There were a number of people scattered about: the requisite youth mission group, couples taking selfies, Japanese salary-men on their official non-work, work trip, and a few other unattached vagrants like myself. All in all, there couldn’t be more than 50 people milling about. While that number might sound sizable, we were nothing against the colossal, 10 mile wide stretch from point to point, that the Grand Canyon was. Unlike the oceans, which are effective in terms of conveying scale, it’s hard to see an end to them and thus their size is sort of incomprehensible, like the Universe. The Grand Canyon, on the other hand, commands the sort of ego gulping presence of bodies like the ocean, with a sense of definition and finality that we can judge clearly with respect to ourselves.

Mather Point is the first point of entry if you’re coming up from the south to view the Grand Canyon. I highly recommend seeing Mather Point as it sets the stage for other outlooks and primes you for the height and guaranteed death should you not exercise caution when being more adventurous

After grabbing a few shots of Mather Point, I decided to make my way east towards Desert View, the most visually interesting overlook on the South Rim and next up on my tour. Naturally, that isn’t where I ended up. After considering the Orange Line bus towards the Desert View Watchtower, the door flew open and a driver, looking, speaking, and behaving like Rosanne Barr, demanded I get on the shuttle with the “no-buts” attitude of a mom shuffling a toddler in the grocery store. I hadn’t felt 5 in a while. I found the entire ordeal unexpected and bizarre. Like a child, I griped to myself that I might have made the wrong choice: Somewhere between entering the bus and taking off, I realized that for time sake, it’d be better for me to have control over my arrival and departure schedule and that meant me driving on my own. The bus would end up taking me to the Yavapai Point and Geology Museum, slightly west of Mather Point. When we arrived, with the same zest in her voice, “Great Value” Rosanne order me off the bus, I assume for talking back, but more likely because she felt visitors should see everything the Grand Canyon offered. Regardless, I didn’t know whether to laugh or complain about what was happening to me. Now that I was on the bus I wanted to go to Yaki point! I’d have no such luck on this trip.