A Big Hole In The Ground (2nd Post)

A number of years ago I was walking back to my truck after visiting the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim. A couple was approaching me when I heard the lady squall out “I don’t get it, it’s just a big hole in the ground”.

I disagree. When I go to the Grand Canyon, I go to the rim. I plant my boots solidly on the pieces of the Kaibab Formation or on a nearby porch. I look upriver and downriver. I see the scale and the complexity of this dramatic view. Then I step back, close my eyes and let its mysterious immensity flow over me, leaving an ironic sense of time without end in a land that is always being created.

The Grand Canyon isn’t the deepest or the longest canyon. But it is immense. Just how immense is this big hole? See below.

Over the last 25 years I’ve schlepped cameras, big and small, along the 7,000 and 8,000 foot rims many times and taken them down the 5,000 feet to the Rio Colorado several times. Each passage has been a challenge. Each has also been a reward.

This is the first group of images, ones I took in the early 2000’s capturing the scenes on 4 inch x 5 inch film.

Please comment as you might, in the space below.

These are from the north side of the Big Hole, also on 4 inch x 5 inch film. Double-click to see larger image.