A Canyon of Great Grandeur

It took three hours of driving along bumpy roads, three bathroom stops for the three-year-old in the backseat, some very expensive gasoline, and almost two hours of hiking in 96-degree heat, but when we came over the top of a little rise and could finally see the big hole in the ground we'd come to see, we were lucky-all of us- to be able to keep breathing.

Trevor (who's not genetically related to the Hansen family; it's a very loving pseudo-adoption thing) convinced us to stay another night in Kingman because he recently found out about a place along the southern rim of the Grand Canyon where you can walk out onto a narrow jutting of rock and see the canyon for about 350 degrees of your view. This is not your average tourist trap. This is a four-wheel-drive, hiking boots and three gallons of water trip. (Three-year-olds optional.) And despite the fact that it took about three hours longer than we expected for the round trip, and though we didn't think to bring any food with us, it might have been the most worthwhile day of our trip yet.

I took pictures until my camera batteries ran out, but I haven't gotten them on the computer yet. Not that it matters. Pictures simply can't do the place justice. Standing on the edge of a sheer cliff (or, if you're Anna, sitting with your legs swinging over the edge) with a two thousand foot drop on either side and in front of you is a terrifying and awesome experience. Not awesome in the did-you-see-that-snowboard-trick kind of way, but in a literal sense. Sometimes it's the absence of things which inspires that kind of wonder.

We stood at the edge of this completely isolated thing listening to the absolute nothing around us, and it was very serene, almost meditative. Really makes you feel small, as cheesy as that might sound. There's just no other way to put it. It also really impresses on you just what kind of a scale God works on, seeing as this massive, farther-than-the-eye-can-see geological feature is little more than a pinprick on the globe.

I'm going to get an MFA in creative writing and yet I have no way of coming up with a description that justifies the magnitude and beauty of the place. So I'm going to bed.