[CDS] Day 8 – The Grand Canyon
Some things are easy to photograph.
We chose to rope drop the park. Out of bed at 3:10am, arrived a quarter to 5am. Saw the sunrise over the canyon. This is a thing I highly recommend.
Current desk situation: none!
Everyone was quiet and slightly reverent1. I’ve never witnessed so many people staring eastwards, waiting for the sun to rise, so quietly, statuesque. It made me wonder if it was the sunrise, the canyon, or the whole thing that made for such a powerful, and I think collective, moment.
Had breakfast at a hotel nearby within the park. It really hit the spot, environmentally and in my belly.
In a way, the Grand Canyon is an overwhelming, saturating experience. Everywhere you go, a slightly different, astonishing view. So much wonder to take in. Visiting the Ferrari museum in Italy was similar. Everywhere you turn, yet another remarkable car. When you’re seeing a once-every-few-months sort of thing every few minutes, things get weird.
Despite the prevalence of aesthetically on-brand and some delightfully off-brand advisory posters, we did manage to see folks feeding the wildlife (birds, in particular). On the upside, it was one of those “is the person feeding the animal, or is the animal training the person to feed it?” sort of moments.
Cities are great. But you can’t beat big swaths of nature like the Grand Canyon. Humanity has built some great stuff. They compare favorably with nature, but never exceed it.
Besides one chatty family 🤷🏻♂️