After an exhilarating hike descending a short distance into the Grand Canyon, it was refreshing to get back to the car where Julianna and Mordecai were waiting. The day had hardly started, only just after 7:30am. We pulled out a yummy breakfast and kept warm and comfortable in the plush seats of our brand new rental vehicle while we ate. From where we were sitting, we could look out over the canyon with the risen sun now blazing on the majestic rock walls.

Julianna opened her phone and started playing Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, Sunrise through the car speaker system. Listening to the movement in and of itself is inspiring, but to hear it at the Grand Canyon was sublime. With Mordecai munching away on my lap, we sat back and chatted over our lovely breakfast with a incredible view.

Our meal was just wrapping up when we heard a deep, guttural cough from Mordecai. Suddenly, a rich, curious-smelling, chunky slime was propelling itself over everything in the vicinity. My hands, my coat, my pants, Mordecai’s clothes, the steering wheel, the cloth seat, the floor . . . you name it! My mind instantly flew to imagining, “Oh dear, what will happen when the rental car company finds out about this!” 😀

Thankfully, such substances are possible to clean up fairly easily with water and rags. Or, in our situation, an entire roll of paper towels and a whole lot of baby wipes (well, maybe not an entire roll . . . ).

But don’t let me bore you with the details.

Thankfully, Mordecai had just choked on a mouthful of breakfast and was perfectly fine. But the incident had snapped us out of our idyllic day dreaming and when the whole ordeal was over, we were ready to move on with the rest of the day. We set up some camp chairs next to the parking lot and had ourselves some memorable family devotions right there on the Grand Canyon rim while the desert sun warmed up our surroundings.

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Just the other day, as I was thinking about what to write about in today’s blog post, I happened to read this verse in Psalm 95: “In His hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is His also” (Psalm 95:4).

When I started thinking about what would be considered “deep places of the earth”, I was immediately transported back to our summer vacation at the Grand Canyon. It’s so deep, you could hike for hours, and still not reach the bottom of it!

And being at the rim, you could really get a sense of what David must have been thinking when he penned “strength of the hills.” The word “strength” there is more the idea of “height”. It’s amazing how far you could see from way up there at the top of the canyon.

We think of things that are tall as being strong and of great significance. And yet, no matter how deep you go or how high you climb, God has it all in His hand. His hand! No matter how vast and incomprehensible something may be to us, God knows every aspect of it. Even the Grand Canyon, a deep place of the earth, God examines it in His hand like we would the pedal of a flower. When we see the grand creation around us, we are reminded of the grand Creator’s greatness!

“O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. . . . For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods” (Psalm 95:1,3).

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Though I had determined earlier in the morning that we would not explore the “deepness” of the Grand Canyon from our breakfast location, it didn’t mean we wouldn’t go somewhere else! So, from Grandview Point, we packed up and headed over into the hustle and bustle of Grand Canyon Village where we would make our way to the Bright Angel Trailhead!

In the Scouting Guide, I provide a more detailed analysis of my experience at this popular trail from the perspective of a photographer, but you can get an idea for what it was like there with the photos below.

The Trailhead

At the trailhead, there was lots of parking and lots of people. There were restrooms, benches, pavilions, and places to fill up water bottles.

Above is the view from the trailhead which starts at the far end of a wide ravine coming up from the canyon floor. The trail zig zags down this ravine for miles, so the view of the canyon stayed pretty much the same for the entirety of our hike, which ended up being less than a 2 mile round trip.

The Trail

As you can see below, the trail is wide and spacious. Room for multiple people to walk side by side, or to allow mule trains to pass hikers. It’s smooth and well trodden with steps built in.

But it is far from being an easy hike!

Hiking in, it’s all downhill (of course), but that means it’s all uphill on your way back. The trail is in full sun, with very few places to rest in the shade. I wouldn’t say it’s a dangerous trail per se, but drop-offs are abundant all along the way.

In general, it was perfect for a family hike!

Because we had to carry Mordecai, we didn’t go far. We hiked till we had used up about 1/3 of our allotted time, stopped for a long break for water, snacks, and rest, and then took our time hiking back up to the rim.

The Photography

I didn’t take very many photos for three reasons.

First of all, there really wasn’t much out of the ordinary to take pictures of that would look nice under the flat, midday light.

Secondly, I was carrying Mordecai most the time. And having a toddler on your chest makes it kind of hard to have a camera easily accessible around your neck.

And thirdly, there were so many people, it was almost impossible to get a photograph of anything without a ton of summer tourists in it.

In fact, there was a short tunnel carved in the rock maybe a quarter mile into the hike and it would have made a fantastic subject. I snapped the following photo with my phone at a moment when there was a break from the tourists. But by the time I had put Mordecai down and got out my camera, there were so many people around enjoying it and taking pictures of it again, that I decided it wasn’t worth waiting any longer and just moved on.

I did find this little fella to photograph though. 🙂 The squirrels around here were so used to people you could get very close to them and they wouldn’t run away.

I was hoping to get to the Grand Canyon’s Lower Tunnel at just over 3/4 miles down the trail, but because of time, we decided to turn around at the sharp bend before getting down to it.

Incredibly, it took our little band 3 hours to get there and back! Of course, that accounted for the photo stops, the rest breaks, and the incredibly slow pace of a pregnant mommy and a toddler-toting daddy hiking in the middle of a hot day in July.

But it was totally worth it. Bright Angel Trail gets a fantastic rating for family friendly adventure! For photography, it gets a high rating for something different to do in the middle of the day. There’s a whole lot more to see and photograph along a trail going down into the Grand Canyon than there is at a simple overlook. It was a great mid-day option.

But soon, another sunset would be upon us. We hustled back to the car and returned to our campsite for a snooze before heading out for our evening excursion.

In the next blog post, I’ll talk about our experience at Navajo Point. I’ll describe what impressed me about that location in terms of landscape photography, and share my photos of something truly extraordinary that we found there. The unforgettable, almost sobering memories from that evening will be sealed in my memory forever.