Dizzing Heights--Grand Canyon

It is a place that is difficult to describe, and a picture isn't enough, and so I will fail to adequately tell you about the Grand Canyon, perhaps that is why it is one of the great wonders of the world. We arrived on Monday afternoon, greeted by 9'c weather--a far cry from our 30' in Phoenix, the drive took us up 5000 ft., and as our ears popped the land transformed from desert to mountains, from cactus to towering pines. The smell was incredible, I'm a smell guy (yes, small as well), and smells have big memories for me--this place had the smell of Banff in winter--crisp, pine and cold--fantastic! If you have never been to the canyon, I can only suggest that you put it on your travel list for someday soon, but if you have been there then you understand that first glimpse of it. I had once wondered if they lit up the canyon with lights at night, if you've seen the place then you know how hilarious an idea that is. Its over 200 miles long, over a mile deep and over a mile wide in several places. You cannot fathom how deep it is, how beautiful it is and how terrifying it can be. A poem by Lynn Wilson portrays my initial thoughts:

'There is nothing that communicates the absolute astonishment of viewing this giant crevasse. i cannot completely prepare, for my mind has always had a gauge to measure things by. But how do i calibrate this infinite void?
Edge of nothingness
Expansive space
Immeasurably wide
Unfathomably deep
Utterly quiet
Hauntingly peaceful
Everyone whispers and no one knows why.'

We did 3 hikes by the canyon, two on the rim and one into the canyon on the Kaibab trail. Here is a good place for a MEC commercial--their clothing and the MEC baby backpack we got from ICYA (thanks guys!) allowed us to see the canyon in more intimate detail. There is NO WAY we would let a rambunctious 2 year old like Nate run around on trails with hundred foot drops only a foot away from the trail. So, MEC gave us the chance to see so much and be content with Nate. Overall he loved it, but the high altitude, the cold wind and the fresh air, plus the hikes wiped us out.
As we hiked into the canyon, the closest thing I could equate this experience to was my time hiking in Nepal, harsh mountains, narrow trails, high altitude, penetrating sun, mules coming up and down the trail and exhaustion coming back up the trail. Its an exhilarating place, but one with little forgiveness, over 600 people have died in the canyon--either falling off its ledges into the abyss (very easy to do), or heat exhaustion and dehydration, to drowning in the Colorado River below. We had a minor accident with Nate about a half hour down the trail and it forced us to come back up with a crying boy on my back--there's no way out but on foot and if the accident is serious, you could be in big trouble fast. Thankfully, all turned out well with Nate and he courageously got back into the backpack for the next hike. One day we would like to hike through the Canyon, but not till Nate's a little older.
One last thought, I find it interesting in these places that man comes up with all kinds of ideas of how it was made and formed, we paint scientific explanations for these kinds of places on the planet. But when you arrive at them there are all kinds of religious responses to their magnificence: in Nepal there are Buddhist prayer flags everywhere near the great mountains, here in the Grand Canyon, many of the peaks inside the canyon are named after Hindu gods. As I stood on the edge of the Canyon, I wondered why God made this, I think it is in the New Testament (John 1) where it says that all things were made through Christ and for Him--to bring him glory and honor. If the canyon takes my breath away and I cannot describe it, if it is a place that has marked my memory with fear and wonder--what will my initial response be when I at first meet the God who created this place with his fingers? I can only imagine.

Ken