Honeymoon Day 6: The Grand Canyon

On Christmas Eve Day (Saturday), W. and I finally got to meet the famous Dick Curtis while having breakfast at The Baby Quail Inn. Our room was located on the second floor almost directly above the reception and breakfast room. I thought I heard a deeper voice down there as we were getting ready. "Perhaps it's Dick?" I thought.

Dick showed us the 60 years of his career up on the walls of the breakfast room and told us a few stories of his adventures in show business, such as his friendship with Red Skelton. Quite the affable guy. We left a little later than intended, but we were glad -- after all the mentions of him in the inn's reviews -- that we were able to meet him before we left. Oh and he even autographed a photo for us!

We drove north on a scenic route from Sedona to Flagstaff, where we got on 180 west and headed to the Grand Canyon. The drive from Flagstaff was okay: snowy and full of lots of trees. Although the snow was pretty, it turned out to make it challenging to do much besides look once we reached the Grand Canyon.

We had hoped to hike down a little bit into the canyon, but the snow was hard packed and frozen in many parts.  We did venture about 5 minutes down Hermit's Rest trail, but we quickly reached a completely iced over trail. It was quite slippery and of course there were no handrails ;-) The Grand Canyon has signs everywhere warning you not to overexert yourself. Mostly this about folks who don't take enough water with them on serious backpacking trips, but they like to warn you that death is a possibility if you aren't sufficiently cautious. They warn you with stories of people who actually did die. (In the gift store in fact you can buy a book all about the different ways that people have died in the Grand Canyon. W. started perusing it and I warned him that if he ever wanted to do some serious hiking to the bottom of the canyon with me, he better not buy that book. I would refuse to go on an intensive hike with someone who was constantly, acutely aware of all the ways that we might kill ourselves on it.) So, we were wusses and opted for the more passive viewing of the gorgeousness that spread out before us.

We drove to different viewpoints and got out with everyone else to ooh and aah and snap some photos. It was beautiful. It was grand.

I enjoyed how this dude was up on a rock, posing for photos but looking as though he was preaching to all us tourists.

 Look it's the two of us with some grand looking canyons behind us. Proof that we were there!

As the sun lowered in the sky and late afternoon approached, we decided it was time to mosey on over southeast to where we would be spending the night.

As we began our drive, I contemplated why my relationship with the Grand Canyon feels a little unfulfilled. I get along well with other parks and absolutely love being in them. I think that my disconnect lies in the fact that while the Grand Canyon is incredibly accessible to anyone, you can't really get close to it unless you're willing to be more extreme, ie hike all the way down. So, you can access the Grand Canyon's accessibility ad nauseam. There are countless little look-out spots with easy car parking. You get out. You look. You see a view of the Grand Canyon that is incredibly similar to every other view you have already seen. But you feel the need to go to all the scenic spots, because you are scared to miss something. The accessibility becomes an overload of the senses.

It's like the time I backpacked around Europe when I was 19. The churches in Spain were beautiful. So were the ones in Portugal. The Italian churches were also quite splendid. But probably by the time I was in Switzerland and then France, they all started to look like one another. Having seen so many, I'd lost the ability to appreciate their differences.

I don't know if I felt this way 13 years ago when I first laid eyes on the rusty red of the canyon walls. Interestingly it was also in December. There was also snow in between all the dark green trees. I remember that we got up and saw it at sunrise. That must have been pretty cool, right? In any case, if we go back someday, it sounds like there's a pretty fantastic hike recommended by F. & R. that goes to a blue waterfall. Or, we would definitely have to prepare for a several-day hike down to the canyon's bottom and back.

W. saw the Grand Canyon for the first time last June, but he had gone to the north rim. He said both sides of the canyon were pretty in their own ways, but that the south rim was far more accessible. You didn't have to work so hard to get close to the edge. However, the north rim offered a more personal experience with the canyon.

Anywho, I was contemplating this as we drove through the park on a slightly longer scenic route. Instead of driving south out of the park, we drove further east until we hit US-89 and then went south. We figured we might as well take different roads instead of being redundant.

Turns out this may have been the best part of the day. Perhaps that's the thing too - when you're not expecting to find beauty and you do, you are so much more appreciative of it...so, after a day of anticipated beauty, which yes, was beautiful, we didn't expect much more. Then, we got on this highway just before sunset and it was a stunningly gorgeous drive. We felt lucky and surprised. W. had a grin on his face and kept saying, "Wow." Normally, he's the one who takes photographs when we drive. I tend to eschew it just because I often end up frustrated that I can't capture what I'm actually seeing. Since W. was driving though, I gave it a go.

It was a lovely evening.

Onward we drove until we hit our next destination some hours after dark. We were about to spend Christmas Eve standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona.

Miles Driven: 263
Total Miles: 1,789