Hiking into the Grand Canyon is an unparalleled experience in an upside down world of mountains that go down rather than up. It is the reverse of climbing a mountain. As you descend into the Canyon, your vision narrows and the grand vistas of the rim become views of cliffs and flat topped mesas. Instead of feeling cool breezes and catching glimpses of expansive vistas, the walls close in and the air becomes increasingly warmer. The trails are rough and steep. There are no leisurely walks into the Grand Canyon. The minute you step off the rim, you are committed to climbing back out. Any energy you have to climb will have to be used on the return trip.
Some trails are narrow catwalks along cliffs with thousands of feet of exposure. Others are endless trails across huge flat valleys where you lose all sense of being in a canyon, you are instead walking across a plain with mountains in the distance, only these mountains are really the canyon walls. On the rim, you see people dancing on the rocks, taking pictures as they hang out over the cliffs because on the rim there is no sense of scale, nothing to tell you how far it is to the next level down into the canyon.
Viewed from above, the people on the canyon trails seem to be walking in slow motion as they seem to crawl endlessly across tiny trails. Walking inside of the Canyon gives you the same feeling, the distances are so great, your progress across the huge flat expanses appears to last forever. There are no short cuts. Trails in the Canyon are there either because they have been there from ancient times or because they were constructed with picks and shovels and dynamite. Leaving the trails to attempt to travel cross country usually ends in tragedy and sometimes death. The Canyon is never forgiving of carelessness nor foolishness.
The vision of the Colorado River, away in the distance, does nothing to lessen the desert dry nature of the Canyon. There is little water and springs and streams are far between and mostly inaccessible.
There are only a few places left in Arizona, or anywhere else for that matter, that are so wild, so inaccessible and so remote, that they can truly be said to be wilderness. The inner depths of the Grand Canyon is still one of those rare places.
Some trails are narrow catwalks along cliffs with thousands of feet of exposure. Others are endless trails across huge flat valleys where you lose all sense of being in a canyon, you are instead walking across a plain with mountains in the distance, only these mountains are really the canyon walls. On the rim, you see people dancing on the rocks, taking pictures as they hang out over the cliffs because on the rim there is no sense of scale, nothing to tell you how far it is to the next level down into the canyon.
Viewed from above, the people on the canyon trails seem to be walking in slow motion as they seem to crawl endlessly across tiny trails. Walking inside of the Canyon gives you the same feeling, the distances are so great, your progress across the huge flat expanses appears to last forever. There are no short cuts. Trails in the Canyon are there either because they have been there from ancient times or because they were constructed with picks and shovels and dynamite. Leaving the trails to attempt to travel cross country usually ends in tragedy and sometimes death. The Canyon is never forgiving of carelessness nor foolishness.
The vision of the Colorado River, away in the distance, does nothing to lessen the desert dry nature of the Canyon. There is little water and springs and streams are far between and mostly inaccessible.
There are only a few places left in Arizona, or anywhere else for that matter, that are so wild, so inaccessible and so remote, that they can truly be said to be wilderness. The inner depths of the Grand Canyon is still one of those rare places.
This was a beautiful informative post! Judy W.
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