June 11, 2001
God went deep and scored with Grand Canyon
___Road trip! The two words might strike fear or inspire dread for some people, but for our family it means fun and adventure are ours for the taking.
___We just returned from an awesome road trip that took us through parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado--and even a piece of Utah if you count the Four Corners Monument. The focus of the trip was the Grand Canyon.
ALISON WINGFIELD
___Even though I grew up in New Mexico, we never had gone to the Grand Canyon. My parents were major road trippers, but somehow we never made it there. Don't worry--I won't even try to describe this incredible piece of God's imagination we humans are allowed to glimpse. You have to see it to believe it. All I can say is: Wow.
___And yes, we wimped out and didn't take the mules down the famous trail. Maybe we'll hike down next time. I don't care how sure-footed those critters are--I saw those switchbacks. No thank you.
___A sideline fascination to me at the canyon was the other visitors and their behavior. You had your busloads disgorging at one of the main viewing sites on the south rim, cameras at the ready, moving as one to the short retaining wall. Then there were the loners, communing with nature, finding a cozy (and what looked to me to be not so safe) place to sit close to the drop-off and gaze.
___And then the plain crazy people who had to prove they could go out farther than anyone else. At one of the ranger talks/hikes we went on, our ranger was standing several feet from the rim and we were sitting well back from it when this hand appeared from nowhere. A guy climbed up right behind her and nonchalantly walked away, camera in hand. The ranger said she had seen him down below taking pictures. She just shook her head. And then she mentioned that they lose 25 to 30 people a year from falls into the canyon.
___Respect for God's creation and realizing your own fallibility are definitely two things to remember when visiting the Grand Canyon.
___The other fascinating aspect for me was the number of internationals. Japanese, German, Scandinavian--I even detected some Italian spoken as we passed people on the rim trail. Language barriers aren't much of a problem there. The sound of awe and the looks on people's faces when they look out over the breadth and depth of this one of the world's wonders are universal.
__As a person with a fear of heights, I several times wondered why we planned this vacation the way we did. Sure seemed like we stood on the edge of precipices quite a lot--at the Grand Canyon, Arizona Meteor Crater and Mesa Verde National Park.
__And then there was the little side trip on the ski lift at the Arizona Snow Bowl, a major ski resort outside Flagstaff. It was at my suggestion that we took the summer scenic ride up the chair lift, from about 8,000 feet to more than 11,000 feet. I must have been suffering oxygen deprivation when I suggested this one.
MARK WINGFIELD
__Without snow on the ground, it sure looked a long way from our moving chair to the rocky ground below. Garrett and I rode up together, and I held onto him tightly the whole 20 minutes. Early on, he assured me he was fine and wouldn't fall out. I told him I was holding on to him for my sake, not for his.
__On the return trip, Garrett asked to ride with his mother. Luke graciously accompanied me and let me hold his hand. My heart nearly stopped only twice, as I recall.
__The boys got great mileage out of this the rest of the trip. At Mesa Verde, where you have to climb quite a few steep trails to get to the Native American ruins, they treated me like a feeble old man. For the record, though, I was the only one who didn't get out of breath hiking the trails.
__Driving the winding road along sheer cliffs to get to the park, however, was another matter. In more than 2,500 miles of driving on this trip, we passed through more cliff-hugging roads than I would have preferred.
__But we would have missed so much of God's beautiful creation if we had taken only the low road and avoided the high vantage points.
__That's certainly true in life as well. Athletes say, "No pain, no gain." And it's true. The easy road doesn't offer the most inspiration or the best views.
__Throughout Arizona and Colorado and New Mexico, we chose the road less traveled. And that made all the difference.
___
Mark Wingfield is managing editor of the Standard. Alison Wingfield is a freelance writer. The Wingfields moved to Texas from Louisville, Ky., where Mark had been editor of the Western Recorder, in which this column appeared weekly.
PREVIOUS HE SAID/ SHE SAID COLUMNS:
1999: 6/16, 6/23, 6/30, 7/14, 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, 8/11, 8/18, 8/25, 9/1, 9/8, 9/15, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27 11/17, 11/24, 12/1, 12/8, 12/15, 12/22,
2000: 1/5, 1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/1, 3/8, 3/22, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8, 5/15, 5/22, 5/29, 6/5, 6/12, 6/19, 6/26, 7/10, 6/26, 6/19, 7/17, 7/24, 7/31, 8/7, 8/14, 8/21, 8/28, 9/4, 9/11, 9/18, 9/25, 10/2, 10/9, 10/16, 11/6, 11/20, 11/27, 12/11.
2001: 1/1, 1/8, 1/22, 2/5, 2/12, 3/5, 4_19, 4/2, 4/23, 5/14
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
