tuesday we left the south rim of the grand
cayon around 4:00. we arrived on the north rim around 10:00 at night. including a short stop at
cameron to get
najavo tacos, the trip took us 7 hours. the distance from the south rim of the grand canyon to the north rim of the grand canyon is 25 miles - hiking. the drive, though, is a little less than 300 miles. we slept in the car and woke up early so the boys could start their hike while it was still cold. i spent the morning on the north rim, taking pictures and enjoying the feeling of being a visitor. i have only been to the north rim one other time before - it's really beautiful and i think i might suggest as a better place to visit than the south rim. i am constantly surprised by arizona's diversity. the north rim is covered in huge pine trees, as you leave, you find yourself in beautiful fields with buffalo roaming - and then just a few miles later you're in the desert. nothing. signs for a mcdonalds 80 miles away.
as i was leaving the north rim to go back south, i got an awful feeling. a sense that the south rim was still too busy, too populated, too noisy, too much - which was, and still is, sort of shocking to me. because the south rim of the grand canyon, although a little more populated than the north rim, is still incredibly remote and desolate. it seems like the less that i have, the less than i want. i think i keep waiting for some kind of resolution - or reconciliation between these parts of me. like maybe some day pennsylvania and arizona will border each other. like maybe the solitude and the community can exist together, the independence and the dependence, the quiet and the noise - i think this takes spiritual discipline that i don't have yet.
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