A person might think that the Grand Canyon during the first days of November might be somewhat deserted. November, after all, is hardly a prime-touring month, until, perhaps, the final week, and even then most people who travel are heading to Granny’s not to a resort. But think again. All of the many hotels at the South Rim are full this weekend (the North Rim is closed) and for the rest of the month, with the exception of a few weekday nights. So we altered our rough plans to look around eastern Arizona and headed to the big ditch to secure one of the last remaining rooms for Tuesday through Friday. Since all of the visitor services are clustered together in Grand Canyon Village, there are many, many people here. Staying just on the rim, one is hard pressed to secure a quiet spot to meditate on the grandeur that meets one’s gaze. The answer is to head down one of the trails that go into the canyon. But this is reverse mountain climbing. The first part of such a hike is relatively easy – down, down, down. Next comes a nice lunch—if you brought one – and then, looking back up the trail, you see how you will spend the afternoon. It is a haggard bunch that emerges from the Canyon trails. They, and we, really earned the traditional ice cream.

Julia’s Earth Science studies of the movement of plates, the classification of rocks, and the rock cycle, nicely meshed with the various geological exhibits that we visited. The Canyon is about as fine a geology laboratory as exists anywhere and the Park Service has taken full advantage of the didactic opportunities. Se we tried to do so as well.