Mississippi River Trip: South Rim Sunset

We moved from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to the South Rim this morning – slowly.  The drive is beautiful, taking you down out of the mountains and past the Vermillion Cliffs, then across the plain and desert to the South Rim entrance.  We weren’t hurrying mainly because there was a lot to see, so we stopped to snap pictures and generally took our time.  We entered the park and took the scenic road to the visitor’s center, filled water, and went to find our campsite.  We lucked out – the Kaibab National Forest surround Grand Canyon and Tusayan, AZ, meaning that we were able to get a free backcountry site about 8 miles from the park entrance.  Our site was a little off the road and padded with a  carpet of pine needles.  After we set up we went back to the park to catch the sunset at Hopi Point.

We wound up walking about a mile beyond Hopi Point to another overlook that we thought would give us a better view and would be less crowded.  No such luck – the sunset is a big deal at the Grand Canyon.  We separated to find good picture taking points, and I decided to walk even further along the trail.  Suddenly I wanted to watch the sunset rather than shoot it, I wanted to listen to nature go to sleep.  I finally came across a deserted little rock outcropping with no one around.  I settled down with my water bottle and camera and watched the sun crawl slowly down to the horizon.

“Holy crap Jimmy, looka that!”

“Yeah.  Pretty.  You want some goldfish?”

“No.  He doesn’t want anything like that George.”

Someone had found my deserted little spot.  Actually, about a dozen of them, all dressed in “Walker Family Reunion” t-shirts.  I looked at the sun, but it was very close to the horizon now, and the sky was starting to go red.  Too late to move. 

“Jimmy, you ever think about your wife and kids falling over the edge?  I do.  I don’t know if I could live with that.”

I rolled my eyes and tossed a scowl over my shoulder, but Jimmy, or George, or whoever saw me do it just didn’t care.

“How about Cheese Nips, mom, he eat those?”

“No.  But he does like pretzels.”

The sun dipped lower, touching the horizon, shading the sky in violent red and orange.  A patch of clouds covered the sun for a moment, then let it peek back out, and now the sky was pale pink and gold, the blue giving way to purple.

“Hey mom, how much longer?”

“It’ll take as long as it takes.  Sit down.”

The sun began to disappear, and I listened to the sounds of nature behind me as it began to wink out, painting the sky one last time with purple and silver.  I smiled to watch it.