Adventures in the time of COVID: The Grand Canyon

Three weeks after the Snowpocalypse in Texas, we stood on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and felt the stress of the last year and the last three weeks drain from our bodies like the light leaching from the sky as the sun slowly sank behind the rim.

My wife and I had decided to visit our son in Tempe, where he was studying industrial design at Arizona State. While our whole family had been diligently following CDC guidelines for the last year, our younger son was the most fervent follower of all…locking himself in his apartment in Tempe and attending all classes virtually. After a year of confinement, we were all more than a little stir crazy and I thought we could all use some time outside and safely away from situations where we could be exposed to the virus.

Arizona is rich with natural wonders but the Grand Canyon confidently lounges at the top of any list of outdoor destinations in the state. My wife and I had not been to the Canyon since we were children and our son Tucker had never been…despite attending college in the state for three years. So we booked a couple of the last available rooms at the Thunderbird Lodge, one of the hotels available right on the South Rim, caught a flight to Tempe from Austin and drove from there to the Canyon on a crystal clear Friday in early March.

We arrived to find the park mostly in COVID lockdown. Restaurants, bars and shops along the South Rim were mostly closed, leaving one restaurant and a couple of cafes gamely trying to provide food to the guests and visitors. Masks were still enforced while indoors, but outside along the Rim Trail we were able to go mask-free…breathing in the crisp air and enjoying seeing each other’s smiling faces as we took in the views.

Looking back at the lodges and other buildings clustered on the South Rim.

After hiking for most of the day along the Rim Trail, we returned to our rooms for a late afternoon rest and to wait for sunset to hopefully catch the Golden Hour from Mather Point, one of the better view points near the Visitor Center. While the light wasn’t as good as the previous evening, it was still beautiful…slowly washing the canyon in soft light that brought out all of the colors that were muted in the harsh daylight earlier.