The Grand Canyon humbles everyone...
I wet my face and arms ,cooling them ,in the Colorado River of the Grand Canyon in Arizona at Lee's Ferry last week. I cannot truly express my wonder and awe at experiencing a colossus of God's creation where I can look at rocks formed over 1.8 billion years ago, mingling with people and wildlife today as if it were always there. Well, I guess it kind of has always been there! The canyon is an average of twelve miles across and one mile deep. The river is an average 300 feet across and 35 feet deep going up to 60 some feet deep at times. The river looks green and clear from way up high and appears to be a mere ribbon wide from a mile high at the rims. The rocks are vivid reds and browns and yellows and near whites and are sandstones, granites, schists/gneis, limestones, sandstone/limestone combinations and mudstones,shales and basalt(volcanic intrusions). They are layered just as they were formed so you can see geologic history from time immemorial to the present in one viewing. It is what makes it one of the seven wonders of the world.
We travelled four hours north from Phoenix with a group of Elderhostelers and a geologist who explained it all to us. Yet when I walked up to the edge of the south rim for my first glimpse of the canyon, I truly discovered the canyon for myself. I am not normally afraid of heights but this is not heights. It is a mile high and straight down as you stand gaping at the immensity of the gorge across and down. It is possible that one feels as if a small breeze could sweep you off into the abyss of time!
I wish everyone would witness this treasure of the planet in their lifetime. You can gawk at it from afar or hike down into it below the rim and experience with every footstep, its wonders. You can ride mules down trails into and across it and stay the night in the bottom by the river. You can fly over it in fixed wing planes or helicopters(both are swallowed up in its immensity) which appear to be gnats in the sky while in or above it. You can camp along the sandy beaches of the mighty Colorado on a river run of up to twelve days. I for one, am interested in both the mule ride and the river run some day. Who knows...maybe next year.....hmmmm! By the way this area is large there are different species of animals and plant life you will see as you go into, up, down or around it, or through.