Rim-sitting at the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon is an abstract form composed of abstract forms. The attempt to describe it concretely may represent a near-ultimate challenge of language. Most observers bypass graphic discussion to voice reactions born of emotion. Author Frank Waters, for example, wrote, "Its heart is the savage uncontrollable fury of all the inanimate universe." An equally emphatic if less poetic declaration came from the pen of William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody. In November, 1892, he was one of a party that made the journey down to the Colorado River on Capt. John Hance's mules. Afterwards he wrote, "Universal comment is that [the Grand Canyon] is too sublime for expression, too wonderful and beyond all powers of mortal description."

For eight years, Grand Canyon was my home. I started as dishwasher and ran the gamut of sundry jobs until I arrived at the lofty position of guiding bus tours along the South Rim. I loved the Canyon so much, I would do anything to stay there. Frequently, when I caught taxi duty and took fares to Tusayan for flights over the Canyon, the pilots would invite me to soar with them among the awesome crags and pinnacles. Sometimes at Phantom Ranch, the mule motel in the shadowy depths of the Canyon, the crew ran short of help, and I would volunteer to make beds, rake leaves, and sometimes scramble the eggs. I regularly hiked the trails and rode Fred Harvey's famous saddle mules. Once, during a two-week stint as a trail repairman, I was assigned a National Park Service mule of my own. Three times I have run the Canyon's rapids, and once I traversed the Colorado River's course from Lees Ferry to Lake Mead. On more than a hundred days off, I took a mailman's holiday, driving or hiking along the Canyon rim. I saw Grand Canyon as only a few have done. Then, 24 years ago, the Arizona Game and Fish Department offered me a job in Phoenix as writer-editor for its publications. I couldn't refuse, and thought I had cut the umbilical cord. But something akin to homesickness has never gone away, and to this day dictates that once or twice a year I make a pilgrimage to the Canyon to sit quietly at its edge and behold again the corrugated, spectrumed vastness. Although one may roam the hallowed hallways by foot, by mule, by boat, by airplane, it is such simple rim-sitting that allows the fullest, most satisfying savoring of the majesty of this astonishing place. Grand Canyon is the world's greatest example of erosion. A series of intermittent seas and Sahara-like deserts of the past created contrasting layers of stone. Then subterranean pressures began pushing up the land, eventually forming a dome 9,000 feet high. Meanwhile the relentless Colorado River continued to force its way toward the sea, knifing through the ancient rock layers to remain at approximately the same elevation. As soft limestones, sandstones, and shales were exposed, the wind, rain, frost, ice, and snow widened the Canyon, carving a dramatic landscape of temples, thrones, buttes, pinnacles, cliffs, abysses, and precipitous corridors. When, 14 years ago, a 60-mile segment of Marble Canyon was added to Grand Canyon National Park, the preserve's length reached 277 miles. The park varies from 4 to 18 miles wide. Measured midway between the South Rim and the North Rim, which is a thousand feet higher, the Canyon's depth averages one mile. Such immensity, viewed from a frontrow-center seat on the rim, dwarfs the Canyon's life-forms. Here live 70 species of mammals, 250 species of birds, 25 species of reptiles, 5 species of amphibians, 5 native species of fish, and more than 1,400 species of plants. Distance turns the Colorado River-which averages 300 feet wide and produces raging rapids 20 feet high-into what visitors call "that little creek down there." Joseph Wood Krutch, rim-sitter and naturalist, summed up the Canyon as "the most revealing single page of earth's history open on the face of the globe." Looking back two million years can have a powerful effect on any mere mortal. Apparently humankind has been rimsitting at the Grand Canyon for about 4,000 years. Prehistoric people left potsherds, arrowheads, fetishes, and granaries from rim to river. The first white "tourists," Spanish conquistadors led by Don Lopez de Cardenas, trekked here in 1540 in search of "seven cities of gold" that did not exist. Cardenas did his rim-sitting at Moran Point, they say. Now nearly three million people from around the world come to the Grand Canyon each year. With easy access to the

RIMSITTING

To this day dictates that once or twice a year I make a pilgrimage to the Canyon to sit quietly at its edge and behold again the corrugated, spectrumed vastness. Although one may roam the hallowed hallways by foot, by mule, by boat, by airplane, it is such simple rim-sitting that allows the fullest, most satisfying savoring of the majesty of this astonishing place. Grand Canyon is the world's greatest example of erosion. A series of intermittent seas and Sahara-like deserts of the past created contrasting layers of stone. Then subterranean pressures began pushing up the land, eventually forming a dome 9,000 feet high. Meanwhile the relentless Colorado River continued to force its way toward the sea, knifing through the ancient rock layers to remain at approximately the same elevation. As soft limestones, sandstones, and shales were exposed, the wind, rain, frost, ice, and snow widened the Canyon, carving a dramatic landscape of temples, thrones, buttes, pinnacles, cliffs, abysses, and precipitous corridors. When, 14 years ago, a 60-mile segment of Marble Canyon was added to Grand Canyon National Park, the preserve's length reached 277 miles. The park varies from 4 to 18 miles wide. Measured midway between the South Rim and the North Rim, which is a thousand feet higher, the Canyon's depth averages one mile. Such immensity, viewed from a frontrow-center seat on the rim, dwarfs the Canyon's life-forms. Here live 70 species of mammals, 250 species of birds, 25 species of reptiles, 5 species of amphibians, 5 native species of fish, and more than 1,400 species of plants. Distance turns the Colorado River-which averages 300 feet wide and produces raging rapids 20 feet high-into what visitors call "that little creek down there." Joseph Wood Krutch, rim-sitter and naturalist, summed up the Canyon as "the most revealing single page of earth's history open on the face of the globe." Looking back two million years can have a powerful effect on any mere mortal. Apparently humankind has been rimsitting at the Grand Canyon for about 4,000 years. Prehistoric people left potsherds, arrowheads, fetishes, and granaries from rim to river. The first white "tourists," Spanish conquistadors led by Don Lopez de Cardenas, trekked here in 1540 in search of "seven cities of gold" that did not exist. Cardenas did his rim-sitting at Moran Point, they say. Now nearly three million people from around the world come to the Grand Canyon each year. With easy access to the South Rim by road and by air, most congregate there. The park's popularity peaks in summer during school vacation. Visitors often rush in and rush out; too few take time to sit and really see the Canyon. Most stop at Mather Point and briefly at Trail View and Hopi Point. Then they head home, thinking they have "seen the Grand Canyon." Most motorists visiting the park approach from the south, having left Interstate Route 40 at Flagstaff or Williams. Accordingly, the National Park Service deliberately curved the highway to Mather Point to provide a galvanizing first look. Certainly Mather should not be missed; neither should Trail View nor Hopi Point nor Desert View, nor any of the other designated overlooks. But at Mather, in summer, I've often seen crowds jostlingfor positions at the rail like subway riders competing for seats during rush hour. Yet if you'll walk a few hundred yards east or west of the point, you'll find yourself peacefully and utterly alone at any time of year. Although most other viewpoints Maricopa, Powell, Mohave, Pima, Yaki, Grandview, Moran, and Lipan, to name a few-see considerably less traffic, rimsitting nevertheless is better done between them. For example, walk several hundred yards west of Hermits Rest, the turn-around spot on the West Rim Drive, or pick any rim location asphalt does not go, and the stillness grows with every step. Better than just walking blindly, of course, is to pick up a topographic map of the Grand Canyon at the Visitors Center.State 67. A forest of blue spruce, Douglasfir, ponderosa pine, and white-barked quaking aspen flows along the North Rim. Meadows you cross on the drive from Jacob Lake teem with wildflowers and at times exhibit wildlife: the Rocky Mountain mule deer, wild turkey, blue grouse, coyote, and unique and endangered tasseleared Kaibab squirrel. Even at midsummer, cool air blesses this high-country paradise. The North Rim's primary promontories are Bright Angel Point, near the lodge, and Point Imperial and Cape Royal, which involve drives of about 11 and 23 miles respectively. Along the way are walled pullouts, often unpeopled, where you can enjoy undisturbed rim-sitting just a few feet from your car. At Vista Encantadora, for example, the view is staggering. To the east are Nankoweep Creek, Marble Canyon, and, in the distance, Painted Desert and the Navajo Indian country.

You'll see dozens of named overlooks such as Zuni, Papago, Pinal not reached by roads but often less than a mile from the pavement. Take a lunch and enjoy this balcony of balconies - all seats are choice, and you can enjoy the changing light and colors of the Canyon all day long. If you're an explorer at heart, seek out some of the primitive roads that appear on the topographic map and lead to more remote parts of the rim. It's wise to get a park ranger's advice before you set out. Over on the North Rim, you will encounter fewer tourists-only 90,000 of the national park's annual three million visitors. The North Rim facilities, closed between mid-September and mid-May because of snowfall that averages 210 inches annually, are reached from the rest of Arizona via U.S. Route 89 and 89A and Just south of the park entrance, a dirt road angles off to the right and leads to Point Sublime, a distance of 17 miles. En route, expect to see some deer and turkeys; drive slowly. I've visited Point Sublime many times, and there's never been anyone around. Note, however, that sometimes the Park Service closes this road, especially after wet weather. Outside the park boundaries but still overlooking Grand Canyon are such points as Timp, Locust, Parissawampitts, Crazy Jug, Big Saddle, Little Saddle, and more. Reaching these is, again, something for the hardy type. Be sure you have a good map, and ask a ranger for advice. A pickup truck or four-wheel-drive vehicle is recommended. There are places on the moon that have seen more traffic than some of these spots, and privacy is guaranteed.

No, they won't let you build a house on the rim of the Grand Canyon. They won't even let you build a church here. Anyway, there are plenty of people who think the Grand Canyon itself is the ultimate church. How often I have sat watching a Grand Canyon sunrise, my legs dangling into space, my breakfast growing cold on my lap as I chant, "Nothing on this planet compares..." At such times, I think it might be the fifth day of Creation, before Adam. Again and again I have wished to be struck with some memorable expression that would live long after me. Something perhaps akin to what rim-sitter Carl Sandburg said: "There goes God with an army of banners."