Tonight at 7 PM, I am giving a presentation at the Shine of the Ages at the Grand Canyon. The presentation will last about 45 minutes. I want to talk about my relationship with the canyon, my river trips and what is has been like to be an Artist in… Read More
If silence is an island then this morning at sunrise my island was invaded by two car loads of tourists. Looking west at Pima Point I had driven out to Pima Point, about seven miles west of Grand Canyon Village. The place was empty. The entire road there—empty. Heaven, I… Read More
This is what I have to say. The Ponderosa Pines that sit on the North Rim of the Canyon about ten miles away from where I am on the South Rim—they look like stubble on man’s chin. That’s how big the Grand Canyon is. And the El Tovar Lodge, built… Read More
Before bed each night I have been cuddling up with a book called Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers. What I have learned is that the majority of deaths in the Grand Canyon occur because of a single thing. People… Read More
Lynx Last night I dreamt I pet a lynx. It walked up to me and sat down then lowered its head and let me stroke the tufts of fur that stood from the tips of its ears like small black feathers. After a moment it stretched and sniffed my face,… Read More
From my window I can see a father holding his child and pointing out at the Grand Canyon. Only there is nothing to see. Only vast gray clouds, as opaque as a woolen blanket, but not at all warm. The child is dressed in red. Red boots, red coat, red… Read More
The Grand Canyon has big water. Very big water. I almost drowned in Hermit. I’ve helped rope a boat through Crystal, and once survived Lava without anyone oaring. But this water? I have to see this movie.
El Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon, Arizona The man sitting next to me is half naked. I am sitting in El Tovar’s Bar on the edge of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, working on my novel, when he comes in wearing nothing but a shirt and jacket, and then… Read More
Mandela Leola van Eeden at North Canyon mile 20.5 A memory—Mile 62 on the Colorado. We had rafted the “Roaring Twenties,” hiked through a downpour in Saddle Canyon, meditated (and played Frisbee) in Red Wall Cavern, and now are at the confluence of the Little Colorado, a tropical-blue stringer of a river… Read More
Daily schedule—Wake around 5 am. Make coffee. Stretch. Draw for 10 minutes. Check email. Get dressed, get outside for a walk. Sunrise at around 7 am. Be out there for it. Fill water bottle with spring water. Come back take shower. Work until 11. Have breakfast. Work until three. Stretch… Read More