Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

The day had finally arrived. I was going see the Grand Canyon TODAY. We got up pretty early so that we could make the most of our time there. Everything went pretty smoothly and we managed to set off only 27 minutes behind schedule. Given our current mode, that is quite admirable. After about an hour’s drive north we arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park. I should mention that it was not a bright sunny day for a change. It was quite overcast with clouds that looked as if they were threatening rain. We even saw some lightening ahead in the distance as we drove. But, it was not raining where we were so that was good. I was told ahead of time that you would not really be able to see much until you remove yourself from the car and walk over to the edge. So now that we were here we grabbed a parking spot and approached the rim of the canyon. Wow! What a sight. Even the kids were impressed. Well, I guess I should qualify that statement. A-P told me later that he was expecting a canyon with the sides much closer together and with sheer, straight, vertical drops directly to the canyon floor. I guess the thousand-foot, vertical drops we saw in some areas were not enough to meet the grandeur of his imagination. Just another example of how you can derive much more enjoyment out of life if you can just manage to set your expectations appropriately. I, on the other hand, was loving every minute. It was a spectacular scene that was made even more impressive simply because of the immensity of it all. There was little around to give it the proper scale but you could feel that it was immense even if the entire canyon was beyond our ken. We had been keeping an eye on the inclement weater and could see that the clouds to the west were dark and menacing and they appeared to be dropping rain as they passed through the canyon. I was hoping that they would blow by and leave us a nice view. Time would tell how our luck would go. One benefit, I suppose, of the less than ideal weather, was that it provided some rather interesting shots of the canyon with white clouds drifting through as well as some ominous clouds giving the canyon an even more mystic and powerful appearance. Not surprisingly, I put my camera through its paces taking photo after photo of the incredible scenery. I found the start of the Bright Angel trail that takes you down to the bottom of the canyon and decided to walk down a little to see what it was like. Chantal and the kids stayed behind. Chantal is not a lover of heights and the trail was just a skinny ledge with no guardrail. Not her ideal situation. We each took one of our walkie talkies so that we could communicate if needed and then I started down the trail. Other than the mule dung that was all over the path, the hike down was very nice. I did not go too far since there were many signs warning that it takes at least twice as long to climb back up as it does to walk down. I enjoyed my little hike and returned to the rim to meet up with the rest of my family to check out the many viewing points to the west. Like Zion, they too had a shuttle that would drop you off along the canyon rim so that you can choose where you want to view and/or hike between stops. As we were waiting for the shuttle we decided that we would hike between the closer viewpoints at the beginning and then jump the shuttle for the viewpoints spaced further apart near the end. When we got on the shuttle to get started the bus driver announced that there was very heavy rain at Hermit’s Rest, the final viewpoint. We jumped off at the first stop and started hiking to the next one. Unfortunately we could see the inclement weather getting closer. As we continued hiking on and approached the third vista point, the rain began in earnest. There was nowhere to take shelter but fortunately we all brought rainwear just in case so we were relatively protected. But it did bring a halt to my picture taking. Then again, that may have been for the best anyway. However, the rain did not last too long and we got back to hiking and photographing this wonderful place tout de suite. As we bused between the farther locations we were encountering some intermittent rain but by the time we reached Hermit’s Rest it had subsided once again. On our way there the shuttle bus driver told everyone how Hermit’s Rest got its name. Apparently back around the turn of the century a man had come to this place to get away from everyone. He wanted to be on his own and this seemed like a good place to do just that. The driver then mentioned that this hermit was a actually a wiry French Canadian! Hmmm … interesting. Anyway, this hermit settled in and was able to survive by uncovering a little copper, silver and gold in the canyon and trading it for supplies. Then just a few years after this the National Parks people came in and built this road. And then the tourists started coming. When they saw the hermit they asked if he could show them around, so he did. Then more tourists came and the hermit started to realize that he could make a lot more money showing tourists around than he could looking for precious rocks. The National Parks people never hired the hermit but they let him pretty much run his end of the canyon. Then the hermit noticed that all these tourist were awfully tired after their hike into the canyon so he got the Parks people to build a station were people could rest after their hike back up and that is how Hermit’s Rest got its name. When we arrived there we decided to address our hunger with a quick bite to eat. And as we stood there over looking the Grand Canyon while munching away, we watched the storm clouds move in and we were treated to one of the most majestic lighting and thunder storms we are likely to ever see as it passed through the canyon dumping plenty of water as it went. We asked some locals if these kinds of severe storms are common. They said that they do happen from time to time but that it was more typical to see them in August. They said it never rains here in October. Great, aren’t we lucky! Fortunately we were pretty much finished with that section of the park and we decided to head to another area about 20 miles to the east. This location has what is called the “Desert View” tower and we were told it offered some unique perspectives on the canyon. It sounded cool and I was hoping that we could get there by car faster than the storm. We took the shuttle back the main village, jumped in our car and headed east. Well, I think our timing was a little off as we encountered some of the hardest rain I have seen in years as we tried to make our way there. The rain was so strong that we decided to pack it in. There was no way we were going to see anything in this weather. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, check the video (link to videos at top left of this page). Again, on recommendation, we stopped by the IMAX theatre on the way home and to see yet a different view of the Grand Canyon. Here we saw things from the perspective of someone at the bottom as well as by plane and helicopter. The movie did provide many different vantage points along with some history of the canyon and it turned out to be a nice way to end our rather wet day at the Grand Canyon. As we drove home I realized that as much as I liked, and was looking forward to, the Grand Canyon, it seemed that in the end, it was Bryce Canyon that captivated my imagination even more.

Today’s word (dedicated to Uncle Ken who probably didn’t realize his name was a noun!):

ken \KEN\, noun:
1. Perception; understanding; knowledge.
2. The range of vision.
3. View; sight.