Day 6 — Grand Canyon National Park

We all rolled out of bed at 5:20 this morning and stumbled a few steps to our balcony to watch the sun rise over the canyon.

Watching the sunrise

Keith and the kids then went back to bed for a couple of hours, while I sat on the balcony, worked on the blog and soaked up this gorgeous view.

My awesome office view

After breakfast, we set out on a westward walk along the rim, thinking that it was only a short walk to the South Kaibab trailhead and planning to hike a mile or two into the canyon from there.

The South Kaibab trail winds down into the canyon like a shoelace.

It’s more like 5 miles from El Tovar to the Kaibab trailhead. And by the time we got there, it was after noon. We were hot, hungry, tired of crowds, weary of dodging reckless bikers on the trail, and, admittedly, suffering a little from grandeur-overload, since every turn of the South Rim trail opens up to spectacular, sweeping views of the Grand Canyon. So we caught a shuttle back to the hotel, where we participated in a brief Junior Ranger program about ravens on the porch and then retreated into the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. 

El Tovar lobby

Cutthroat Monopoly game 

El Tovar

Ranger Brendan loves his job.

The hotel staff moved our stuff out of the Presidential Suite this morning, since it was only available for one night, and moved it into our new room. The originally reserved room. Just a regular room. With lovely views of trees and a parking lot and the nearby Hopi House. Absolutely no complaints from us. We are grateful to be here.

Keith rounded up drinks from the cocktail lounge and played National Park Monopoly with the kids while I tried to get caught up on the blog. It was refreshing to have some down-time in the middle of a hot afternoon.

This evening, we walked east to check out some of the historic buildings perched on the edge of the rim, ate dinner at the Bright Angel Lodge Dining Room, then came back to the hotel to get cleaned up for bed.

I’ve been sitting on the lobby, trying to get the last three blog posts uploaded and have been listening to a hotel guest get incredibly nasty with the front desk staff about the temperature of his room. (I’m gathering that many of the air conditioning units in this hotel — including the one in our new room — don’t work as well as they should. It hasn’t been a problem for us. We've just opened the windows. The cool breeze, the crickets chirping and the pine-scented air is sublime.)

But this guy was swearing and yelling and making threats at the staff, belittling them and insisting that he will not pay for his room unless they fix his air conditioner immediately. He bellowed that he’s a multimillionaire who knows how to run a business, but that the staff of this “shithole” hotel obviously doesn’t. I’ve been listening as the poor desk clerks apologized and continued to offer to help him, even as he kept barking insults.

I’m sitting around the corner from the front desk, so I could hear this, but I couldn’t see what’s going on. But Keith, heading back to the lobby after checking on the kids in our room, passed the front desk just as the asshole guy got right up in the face of one of the front desk clerks and shoved him.

Keith stopped and said, firmly, “Sir, other people are watching you.”

The guy immediately backed off. He even apologized and tried to make nice before retreating to his overheated room. But not before the front desk staff put in a call to the park rangers for back-up.

The poor clerk who got shoved looked visibly shaken as he waited for the rangers to arrive. When they did, he gave his name and made a statement. Then the ranger interviewed Keith and asked Keith to provide a written statement, including a description of the suspect — they called him a “suspect” — as well, which he did.

Things have settled down since this all went down, about an hour ago. But the rangers are still here. We’ve overheard them talking about reviewing camera footage from the front desk, and if they can get that done, it should help their case quite a bit. 

The clerk who got shoved, Ken from California, came over to thank Keith for his support. Keith expressed our sympathies that he had to go through that at all. But Ken quietly explained that this was nothing compared to being held hostage at gunpoint, and, at the same time, witnessing his wife’s murder. He’s said he’s suffering from PTSD because of that event. The whole reason he came to work at the Grand Canyon is because he needed to escape the stress of his life. 

Keith and I were stunned when he said this, and our anger at the offending asshole ratcheted up a few notches. Let this be a reminder to us all, the next time you get frustrated or impatient and feel like taking it out on the next guy, because you have no idea what his story is.