by hour-day by day-year by year-century by century.

It's a fantastic Grand Canyon amazing almost beyond belief. We thought that looking down on the canyons of Manhattan from the top of the Empire State Building was as "close to heaven as we could expect to be without leaving the planet." On our first trip to the canyon a park naturalist pointed out that if the Empire State Building had been built on the river below, we would have to strain our necks to see the rim some 4000 feet above one of the world's tallest building's observatory tower.

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado is, in every sense, a world in itself. One can hardly know of its spaciousness, its grandeur, its richness until he has seen it.

There are such places...

Of all the Indian lands in the Americas there are none more picturesque or more strangely exotic than Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly. The two much photographed areas are part of the vast four-state Navajo Indian Reservation. The Navajo imbued with the mistique of the environment respects and reveres the land of his ancestors and the abode of his gods. He accepts without complaint or question the vagaries of the weather and the harshness of the elements as manifestations of the Power that governs

the universe. Basic and uncomplicated people of the earth they sing: Beauty is before me Beauty is behind me Beauty is above me Beauty is below me Beauty is all about me.

There are such people.

Navajoland has attracted artists for several generations, each in his own style trying to capture the harsh brilliant beauty of the land and the character of the Diné. Charles Russell wrote to a friend “The Navvys are picture-book people.” Great artists from the art capitals of Europe have portrayed and documented the American Indian. We are proud to add the three paintings reproduced on these pages to the prestigious collection of Arizona Highways gallery of Western Art.