Here, Too, One Gets To Know The Canyon In A New Phase.
He is in the trough
between two ranges of mountains.
To the north and to the south are towering
peaks. You forget that you have ridden down, down, to reach this spot. You
are in a new country. A majestic range of glorious peaks soars away above
you to the north. Now, by merely turning in the other direction, you see
another and entirely different range, with peaks, canyons, ravines, gorges,
points, ridges all its own.
The Return to El Tovar. Riding back to El Tovar, with thoughts like these,
the visitor imagines himself riding to a City Celestial. He reaches the
plateau, studies for a while the unique coloring of the Algonkian strata
just above the Granite Gorge, and sees where the faulting has raised them
above the Tonto sandstones. Then, steadily looking upward, he rides
forward, climbing slowly but surely to the peaks above. Tired though he is,
he feels a constant thrill of satisfaction as he rises higher and higher,
and when, at last, his animal lifts him to the level of El Tovar, and he
stands once more in his room at the hotel, he feels an exaltation
vouchsafed only to those who have dared and done an unusual thing. And this
the Canyon is! No matter how often the trip is made, the interest of it
never tires; the wonder of it never grows less.
CHAPTER IX. To Grand View And Down The Grand View Trail
To Grand View.
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