Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
(Part 5 of an ongoing series … Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
Ever since I was a kid I wanted to live to be 103 years old, because I’ve always wanted to see what will be going on in 2050. As a result, I had to figure out a way to divide up the years of my life. I finally came up with the following.
0-25 years … Childhood
25-50 years … Youth
50-75 years … Middle Youth
75-103 years … Late Youth
When I was a youth, I once had the good fortune to be the first mate on a sailboat that stopped in Hong Kong. I met a lovely young woman there named Lai Fan, and we had lots of good times. But of course, sooner or later the ship had to sail. And amidst our goodbyes, I told her what I truly believed, that I would be back in a year or so, no question.
And again when I was a youth, I once went to the Grand Canyon, and spent about a week there. We weren’t planning to spend a week, but our car broke down in a parking lot right by the rim of the canyon. If you ever want a great place to do some what we used to call “shade-tree” mechanic work, that was the location. We’d work on the car for a while, then stand and stare over the canyon rim, then work on the car some more. And when I left, I knew that I would be back again in the future, no question.
Now, in my middle youth, I find myself once again traveling the roads of America. We finally made it to the Grand Canyon, and while I’m a different man these days, curiously the Grand Canyon hasn’t changed much at all …
I took pictures, but there’s no way that a camera can encompass the whole. When you stand out at a point on the canyon rim, you are looking at a view that extends from horizon to horizon, and from the sky down a mile into the bowels of the earth.
See those tiny dots on top of the rock in the middle distance … those are people. Here’s the problem
Spread your arms out side to side, and see how much space they encompass … then hold up your cell phone at arm’s length, and consider how much of that immensity your camera can capture. So my pictures are only the faint echo of the reality.
We rented bikes, and rode along the Rim Trail. The rental bikes all have stickers on them saying “DO NOT RIDE ON THE RIM TRAIL”, but all the other bikers were riding rental bikes there, so I figured it was forbidden for that most American of reasons … to avoid legal liability when some idjit takes his rental bike for that final plunge. And it’s a loooong ways down, a mile (1.6 km) vertically from the rim down to the Colorado River at the bottom …
The scale is hard to grasp, but those are people standing on the nearby rock, and a tiny glimpse of the brown-colored Colorado River far below …
It is surreal to ride along the Rim Trail, because it winds in and out of the low brushy trees that grow along the rim. We’d be riding along with nothing but trees in view, then maybe looking off to the right side for a bit. And when I looked back to the left, suddenly there was a magical symphony in ochres and reds falling away forever into the depths … stunning.
There is wildlife along the rim, including some very tame and blasé elk who wander around the visitors center like they were just some tourists from a different planet enjoying the views. Here’s a bull elk with horns that scratch the sky …
And a cow elk grazing in the forest along the rim.
And of course you need the small guys to keep the big guys company …
The raven sits around the visitors’ center hurling abuse at all the tourists at the top of its lungs. And along the rim there’re lot’s of ground squirrels and chipmunks:
They warn you against touching the squirrels and small rodents because they often carry the Black Death, bubonic plague … yikes! And the Black Death is no joke. In my youth I saw a case of it not far from the Grand Canyon. A friend’s kids had found a dead mouse and played with it, and one of them took sick, bad sick. Luckily the mother had seen a case before, she tossed him in the pickup truck and shot off to the hospital at about two-thirds of the speed of light. The boy was fine, gotta love the wonders of modern medicine, but I’ve never been totally relaxed around small rodents ever since …
But soon, all too soon, our five hours of bike hire were up, and it was time to go.
So I did what I do these days when I leave such a spot. I faced each of the four directions in turn, and I spread my arms as wide as they would go, and I breathed in all of the sights and sounds and smells of that wonderful place. And in the sure and certain knowledge that I might never see it again, I inhaled it all as completely and fully as I know how …
Because to this day, I’ve never made it back to Hong Kong. And if I have learned anything in my middle youth, it is that death is always behind my left shoulder, watching, patiently biding his time. And while someday I may get back to either Hong Kong or to the Grand Canyon, I’d be a fool to live as if that were guaranteed.
So I do my best to remember that there are hidden trap doors everywhere that open up unexpectedly to swallow people whole, and that one day I’ll put my foot on the wrong spot and I’ll be gone … ah, dear friends, all I can say is, spread your arms wide and drink in this marvelous life and this wondrous planet while you can. The day is far too short, the night is long, and the darkness is an unknown distance ahead.
My best wishes to everyone, and my thanks to you all,
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Love you Willis. The grand canyon IS grand
Some folks I know in New Jersey once had a travel agent plan their first trip “out west” in the 1970s. They were to explore the SW by rental car. On the map the travel agent provided for the Grand Canyon portion, the red highlighting denoting their route went from the North Rim right across to the south side! The Jersey travel agent blithely assumed there was a bridge across it. I kid you not.
went to the canyon last year for the first time, and loved it! it is truly an amazing site!
spread your arms wide
So true. tomorrow is promised to no man.
Tomorrow is promised to no man and death lurking over your shoulder is so true. While Willis was in The Canyon, we were at Zion. On Monday the 14th, my birthday no less, we were hiking in the Narrows around 2:30 pm, when I didn’t like the feel of the weather. I convinced our party to leave early.
No sooner than we reached the Visitors Center, the storm hit with all it’s fury. 7 people in Keyhole Canyon weren’t so lucky and lost their lives. 13 people in nearby Hilldale and 2 people near Hurricane also lost their lives. 22 lives gone too soon. Enjoy each day as if it were your last.
Many years ago (1963) I rode a train from PA to Chicago. Caught
the San Francisco Chief of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and took a side trip by bus from Flagstaff up to the Canyon. I don’t remember any bikes. I was walking along, taking photos, and talking to folks. I asked a man to take a photo of me on the edge. He said I should see the view from another place and offered to drive me there. We hopped in his car and started off. His young daughter had to run after the car and one of us saw her in the mirror. Wow. The scale of the Grand Canyon messes with you mind.
About 3 weeks later I was in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Hitched and walked in, around, and out of that. Fascinating place. Don’t remember losing touch with reality in Lassen.
Bikes are a relatively new addition to the Canyon as is the asphalt trail that parallels West Rim Drive. The other big change spanning a couple of decades is that a majority of the visitors are now from other countries. If you want to camp there do not expect to make reservations a month before you go during the summer. If you want to stay at the historic hotels you may have to book the year before you go. I expect it’s the same story at Yellowstone.
A number of the most popular parks are so popular that planning and reserving places to stay is necessary for a smooth trip.
However, because so many people reserve and forget, there is an excellent chance that while visiting a park one can add oneself to a ‘wait’ list; i.e. a list of people willing to take advantage of cancelled or missed reservations.
Be prepared to take advantage of whatever accommodation arises. While visiting Yellowstone we took so much time enjoying the Park that our schedule to camp far to the south was unlikely. Visiting the office, we requested wait spaces on both camping and indoor accommodations. The wait list for campers was incredibly long while the other accommodation list was not. We happily stayed in a cabin near Yellowstone Lake and enjoyed a terrific sunrise.
On a visit to Sequoia and King’s Canyon parks, I planned a camping trip (tent) starting over a year in advance. Even at that early date, preferred camp site locations were booked.
I reserved a lesser site and then began a weekly visit to the reservation map checking for cancellations. Twice I was able to upgrade our location.
During that same cross country camping trip, I reserved a tent camping site on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but was unable to reserve a site near the Canyon rim. Checking camp site reservations regularly I had the opportunity to switch tent site locations in the same campground, but I was unable to catch a cancellation in campgrounds nearer the canyon’s rim.
The US has become the World’s theme park.
The U.S. becoming the World’s theme park would seem appropriate. While in Zion this past week, I think tourists from Europe outnumbered those from the U.S. I was surprised that most I spent time with spoke very good English.
I brought local craft beer with me and shared it with a couple from Munich Germany and a gentleman that flew his motorcycle here from Zurich Switzerland. I hung out with two young ladies from Denmark who were visiting the National Parks in the West, their only previous trip being to New York City. We also had lunch at The Lodge one day with two couples from Belgium.
Thanks Willis, you bring back great memories. The view from the top of the canyon is as you describe. Imagining the forces that formed that immensity, mind-blowing. My favorite was taking a nine day raft trip through the canyon, truly a journey back in time, through the incised up-heaved rock. I know you love being on the water, it was one of the best things I’ve done in my life.
I’m holding out for 140 myself. No particular reason, but I do want to see the global warming hoax comprehensively exposed. I’m younger than you, but not by a whole lot.
Then you will be disappointed, the warmists will declare victory when the 2 degree target has been achieved, and then the public will gratefully finance fighting the next scare.
So let us do as Willis and enjoy what is enjoyable, like the Grand Canyon, and hold out, the next scare will, in a positive or negative way, be entertaining to.
Excellent! Thank you.
Well, Willis, the communication devil still is at work, telephone doesn´t connect, Wifi only sporadically, seems that we were both following the rim today – we were walking, you were biking…
Now we are at Lake Powell, quite crowded here in the camping…
Anyway enjoy your trip, as long as you can. My wife and I both have had our warnings already that life can be short, so we enjoy from every minute that we still have on this earth…
Thanks, Ferdinand. I’m sorry we weren’t able to make contact, but if you come to Northern California, we’re about an hour north of San Francisco, so give us a shout.
Best to you and yours,
w.
I actually had a good connection at the campground with Verizon two years ago. Then I realized where I was and put the iPad away. It suddenly seemed like a desecration of a spiritual place.
Lived there in 1953-54 and never have gotten over the experience. From there to Sedona for the next three years, hard to describe the effect this has on one’s life.
Willis,
Your writing prose is good but your ego is always getting in the way. That Anthony would accept your travel meandering writings as valuable to the climate discussion is beyond me.
I am done with you and WUWT.
Mods-I dare you to post this.
Brad,
Why so serious? If you can’t stop and enjoy life, why bother?
Perhaps this little verse might help……
http://www.englishverse.com/poems/leisure
Brad,
While Willis didn’t mention it here, I have always thought that the Grand Canyon is one of the better visuals of Climate Change You Can Believe In.
Just looking at all the color bands tells any person with a modicum of sense that climate has changed dramatically many times. And often. relatively fast.
And it gives a humbling, anti-anthropocentric perspective when one considers that all of human existence comprises only a few feet at the top of this rather large color-metric scale of climate.
I would venture that this might be why geologist not on the Gubment dole are not so rabid about Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Change.
Brad,
What will we ever do without your expressions of enlightened reason?
Please don’t go.
/s
About Watts Up With That? News and commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news by Anthony Watts
This pretty much covers it, eh Brad?
Brad:
I believe you’ve made that same threat previously, under other persona.
So one persona vanishes, another persona arises to make claim to other falsehoods.
Why else would any reader pretend to read an article then post nonsensical emotes about how disgusted that reader is? Pretend to read, pretend to be offended, pretend to post. Waste of space, waste of time, waste of effort, total waste of intelligence.
Read or don’t read!
Surely that is an easy enough choice for any sentient?
Brad, he writes about his experiences with earth and nature, which we all care about; not cars or electronics or politics or sports. I look forward to Willis’ insightful stories and travelogues. I have been fortunate enough to have seen many of the world’s wondrous and unique sights, and for me, the Grand Canyon is at the top of the list. As Willis did, I have gone back to the GC three times, including a 6-day rafting trip, the best outdoor eperience ever.
Willis, take heart, you will go back!
Brad September 16, 2015 at 9:57 pm
I find it hilarious when some random anonymous internet popup, whose existence I’ve never noticed, proudly announces that they are leaving in high dudgeon … as if anyone cares. Anonymous folks come and go here all the time, Brad, but only those with egos large enough to have their own postal codes announce their leaving with thunder and trumpets as if it were important to anyone but them.
Heck, you think your opinion is so gosh-darned powerful that the mods might censor it … in your dreams.
However, in this case you’ve done Ouroborous proud, by claiming your egotistical departure announcement is because of my ego … recursive much?
Anyhow, have a good life, just follow the “EXIT” signs, I trust you can find your way out …
w.
To which I had to retreat to Google and learn more about “dudgeon” and “Ouroborous” which made me a little more knowledgeable and enhanced my day. That’s how WUWT works, Brad.
Willis, I know I feel miffed when subjected to that sort of irrational insult. I even feel affronted on YOUR behalf, and was inclined to respond with the sort of post the mods WOULD have to censor. I admire your cool.
You enjoy your work, Anthony enjoys your work, I enjoy your work, so that’s enough for you to keep going. Hell, just the first phrase of that sentence is reason enough to keep going.
To some extent, we tend to judge ourselves on the basis of feedback we receive from others. You might find yourself wondering “Am I blindly egotistical as accused?I did mention myself and my travels. I wouldn’t know it if I were.” Resist the temptation to do that in this case.
There’s a fair amount of similarity between Public Speeches and short written articles like yours. I have decades of training and experience in assessing public speaking objectively. I assure you your work is perfectly acceptable, and the accusation is unfounded.
I hadn’t noticed Brad in the comments previously. But I hope we can rely on him to keep his commitment.
Please keep up the good work.
“I am done with you and WUWT.”
What a relief!
He’s a troll…he’ll be back.
Hell’s Canyon in Idaho is 2,000 ft. deeper than the Grand Canyon, but Hell’s Canyon is not nearly as long as the Grand Canyon, and not nearly as picturesque.
Hell’s Canyon is indeed deeper and much narrower, more of a classic gorge. And with all due respect to the Colorado River, the Snake River through Hell’s Canyon offers the better whitewater thrills, and clearer, cooler water most of the time. Plus, another world class river, the Salmon (“The River Of No Return”), branches off just below Hell’s Canyon proper. Take your pick, or do both!
Great story and photos, Will. Thanks.
Thanks Willis for your journal, but as usual ANY pictures of sights like the Grand Canyon that you showed, give me the willies, (I am petrified of heights and no pun intended)
My mother now in her mid to late eighties used to say when she and my dad were in their seventies that they were in late middle age, My dad now 93 only gave up his last allotment 3 years ago, he still has the garden at their home 180 x 50 ft which he looks after. My mum has decided this is her last year driving which means many and various people will now have to find other means of getting to doc’s, hospital and shops.
There are only a few places I can think of which can be called breath taking and your photos do give that impression thank you.
James Bull
Just a note that if humanity wipes itself out in a nuclear catastrophe, all that will remain within a few million years is a thin layer of radioactive dust, probably about an inch wide (with the occasional bit of plastic garbage in it), observable on the walls of such a canyon by any passing aliens in years to come.
Sounds great Willis.
Somewhat similar to the way our ladies divide up enquiries regarding their age:
30: “30”
31 – 38: “Early 30’s'”
39: “Mid 30’s”
40: “40”
Stunning place, the Canyon. Lucky enough to do the helicopter tour a few yeaqrs ago. You approach the rim with “down” being about 200ft. Then, almost instantly, it’s 5000.
Whilst you are there, consider the ground around the top of the Canyon. The ground is directly heated by the sun, CO2 concentration and water vapour concentration essentially the same as the bottom of the Canyon. At the very bottom of the Canyon the valley is much narrower. Sheer walls shade the ground and river from direct sunlight for large parts of the morning and evening. The temperature at the top of the Canyon is about 10C cooler than the bottom of the Canyon. The only difference between the top of the Canyon with bottom, apart from the bottom receiving less sunlight, is the air is “thicker” at the bottom. It has more molecules of air per equal volume than the top. It has a higher atmospheric pressure.
Now try and explain this in terms of a Greenhouse Effect. You will find that the scientists who choose a pressure based explanation have a much easier job!
It’s just dry adiabatic compression. Take a handful of air at the south rim, carefully carry it to the bottom, and it will warm up approximately 1 F° per 200 feet (1 C° per 100m). The Greenhouse Effect has nothing to do with it, that shows up in other effects.
Our rule of thumb in New England is to take the temperature atop Mt Washington (6600′), and add 30 F° to that. The result is often close to the high temperature for the day in the populated areas. The mountaintop temperature is little impacted by ground heating, so isn’t impacted by the temperature inversion that develops in the valleys on many nights.
Wow, the slopes in the far distance are so green. When I visited the Grand canyon about 10 years ago, the slopes were generally red and ochre. The aerial views were amazing, so much more than the vistas on ground level.
I love the Grand Canyon, the first time we went my travelling companion was so awestruck all she could say was ‘Look at that !”
I preferred the North Rim which is much less crowded and commercialized.
The soft rocks and no rainfall in the area makes the canyon so breathtaking.
70 million Years has it taken to sink Colerado river in its way to the Pacific.
Water always find a way!
Have a nice trip.
I made it to the Grand Canyon in late 1972. I knew I would never be able to come back so I stored away the memories, including those of a Canyon full of clouds. Luckily the following morning I was up early and watched the sun fill the void, what a sight.
“The moving finger writes…”
Willis,
You old goat! You were born the same year as I was! Start taking a nap after lunch. It does wonders for me.
Jim G1