Once, during a visit to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with my dear friends, the Whitings, a lady walked by me complaining to a guy, “what’s the big deal, it’s nothing but a big hole”.
Indeed, it is a big long slice in the earth’s surface. But it’s not “nothing”, it’s an immense and awesome viewpoint into that earth, one of those places that surrounds and envelops you. It demands your full attention.
The Canyon, the Grand Canyon is a spectacle to see. The slice is carved into seven uplifted Plateaus by the Colorado River, which flows 5000 feet below them, 277 river miles, with a south and a north rim each running about 1400 miles. From the rims, one can see 40% of the earth’s 4.6 billion year chronology, its movement from the equator to 36° N, from sea level to 7,000 feet, from ocean to dune to volcanic magma, back and forth. Its vista is a spectacle. (That’s the nutshell. Look here Grand Canyon Immensity, in a few words for the rest of the story.)
I started my adventures at the canyon in 1958, on a gray station wagon family camping holiday, found the immensity and have gone back often since then. It rocked my photo world. Most people only get to the rims. I’ve been lucky to get to them, around them, and below them.
Here are some images of this awesome immensity taken over the last 30 years of wandering this land.
(PLease feel free to leave comments…I don’t record contact info, just name)
The Canyon is awe inspiring and overwhelming, rather like Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris, but so much more. The cathedral boasts of human accomplishment for God’s honor. The canyon reminds us of the life provided on this arid gift of a living space.
There are nearly 8.7 million species on earth today. Nearly 2,000 species now live over over the Canyon’s 5 life zones, from Sonoran to Hudsonian, desert to arctic. Paleontology has revealed a large variety of species over millions of years.
Human have been bit players in the earth’s drama. We’ve been on the earth about 0.004% of earth’s 4.6 billion year existence, indigenous peoples have been around the canyon about 0.003% of that time, and Europeans about 0.00005%. Humans are 2% of the earth’s biomass. Our biome, our gut, is composed of 43% of non-human material. Humans are bit players a web of chronology and in a web of life.
Our gift must remind us to stand for our calling, to humbly maintain our webs.
Thank you for joining me.
All words and images are ©Vic Smith Photography.