A Grand Day Out

There is no denying the greatness of God standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon.  On waking up in our dorm room hotel John commented that it was much greater than the place in Phoenix with the waterslide, “because this place is at the Grand Canyon.”  Too true.

After watching the dawn break, we had a breakfast of cold cereal pilfered from the Phoenix Sheraton.  Deena cleverly cut the boxes along the dotted lines, we poured in milk and were good to go.  Thus stated, we headed for the ranger talk at the Geology Center.  Somehow we missed the talk, but we didn’t miss the view.  John could not get enough of the maps or the binoculars.  We picked up the Junior Ranger project for John and got to work.

Junior Ranger projects are about the best thing ever invented.  John went from being “too tired” and “my stomach hurts” to eagerly engaged in filling out worksheets.  “Use your senses to observe the canyon.  How does it smell?”  John’s answer, “Cold.”

It was cold, but we were well bundled and spent some time gazing out at the wonder.

We caught a shuttle back to Bright Angel Lodge, one of the historic buildings in the village.  We made it just in time to be among the last people admitted to breakfast.  Ed, our host, offered that John could check off “coyote” on his nature bingo page because they had kept “Uncle Ed” up all night. 

We were utterly charmed by Bright Angel Lodge (too bad they were booked to capacity the night before.)  While we had hueveros rancheros, fruit and yogurt, and pancakes, we saw old menus on the wall.  Mackerel for breakfast?  Pineapple or sauerkraut juice for accompaniment?  It’s just as well we are eating now and not in 1950.

After our hearty breakfast we headed down the Bright Angel Trail.  We planned to make it to the first rest house a mile and a half down into the canyon (1000ft of descent) provided John was a willing walker.  John proved a formidable hiker – I think he would have gotten to the Phantom Ranch 9 miles in if we would have let him.  Still, hiking down is easier than hiking up, so at the rest house we turned to ascend.  Ice, Europeans, and the occasional mule train attempted to thwart our ascent, but we were unstoppable.  In a little over two hours we were back at the top, our hike complete.

To celebrate, we stopped at the Bright Angel soda fountain where John had, what else in the Grand Canyon, “Grand Vanilla” ice cream!  We headed over to the Van Kemp’s Visitor Center porch for the ranger talk, the last project for John’s Junior Ranger merit badge.

John, of course, was a very enthusiastic participant in the “Most Dangerous Creatures in the Park” talk.  We learned about tarantulas, rattle snakes, scorpions, mountain lions, and then, the park’s most dangerous creature: 

The ground squirrel!

The ground squirrel is the most dangerous creature because they carry rabies and the plague and people insist on feeding them all the time, thus making them very eager and aggressive.  John told our hosts, Kris and Sanjay, that the squirrel was the most dangerous creature because “They have the plague and they will eat your Cheetos.”

John got earned his badge and off we went.  After a quick stop in Flagstaff for soup and coffee, we sped off to Gallup.

Kris and Sanjay and their daughters Daya (7) and Lyse (4), had prepared for us an Indian feast.  The table was set with handmade Christmas place cards (‘tis the season!).  John and the girls played famously while the grown ups enjoyed dinner and conversation.

The Hines-Shah’s know Kris and Sanjay from Berkeley where we all attended University Lutheran Chapel together during its Indian family heyday.  Kris and Sanjay moved back to Kris’s native Gallup (“As a kid I wondered why all the pollsters wanted to know our opinion about everything”) five years ago.  Now Kris is a hospital chaplain here and Sanjay runs a non-for-profit start up.  Sanjay has been very successful getting affordable green housing built right here in Gallup and has a number of future expansion plans.  I think there’s a story for Deena to pitch to NPR in this!

After dinner and putting the kids to bed, Deena and I tried out Kris and Sanjay’s wood heated redwood hot tub.  I have no idea how hot the water was, but we alternately soaked in the warm tub and sat on the icy ledge surrounding it.  It at 14 degrees here last night, but we were warmed through and through.

In a few minutes we’re off to church with the family (Sunday School for John!).  We’ll hang out in Gallup for a while, do laundry, and rest up.  Tonight we’ll eat dinner with my friend Letta in Albuquerque before heading for Sante Fe.