A Temple for Humankind

Only by stepping off the Rim and descending toward the river can you identify, if only temporarily, with the Canyon world. Only by looking up at its formidable cliffs, at the Rim which seems to retreat before you as you climb, like a mocking mirage, can you develop your own perception of its real dimensions. And only by journeying all the way to the river, where it swirls and rumbles and still carves its way through some of the oldest rocks on earth, can you fully appreciate the work of the two great architects of the Grand Canyon, time and the flowing river.

The story is not yet ended. People have come and gone in the Grand Canyon, but the scene today is largely the same as it was when the Indian placed his votive figurine within the limestone cave; when the Spaniard gazed in amazement into its depths, and when the American explorer launched his frail boats into the darkening rapids. This is because the American people have decided that it is best this way; that human beings should have the unmarred majesty of the Grand Canyon to see, to marvel at, to study, and to attempt to comprehend. Most of the earth may bear the marks of human activities, but the Grand Canyon was not made by hands, and is beyond human powers of description. Past generations with their plans have come and gone here. They have found the Grand Canyon a barrier, a challenge, a prison, a grave, a scientific textbook, and a religious shrine. They have left it much as it was. The Grand Canyon, which represents the earth's long past, belongs to the earth, and to the future generations who come to dwell, even briefly, in the house of stone and light.

One thing we all have in common is the spirit of adventure or we wouldn't be here. Basically we're interested in the mysterious yet logical way this canyon came into being. Some are geologists, some doctors, some writers, some artists, some professors or students, working people seeking release from the tensions of our daily lives. But all of us are here to see what this colossal cut in the earth can tell us, and we find that time and tide wait for no man, that the human life span is equal to less than one inch of the rock strata buried in the earth.

There is a sunny, peaceful place on earth, in Arizona, in fact, where nothing ever happens. And as in all such idyllic spots far from the madding crowd, something usually violent is going on all the time. But it seldom shows on the surface. If you have never been to Supai, the chances are that you'd like to go. Everybody who has ever been there raves about it. There is nothing else like it in the United States, perhaps in the world....

As you reach the end of your journey the trail crosses and recrosses the blue sparkling Havasu Creek. And at each ford the water seems to become more and more blue. Travertine in the water is supposed to be the scientific answer and the name of the Havasupai country, the Land of the Sky Blue Water, is no misnomer.