Yesterday we went to the Grand Canyon.

A very simple, understated name for something that is most certainly both grand and also a canyon. I’ve never seen a photo or video that does it justice, so I apologize in advance for even including photos here.

I haven’t spent much time in the American West. I’ve been to Park City a few times for work, and I’ve been to Vegas a few times, but I haven’t spent time surrounded by gulches and washes, junctions, tanks, mesas, cacti, passes, steer, and elk. It has me wanting to use words like “yonder,” since there is so much yonder to be had.

If I had one tiny criticism, it is very dry, and also very high. And really, that’s just personal preference, not an objective negative. It seems to work great for the yonder.

We woke up at 6:45am in Vegas yesterday (because I forgot to turn off my alarm), got a hearty breakfast then hit the road. It’s about a 4.5 hour drive to the Grand Canyon from Vegas, and it went by surprisingly fast. The landscape is so unlike everywhere else (except, of course, for massive amounts of this country, in which case it is entirely similar), but I was unused to it.  I still am unused to it!

Our plan was to go to the GC, stay at the park through sunset, and then drive an hour back towards Vegas to Williams AZ to our cabin for the night. And that’s basically exactly what we did.

It was something like 39 when we arrived and it was 29 when we got up this morning – and believe me when I tell you it was fucking freezing. 39 and sunny at the GC was lovely! Fingers got cold, but body was warm. 29 in the predawn is unconscionable, and I certainly hope everyone was ashamed of themselves for it. But the GC south rim is also at nearly 7,000 feet in elevation, and Williams was around 6,000 feet, and there simply wasn’t enough air to hold any warmth.

Nearly everyone at the canyon was incredibly nice. Do you know how when you get out of an ice bath, you feel so good? My neighbor described it as “being furious that you love everyone so much,” and he is right. And that’s sort of the feeling at the Grand Canyon. So we took photos for so many families, and it was nice to do! And I forgot my anxiety medication so I was freaking out a little over all the children, because the American West as a whole does not seem to care if you decide to hurt yourself off of a cliff into a canyon – have at it, dummy. And children are pretty bad at thinking things through! But we didn’t witness any deaths, and Bob reminded me to “keep the feather in the air,” a panic-reducing practice.

When we were walking to the car in the dark, a family in a sedan stopped us and asked how the hell to get out of the park (kindly), and Bob described what to do. The lady of the car said, “I really hoped your team had won,” since Bob had his Bills beanie on, and we all parted the best of friends. Hopefully they found route 64.

Today we are visiting the Hoover Dam. I’ve been to Hoover Tower with Henry, and I do hope the dam is packed full of Hoover’s papers like the tower is. I rather think it’s got water, though. We shall find out, I suppose.