Grand Canyon Memories: Childhood Disappointment to Adult Joy
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Childhood Story: Grand Canyon Playground Misinterpretation
In this episode I reminisce about my childhood visit to the Grand Canyon, highlighting the initial disappointment as a young boy expecting a playground but encountering the vastness of the natural wonder.
Later in life, I return to the Grand Canyon as an adult, working as a tour guide and gaining a deep appreciation for its geological, historical, and ecological significance.
Through my interactions with visitors I reflect on the transformative experience of witnessing the canyon's beauty and share poignant observations about the generational wonder it inspires.
Early explorers and settles of at the Grand Canyon. Photos courtesy of the Grand Canyon National Park.
Flora and fauna of the Grand Canyon. Photos courtesy of James Mutch.
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In the American southwest, in the state of Arizona, you’ll find one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. Situated in the middle of one of the largest forests of Ponderosa Pine trees in the world, the Grand Canyon is a magical place that people travel from all over the world to see.
When I was a small child my family and I lived in the town of Anaheim CA. Where we lived was just a 5-minute walk from Disneyland. One day, when I was five or six years old, my parents told my older sister and me that we were going to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. They said that we were going to the Grand Canyon National Park. I was very enthusiastic about this. I didn’t think that I’d ever been to a National Park before.
Park playground equipment names
[01:10]
Besides having Disneyland, Anaheim had plenty of city parks. All the city parks had baseball fields and wonderful playgrounds. The nicer parks even had swimming pools. The playgrounds all had playground equipment such as swing sets, slides, and what we used to call monkey bars, and jungle gyms, which you could climb all over. I really loved going to the local parks. Because the Grand Canyon was called a National Park, I really expected to find an awesome playground when we got there.
So, my parents packed the car with suitcases full of clothes for all of us. We got into the car, and off we went to the Grand Canyon. It was an exceedingly long trip for my sister and me. It took a couple of days to get there. We drove past the sign that said Grand Canyon National Park.
Desert View Watchtower
[02:00]
My father and I got out of the car and walked up to a small building where he paid for us to get into the park. We then got back into the car and drove through the gate to a place called Desert View Watchtower. My father drove the car up to the tower and parked on the side of the road in front of it. We all got out of the car and because a sign on the door said that the watchtower was closed both of my parents were really discouraged.
I was confused because the park looked so different from the parks back home. There were very few trees, which were all quite short, and they didn’t provide much shade. There was no green grass on the ground, only sand, which, was I assumed I couldn’t find a baseball field. We walked through the sand, between the short trees, and walked up to the edge of a huge hole in the ground.
All the adults that I saw kept looking down into the big hole in the ground that was right in front of us. They kept saying things like, “ooh” and “ahh,” and talking about how magnificent it was.
Meanwhile, I was looking in the other direction still trying to figure out where the playground was. Where were the swing sets and slides? I figured that since it was a National Park they must have had a wonderful playground, and a great swing set. All this park really seemed to have was this huge hole in the ground, and I was quite disappointed.
Decades later, my wife and I were living in England and thinking about moving back to the United States. My wife loves planning things. She lives for organization. She’s great at doing research.
While we were just starting to talk about moving back to the U.S., she was on the internet looking at employment opportunities for the both of us. While searching for jobs for us, she found that a jeep tour company was looking for tour guides to work at the Grand Canyon. Since I had previously done similar work, I fired up my laptop and filled out an application. A couple of days later I got a phone call from the tour company. After completing a phone interview, I was invited to an in-person interview at the Grand Canyon.
Describing the Grand Canyon
[04:15]
Returning to the Grand Canyon as an adult, I now understand why the adults were making such a fuss when I first visited as a child. The words that I have heard most often used to describe the Grand Canyon are magnificent, vast, stunning, and breathtaking. But none of those words could ever be enough to describe the spectacle that you experience when you walk up to the edge of the canyon. Obviously, you see the canyon as you walk up to it, but that becomes secondary as your mind is overwhelmed by what it is now trying to comprehend. You don’t just see the Grand Canyon, you feel it. Your eyes alone cannot take in something that is about one thousand five hundred meters deep, anywhere from thirteen kilometers to thirty kilometers in width, and twists and turns for more than four hundred forty kilometers.
At the interview I was hired by the tour company and my wife, and I moved to the Grand Canyon. For the first two weeks of my new job I was in training to be a tour guide. To do the job I had to learn everything there was to know about the canyon and the National Park. I would have to know about the geology of the area and how the Grand Canyon was formed. I also had to learn about the human history of the area. This included not only the native tribes that had lived in the area for thousands of years, but also the Spanish who had stumbled upon the canyon in the year 1540. I also had to learn about the explorers of the 1800s and the settlers that followed. Oh, let’s not forget about the flora and fauna. If you are a tour guide, you have to be able to identify all of the plants and all of the animals you will see. And since I was working in a National Park, I had to learn about the National Park Service of the United States, including its history and its conservation efforts.
I had to be able to answer any question that anyone from anywhere in the world might ask me. And, I had two weeks to learn it all. How much fun can one person have in two weeks? Well, considering that I was even furnished with a Jeep to drive around the National Park, it was an adventure that I wouldn’t have missed for all the money in the world.
Grand Canyon National Park
[06:45]
During a normal year, approximately six million people visit the Grand Canyon National Park. Most of these people will enter the Grand Canyon National Park through the main entrance to go to the South Rim. The majority of them get their first view of the Grand Canyon from Mather Point, which is a short walk from the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. According to the National Park Service, which oversees the Grand Canyon, most visitors spend less than two hours in the park, and the average visitor spends about seventeen minutes looking at the Grand Canyon before they leave.
For about a year it was my pleasure to spend at least a couple of hours with thousands of people in small groups. I got to show them the Grand Canyon through the eyes of someone who lived in the National Park. I was able to explain to them the history of the earth was unfolded before them in varying shades of red, brown, and tan. I told them the stories of the groups of people who had called the canyon home for thousands of years. I got to help them experience more of the beauty and the grandeur of the canyon than the others who looked out from Mather Point for about fifteen minutes before deciding it was time to leave.
During that year I met people from all over the world who had come to experience the Grand Canyon. I also met people who had come to the canyon to work as I had but had chosen to make it their home. I learned that every time you looked at the canyon or walked down into it was a unique experience. This helped me to understand those who had decided to never leave. Also, during my year at the Grand Canyon I saw countless families experiencing the canyon for their first and possibly only time. I saw parents and grandparents enthralled by what lay before them. And when I saw the small children running around, playing, and wondering what all of the adults were so excited about, I remember that day when I was a small child and wondered the same thing.
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External links
These links take you to the websites about the organizations and people I mentioned in my podcast.
Grand Canyon National Park is in Northern Arizona and spans 1.2 million acres. Located on ancestral homeland of 11 Associated Tribes, it is one of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world.
National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.
Pink Jeep Tours their local guides offer unique insights as you tour the Grand Canyon south rim from a custom, open-air Pink Jeep® Wrangler.