The watershed of the canon slopes away from the rim and instead of the
storm water running directly into the river it flows in the opposite
direction. Only after a long detour of many miles does it finally
reach the river by the Little Colorado or Cataract Creek.
Now that the Grand Canon is made accessible by rail over a branch road
of the Santa Fe from Williams on the main line, it is reached in
comparative ease and comfort. But to stop at the Bright Angel Hotel
and look over the guard rail on the cliff down into the canon gives
merely a glimpse of what there is to see. A brief stay of one day is
better than not stopping at all, but to get even an inkling of its
greatness and grandeur days and weeks must be spent in making trips up
and down and into the canon.
After having seen the canon at Bright Angel the next move should be to
go to Grand View fourteen miles up the canon. An all day's stage ride
from Flagstaff to the canon was tiresome, but the two hours' drive
through the pine woods from Bright Angel to Grand View is only pleasant
recreation.
Seeing the Grand Canon for the first time does not necessarily produce
the startling and lachrymose effects that have been described by some
emotional writers, but the first sight never disappoints and always
leaves a deep and lasting impression.
As immense as is the great chasm it is formed in such harmonious
proportions that it does not shock the senses. But as everything about
the canon is built on such a grand scale and the eyes not being
accustomed to such sights it is impossible to comprehend it--to measure
its dimensions correctly or note every detail of form and color at the
first glance. As the guide remarked, "God made it so d-- big that you
can't lie about it."
To comprehend it at all requires time to re-educate the senses and make
them accustomed to the new order of things. But even a cursory view
will always remain in the memory as the event of a lifetime in the
experience of the average mortal.
Distance in the canon cannot be measured by the usual standards. There
are sheer walls of rocks that are thousands of feet high and as many
more feet deep, but where the bottom seems to be is only the beginning
of other chasms which lie in the dark shadows and descend into yet
deeper depths below. The canon is not a single empty chasm, which is
the universal conception of a canon, but consists of a complex system
of sub and side canons that is bewildering. Out of its depths rise an
infinite number and variety of castellated cliffs and sculptured buttes
that represent every conceivable variety of architecture. They have
the appearance of a resurrected city of great size and beauty which
might have been built by an army of Titans then buried and forgotten.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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