THE GRAND CANYON

Utah

Although my two sons are two years apart, they managed to graduate from college at the same time, May 2005. I declared that reason enough for a “guy trip” down the Grand Canyon, which Theodore Roosevelt called a “must” for every American. It was a spectacular week, tucked between two immense walls of stone on a raging river (the Colorado) for five days of raw nature. The walls of the canyon displayed the history of the area, back to pre-historic eras. The weather was perfect. We slept on cots at night in shorts, and watched the stars with a brilliance we’d never seen. On one stop, we swam in a tributary where the water was a dream-like, iridescent blue – almost neon. The highlight for me was an excursion up a narrow side canyon, where we tip-toed across a trail which shrunk to about a 18 inches wide, with a 1,000 foot wall up on one side, and a 1,000 foot drop on the other. I clung to that wall like a snail, while the boys skipped across the challenge like a walk in the park. After the trip, we spent a day in Vegas seeing the sights, and unloading our change. The trip remains among my fondest memories.