Grand Canyon National Park: Always more to see

Scott Craven | The Arizona Republic

Bruce Aiken is never far from the Grand Canyon. It peers over his shoulder as he works. It whispers to him when he travels. It calls to him whenever he’s had enough of crowds and cars and noise.

The soaring buttes, towers and cliffs crowd his mind — and his studio. The Flagstaff, Ariz., artist has captured the canyon from every imaginable angle. He’s dipped his toes in the Colorado River and dangled them off a thousand-foot cliff.

And yet Aiken, a man who raised a family at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, laments that he’s seen only a fraction of it.

“The canyon is so vast,” Aiken says. “You can’t get to some of the most remote places. There is no way anybody can say they’ve been everywhere.”

The statistics back him up. The canyon is 277 miles long and varies from 4 to 18 miles wide. The Colorado River cuts more than a mile deep at points. Myriad side canyons form other worlds, some filled with lush vegetation, others relentlessly arid landscapes.

Grand Canyon National Park drew nearly 6 million visitors in 2016 and is the second-most-visited national park in the system, behind the Great Smoky Mountains park (which had more than 11 million visitors last year).

In the early 1970s, with sketchbook in hand, Aiken got a job at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where he would spend the next 33 years exploring a place that resisted exploration.

By the time he retired in 2006, his muse was the subject of hundreds of paintings.

Today, his studio is home to more than 200 pounds of rocks he’s collected over the years.

“There’s nothing like the Grand Canyon,” he says. “You can have a photo of a mountain or a beach but not know where it was taken. But you show a photo of the Grand Canyon to someone in China, they know exactly what it is.”

Kristen Luetkemeier remembers her first trip to the Grand Canyon, arriving in the middle of a stormy night when high winds had knocked out all lights. Peering over the rim into the canyon, she saw a featureless abyss.

Come morning, she returned to the rim to find that a thick fog had filled the canyon, buttes rising above it like rocky islands.

At first she was disappointed, feeling cheated by the weather. But she quickly learned just how rare this sight was, and how coveted it was by longtime visitors. Such “inversions” are few and fleeting, adding an ethereal beauty to the natural wonder.

Later that day, the canyon came into view, stunning Luetkemeier with its sheer size. Now a ranger at the park’s visitor center, she remembers that moment each time she sees people staring along the South Rim.

“You can tell by their expressions who is seeing the canyon for the first time,” Luetkemeier says. “Their mouths are open, they rarely blink. They’re amazed at the sight and try to take in the vastness.”

On clear days, the North Rim comes into view, although eyes tend to feast on what occupies the 10 miles between the two sides. Even as visitors attempt to absorb the immense vista, Luetkemeier tells them they are seeing just a fraction of the canyon.

Though she’s worked at the park since 2012, Luetkemeier reminds herself not to take it for granted. When mingling with visitors, she’ll try to see it through their eyes, knowing that many of them probably saved for years to take a trip of a lifetime.

“There was a Japanese group who had one of their members close his eyes,” Luetkemeier recalls. “They led him to the edge and had him open his eyes. He had this stunned look, and everybody was smiling. Those are the amazing moments, the ones I’ll always remember.”

Monika Durgin, a veterinarian who lives in Phoenix, four hours away, had been to the South Rim several times. She saw the canyon from multiple angles and vistas, taking it in one moment at a time.

But a visit to the western edge showed Durkin a side of the canyon she never knew existed.

She descended into Supai Village on the Havasupai Indian Reservation, where lush vegetation grows amid streams feeding turquoise waterfalls.

“It was like walking in the Garden of Eden,” Durkin says. “People described it to me, and I’d seen photos, but words and photos just don’t do it. I was amazed, never thinking I’d find something like this in the Grand Canyon.”

Durkin has returned many times since, joining a group of veterinarians who each year spend a week around Thanksgiving treating the community’s pets and domestic animals.

No matter how many times she’s made the 10-mile hike into Havasu Canyon, the scenery continues to astound.

“It’s hard to imagine that in Arizona, being so desert-like, there’s a place where you can see water the color of the Caribbean Sea,” Durkin says. “It’s so beautiful.”

Aiken, who still visits the Grand Canyon with his sketchpad, plans to spend six months in Nepal and Tibet. There, he hopes to capture more dramatic landscapes that will continue to inspire him.

But even as he gazes at the Himalayas, the Grand Canyon will tap him on the shoulder to offer suggestions.

“The Canyon is always in my work and always will be,” Aiken says. “I’m grateful for that.”

About the park

Size:1.2 million acres.

Visitors: 5.9 million in 2016.

Established: 1919.

History: The Grand Canyon first earned federal protection in 1893 as a Forest Reserve and later as a National Monument. In 1919, it was named one of the country’s first national parks. Millions of people visit to see erosion at its most beautiful, where water has exposed rock more than a billion years old.

When visiting: Pack plenty of water and salty snacks if hiking into the Canyon, and know it will take you twice as long to hike out than it did to descend. If time is limited, stroll the Rim Trail and find a quiet spot to take it all in. For info: 928-638-7888 or nps.gov/grca.

Of note: The less-visited North Rim offers an experience unlike that of the South Rim. In addition to a relaxed vibe, the North Rim includes views with more texture and depth. It’s harder to get there than to the South Rim. That results in crowds about one-tenth the size, which makes a noticeable difference when looking for a quiet spot at an overlook.