Just a Hole in the Ground: #AVMTour Recap Part Eight

Previously on the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Tour, the girls and I spent the morning at Bearizona, a drive-through wildlife park just south of the Grand Canyon.

After a fun (and unexpectedly educational) morning at Bearizona, the girls and I headed back into Williams, Arizona, for lunch. If we hadn’t gotten enough Route 66 goodness the night before in Seligman (the inspiration for Radiator Springs in the movie Cars), we had plenty more opportunity at Cruiser’s Cafe in Williams. The food was only so-so, but the restaurant was decked out with every bit of Route 66 kitsch you could imagine. The highlight was actually the restrooms, the walls of which were full floor-to-ceiling with replica metal advertising signs. I didn’t get the sense there was much in the way of authentic Route 66 memorabilia at Cruiser’s Cafe, but it had a fun vibe nonetheless.

With that, we said good-bye to Williams and headed north to the Grand Canyon. The girls weren’t crazy about getting back in the car, not after the nine hours we had spent driving the day before, but they were still excited from Bearizona and it was only an hour to the South Rim entrance. When we arrived at the visitor’s center parking lot, I accomplished my greatest feat of patience for the whole trip: Instead of heading straight to the nearest overlook to see a sight I had waited 36 years to see, I granted Lily’s request to visit the restroom first. Actually, that was my second greatest feat of patience. My greatest feat came three minutes later when I granted Hannah’s request to see the visitor center before heading out to that overlook.

“I know, girls, that it’s just a big hole in the ground. But it’s the biggest hole in the ground on the entire planet. Trust me, you will be amazed when you see it.”

They weren’t buying that, thus the detour to the restroom and visitor’s center. I knew, however, that seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time in my life would be more enjoyable if I didn’t have a couple of grumpy kids with me. So, bathroom, visitor center, then…

Yes, they were were amazed. And so was I.

It was hard to comprehend what I was seeing. The opposite rim of the canyon was on the horizon. The horizon was the other side of the canyon. For the first time in my life, I had more than just a rational understanding that the Earth was round. I was standing on an immense sphere, and there was a chunk missing from it, a chunk big enough to be viewed from space. I was thankful I had a wide-angle lens with me, but it wasn’t wide enough to capture what I was seeing. It was awesome and beautiful.

I quickly realized something else about the Grand Canyon: Most of the overlooks and trails have really puny guard rails. A determined or absent-minded or angry five-year-old could easily slip between the rails almost anywhere and fall to her doom over the side of the canyon. I kept Lily’s hand in a death-grip, which did not make for pleasant strolling, nor did it make it easy to take photos! I wasn’t worried about Hannah. She was old enough to see the danger and mind her footing. But keeping Lily safe turned what was otherwise a very enjoyable evening stroll into something less so.

It wasn’t a long walk to the Yavapai Geology Museum & Observation Station, but it was long enough to tire Lily out. Hannah, my little science geek, loved the small museum, especially its gift shop. She came to regret spending all her trip allowance at Bearizona that morning, but I told her I might give her a bonus for good behavior–tomorrow. Lily, however, stuck right by me the whole time, getting crankier and crankier by the minute. I tried to use the museum exhibits to help her understand how the layers of rock in the Grand Canyon tell the story of hundreds of millions of years of geology in the area, but she wasn’t interested. Then she pinched her finger on one of the exhibits, and that was it. Meltdown!

I didn’t think Lily had the stamina to walk back to our car, so we took the free shuttle. From the car, we picked up our picnic dinner and, more importantly, our water bottles. These we filled with some really incredible spring water from one of the visitor center filling stations. Once Lily was properly hydrated, everything was better. I’m sure our picnic dinner–at a picnic table several hundred yards away from the rim!–helped, but the hydration was key. She was a happy camper the rest of the night.

Speaking of the night, we happened to arrive for one of the star parties the Grand Canyon park rangers hold every summer. A couple of dozen amateur astronomers from the area had set up in one of the visitor’s center parking lots, and, once the sun went down, visitors were invited to see the Moon, planets, stars, and nebula up close and personal. There was a 45-minute presentation on light pollution in the visitor center auditorium meant to keep us entertained (and educated) while the sun set, but I wish we had skipped that. Light pollution is an interesting and important issue, but most of the presentation consisted of an eager young park ranger reading text from her PowerPoint slides, which I just can’t abide these days. Moreover, I gave up the chance to take Grand Canyon sunset photos so we could sit through this presentation!

Pro tip: Don’t let your five-year-old wear light-up sneakers to a star party. We had to make a quick trip back to the car to change Lily into her sandals right after the presentation.

The irony of the evening was that after a long (and mostly boring) presentation on how the light from our cities and suburbs keep us from seeing the splendor of the nighttime sky, the Moon was out for the entire star party, making sure that we couldn’t take advantage of the extremely low levels of human light pollution at the Grand Canyon. The girls had fun anyway, however, thanks to the kindly astronomers and their gigantic telescopes. The best part of the evening was the tour of constellations provided by one of the park rangers. Hannah loved learning about the constellations, spotting them in the sky, and finding out the myths behind them. Lily loved cuddling in my lap, and I loved spending the evening with my two favorite people, so we were all pretty happy!

By the time we checked into our hotel, one of the hotels right there in the national park, we were beat. The girls went right to sleep. I stayed up a bit, thinking about how much fun we had had that day, and feeling a little sad that we only had two more days left in our summer vacation.