The People and the Canyon

Experiencing What the Colorado River Carved

Above Bright Angel Trail. Charles R. Wolfe photograph

I suppose it was not necessary to come to the Grand Canyon to see people respond to what is essentially a vast outdoor museum, dedicated to the Colorado River’s carving adventures over millions of years.

But this visit made for a fine photography project. In one of the world's grandest natural spaces, I found myself drawn to the same subject I often observe in cities: people. And the visit also spurred some compelling thinking about climate change during the National Park’s hottest time of year.

I’ve amassed hundreds of photos with three cameras and my phone. Many—including those here—memorialize National Park-based people-watching, a variant of what we do in cities.

My focus during this time at the Grand Canyon was the significant cohort of international visitors interacting with a prized natural wonder on their bucket lists— where different cultural approaches to nature and risk are readily apparent.

For all of the Park’s stratigraphy of awe, it’s the Colorado that seemed most on people’s minds. Was the actual sound of the wind on the South Rim really the river raging miles below? Or about that heat on the Canyon floor—is it the remotest of good ideas to descend to 10 miles to the river, where it is 110 degrees amid a broader climate crisis impacting the American West.

I need not be a park ranger in order to answer “no”

 But the three guys from Austria, who said they know how to hike because of where they are from, descended nonetheless.

The ten photos above and below show place participation in a variety of ways—from museum visits, to gazing and more gazing, to following trails and leaving them for selfies on precarious edges, to traveling between viewpoints by bus or car.

Consider what such “place participation" signifies in a location of such scale and history.

All photos by Charles R. Wolfe, taken in a variety of Grand Canyon venues, including Rim Trail, Bright Angel Trail, the Yavapai Point Geological Museum, and Desert View.