
It has been my experience that when I look upon a scene of such grandeur, my mind is not fully capable of taking in the true scale of the canyon. The vastness of the scene has been shrunk to a single image in the back of my eye, and my ego makes me much larger in relation to the canyon in front of me. One way to gain a truer sense of scale is to hike the canyon. Nothing drives home the depth of the gorge more than trying to walk back out. It looks a LOT bigger when you stand at the bottom and look up!
On the other hand, one can stand on the rim with a camera, and see what happens to people scaled to the immensity of the canyon. I stood this morning at Mather Point and snapped a shot of people enjoying the view (above).



I want to pay a compliment to the National Park Service. I was most pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Mather Point this morning. For years, Mather Point was the spot where the majority of visitors saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. There was a crowded parking lot, always noisy, always kind of trashy. It got worse when the NPS completed the new visitor center a few years ago, because Mather was the closest parking lot and consequently the competition for parking spots increased. It was an untenable situation.
When got there today, we discovered a new parking lot and a realigned highway that diverted traffic away from the rim (completed in November). One could park at the visitor center, and take a two minute stroll to see the canyon for the first time. No trash, no noise, just a beautiful rim walk with the silent immensity of the canyon, and the occasional croak of a raven. The people I saw looked reverent instead of hassled. It was a moment of rediscovery, and I want to thank the park service for a job well done.
5 comments:
Excellent use of photos to demonstrate the epic scale of geology.
I am especially jealous of you x30 zoom lens. I might have to get me one of those...
Thanks for showing me home. I expected to see more snow. Also glad to hear you liked the new improvements at Mather. It was a mess this summer.
Very interesting! It is really weird to think about time in that light..
waw.. awesome images, wait next image post , anyway thanks for share
This is very neat - just saw it today. A great post about deep time and scale!
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