A TREK TO GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK; JUNE, 2013

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"See the works of the LORD, and His wonders in the deep." Psalm 107:24 

Panorama of Bright Angel Canyon from the El Tovar Overlook in Grand Canyon National Park. Four-shot panorama; June 16, 2013. (DT80226242; 201306067)

My wife and I had been to Arizona many times for our Fellowship's annual Bible Conference, but had never visited the Grand Canyon. In 2013, the circumstances aligned themselves and we decided to make an expedition. We flew into Tucson early Saturday morning, drove up to the Canyon, and spent two days and nights at the Canyon before heading back to Tucson for Conference on Monday evening. It was a trip we will never forget, and a trip we will make again. Even though a photograph cannot do the Canyon justice, the following photos are my attempt.

STANDING IN AWE...

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"Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him." ​Psalm 33:8 

Tourists viewing Mather Point Grand Canyon National Park

"But the COLORS, the living rejoicing COLORS, chanting morning and evening in chorus to heaven! Whose brush or pencil, however lovingly inspired, can give us these?" John Muir

We arrived at the Grand Canyon just before sunset on Saturday, June 15. I had spent months studying the True North Series' Guide to the Grand Canyon, hours looking at the beautiful photos in Tom Vail's Grand Canyon, a different view, but I simply wasn't prepared for what I was about to see. As I walked up to the rim's edge at Mather Point, I was simply awestruck. No picture could do it justice: the immensity, the depth, the textures. That first look blew me away; and I remained in awe for the next two days! 

We spent that first evening near Mather Point, the main overlook near the visitor center, just soaking in the view. As the sun continued to decline, the west facing walls of the Canyon began to glow with glorious color.

Canyon walls glow orange in dusk, view from Mather Point Rim Trail Overlook Grand Canyon National Park

Blue sky and clouds over Tonto Platorm, seen from Mather Point observation area in Grand Canyon National Park visitors Center, Arizona, USA

View from Mather Point in the Grand Canyon Nation Park

CONTEMPLATION...

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"And the waters receded from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters had abated." ​Genesis 8:3 

Contemplating the depths of the Grand Canyon from Mather Point National Park

​In that first view of the Canyon, there was so much to contemplate. Not only was the view absolutely overwhelming, but now I was face-to-face with two opposing views and forced to choose. The varied colors of rock layers striping the wall of the north rim certainly looked to match the millions of years illustrated in the geologic column diagrams I had been taught in school. But if the earth isn’t millions of years old, as the Bible declares, where did these multiple layers come from? How could they have been lain so quickly?
 
God’s inspired account of the flood in Genesis describes an earth-altering flood overflowing the entire planet. This event, penned in the Greek Old (LXX) and New Testaments as a cataclusmos, or cataclysm, and laster rendered by some as a "deluge", was no gradual or mild rising of water. Two chapters describe massive underground fountains bursting forth in torrents of water and weeks of unceasing downpours from the sky. The Biblical texts also intimate a turbulent, back-and-forth motion of the waters during this year long event. Genesis 8:2 describes the waters as “going on and returning” continually (YLT) and Matthew’s gospel tells us that “all was swept away”. Huge tsunamis shoved mud-filled waters back and forth, laying down a layer, scraping and re-scraping, and depositing another. 

A good view of the Colorado river as seen from Pima Point, Grand Canyon National Park. I was surprised to find that glimpses of the river were rare being settled so deeply into the Canyon.

Seven verses in Genesis 8 speak of waters abating and decreasing and the face of the land drying. It is no wonder that we see layer upon layer in the Grand Canyon’s walls; evidence of a geologic catastrophe lasting nearly a year with mud laden waters surging back and forth and months of recession, depositing and drying.

​And that huge canyon cut through the middle of it all... As I stared miles down at the Colorado River, a thin ribbon barely visible from the Canyon’s rim, my only thought was, “And we’re supposed to believe that little river did all of this?” Even over a million years, how could that river dislodge the massive amounts of rock and sediment and to where did it move them? To me, what the Grand Canyon evidenced to my eyes was the forceful abating and draining of the deluge at God’s word when He deemed the judgement was complete. 

​“You covered the earth with watery depths as a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them.” Psalm 104:7-8

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and the evening and the morning were the second day...

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"In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also." Psalm 95:4 

Hikers descend the switchbacks of the South Kaibab and Cedar Ridge Trails in Grand Canyon National Park. Photographed from the Pipe Creek Vista Overlook.

Early the next morning we began the day on the shuttle eastward to Yaki Point. We did not have the time for a full descent into the Canyon, but hiked a short way down the South Kaibab Trail to “Ohh Ahh Point”. Although it was only a mile or so, we gained a great impression of what it was like to be below those vast walls looking up. We also experienced how exhausting it must be to hike up from the bottom of the gorge. Our one mile hike back up the switchbacks had us panting for air! 

After our ascent from the S. Kaibab Trail, we walked the greenway trail westward for two miles, stopping at Pipe Creek Vista and other overlooks along the way. Arriving back at the visitor center, we boarded the shuttle westward to the Grand Canyon Village. After a nice lunch at the El Tovar hotel, we spent a short time at the El Tovar overlook with a clear view of the Bright Angel Canyon. We also visited Kolb Studio before taking the shuttle west to Hermit's Rest. 

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A view of the walls of the Grand Canyon looking up from the South Kaibab Trail. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.

Grand Canyon National Park geologic rock layer formations viewed from the South Kaibab Trail. Arizona USA

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Panorama of Colorado River from Pima Point in Grand Canyon National Park

“It is impossible to conceive what the canyon is, or what impression it makes, from descriptions or pictures, however good. It is very hard to give anything like an adequate conception of its size; much more of its color, its vast wall- sculpture, the wealth of ornate architectural buildings that fill it, or, most of all, the tremendous impression it makes.” John Muir, Steep Trails

Shadows lengthen over Grand Canyon, view from Mather Point Rim Trail Overlook Grand Canyon National Park

Rock formations on South Kaibab Trail in Grand Canyon National Park

Mather Point observation area in Grand Canyon National Park.

Century Plant and rock layer walls of Grand Canyon National Park viewed from the South Kaibab Trail.

After taking the shuttle bus out to Hermit's Rest, we spent the remainder of the afternoon hiking 6 miles along the Rim Trail from Hermit's Rest eastward to Powell Point. At times, the trail wound so close to the edge of the Canyon that the fear of a  plunge could cause the heart to skip a beat. There is no doubt that the overlook called "The Abyss" was aptly named! 

"The Abyss" - Grand Canyon Walls in the Abyss, view from Rim Trail Overlook Grand Canyon National Park

"I cannot tell the hundredth part of the wonders of its features — the side canyons, gorges, alcoves, cloisters, and amphitheaters of vast sweep and depth, carved in its magnificent walls; the throng of great architectural rocks it contains resembling castles, cathedrals, temples, and palaces, towered and spired and painted, some of them nearly a mile high, yet beneath one's feet. All this, however, is less difficult than to give any idea of the impression of wild, primeval beauty and power one receives in merely gazing from its brink." John Muir

Old tree at Pipe Creek Vista Grand Canyon National Park with Woodpecker hole

The Abyss overlook Grand Canyon National Park Arizona

Psalm 148:7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

Lone Pine Shrub hanging on the Grand Canyon rim; Pipe Creek Vista Overlook

CANYON CREATURES

Rock Squirrel South Kaibab Trail Grand Canyon National Park

Western Scrub Jay in Grand Canyon National Park Between Pipe Creek and Mather Point

Rock Squirrel eating shrub buds in Grand Canyon National Park

SUNRISE, THE THIRD DAY

​On Monday morning, our third and final day, we awoke before 5 AM and headed for the rim. Even at that early hour, the Mather Point overlook was lined with photographers and tourists. All of were awaiting the cresting of the sun over the eastern edge of the Canyon. As the sky brightened, a bright shaft shot over the rim, and the shadows gradually gave way to the morning over the next 45 minutes. 

Mather Point Sunrise in Grand Canyon National Park

Deep shadows of sunrise in Grand Canyon National Park from Mather Point overlook.

Sunrise shadows from Mather Point in Grand Canyon National Park

"The dawn, as in all the pure, dry desert country is ineffably beautiful; and when the first level sunbeams sting the domes and spires, with what a burst of power the big, wild days begin! The dead and the living, rocks and hearts alike, awake and sing the new-old song of creation. All the massy headlands and salient angles of the walls, and the multitudinous temples and palaces, seem to catch the light at once, and cast thick black shadows athwart hollow and gorge, bringing out details as well as the main massive features of the architecture; while all the rocks, as if wild with life, throb and quiver and glow in the glorious sunburst, rejoicing. Every rock temple then becomes a temple of music; every spire and pinnacle an angel of light and song, shouting color hallelujahs. " John Muir

Memorial statue marking Powell Point. Erected by the congress of the United States to Major John Wesley Powell who descended the river with his party in row boats traversing the gorge beneath this point August 17, 1869.

"Powell and his brave men passed through the canyon on the adventurous voyage of discovery in 1869. They faced a thousand dangers, open or hidden, now in their boats gladly sliding down swift, smooth reaches, now rolled over and over in back- combing surges of rough, roaring cataracts, sucked under in eddies, swimming like beavers, tossed and beaten like castaway drift—stout- hearted, undaunted, doing their work through it all. After a month of this they floated smoothly out of the dark, gloomy, roaring abyss into light and safety two hundred miles below."