Really, Truly, So Incredibly Grand!

We’d probably gazed at it a dozen times from 33,000 feet above, each time with a firm declaration that “next year we have to go visit”. Decades later we still had not been to the Grand Canyon.

If there was a lesson to be learned from the COVID years, (well, there were many but let’s just stick with this one) it was the carpe diem imperative. Better get going and get seeing before age, infirmity or a little bit of friendly government totalitarianism shuts everything down.

And so, we departed Prescott for Grand Canyon Village. The scenery was winter bleached, and it was hard to believe anything really worth looking at was up ahead.

Unbeknownst to us, there had been a massive snow storm a few days prior. We had just missed having our trip curtailed or canceled due to closed roads:

When I’d begun contemplating the trip almost a year before, I became intrigued when I looked at the web site for the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon and saw that a particular suite was available exactly and only one night in March of 2023. Well, I thought, since we won’t be riding mules or river rafting, 24 hours should be a long enough stay to look at a giant hole in the ground, right?

So I booked the El Tovar suite, wondering what it was that made it so desirable.

Not its decor, as it turns out. I guess I would call it “early rustic” or “barely 20th century austere”. The hotel opened in 1905 and it, um, definitely looks like it. “Don’t change a thing!” said someone in charge, apparently.

However, there is definitely something about Room 6492 that should never be changed:

Yes, it was cold, bleak and windy, but just out the door of our room was that enormous patio (imagine the party you could have there on a summer’s eve!) and a private view of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Amazing! If you want to book it, you’ll have to work at least a year or eighteen months ahead.

Since the walkway below was largely iced over, we weren’t able to explore as much as we would have liked, but had no complaints about the view!

You can look at all the photos and paintings you want, but there is no substitute for actually beholding the Grand Canyon in its silent expanse. Given the recent blizzard, we were lucky to pretty much have it all to ourselves. Just us and a little snowman enjoying the view…

We had dinner in the El Tovar’s lovely dining room with a view, of course, and awoke next morning to a Grand Canyon sunrise view from our patio.

We enjoyed a cozy breakfast by the fireplace:

And said a reluctant farewell to our view, sharing it with one of the omnipresent ravens that swoop in and out of the Canyon.

Was it worth it? 1,000 per cent! I still flash back on it every single day, not just the picture perfect view but the other-worldly silence and the gift of that infinitesimal comprehension of the eternal. This amazing drop in the bucket list certainly created an awareness of what a tiny drop in the bucket of God’s creation we all really are!

Next week: since we were in the neighborhood…