Travel Blog

We got to the Grand Canyon in the middle of a pay cycle, so unfortunately we were scheduled to work nine days in a row, and that’s my excuse for not blogging about this spectacular place before now. And that’s also why I don’t have many pictures to share yet. I’m working on that.

Phil and I really like it here so far. There are four visitor centers open right now, and so far Phil has worked at two of them, and me at three, soon to be four. I like being shuffled around, though, because every day is a new experience, and that keeps nine days in a row from getting too old. But the bad thing is that Phil and I rarely get to work at the same place, and transportation gets sketchy. I can walk to work most days, but it gets dark, and I mean D-A-R-K, around 5:30 p.m. All I can advise if you’re coming here this time of year, bring a flashlight. I can’t tell you how many people come in to the stores for help because they can’t find their cars in the dark. Sometimes we even have to call a Ranger to help .

But here has been my office view lately:

And this park is different than any park we’ve been in, living-wise, because instead of just an RV spot stuck in a campground somewhere, we actually live in a little village. Grand Canyon Village is what it’s called, and it has a school, clinic, library, market, post office, bank, etc…The first thing we did when we got here was to get our library cards.

Grand Canyon Village library:

But even though where we live is a bit less remote and cut off than we’re used to, we still have interesting neighbors. Here was one trimming a tree in the next yard over from ours:

My favorite store of the three I’ve worked at so far is Kolb Studio. Way before the Grand Canyon became a National Park, the Kolb brothers, from Pittsburgh, PA, set up a photography studio at the Bright Angel Trailhead. For their bread and butter, they took pics of the tourists taking the mule ride down to the bottom of the canyon. Since they had no water at the top with which to develop their pictures, this story gets complicated, but they were successful enough to stay in business until Emery Kolb died in 1976. I could go on and on about the Kolbs, but I’ll save that for another time. What I’m getting at is that I work in what was their studio and house, and it is just the coolest place ever. It was built right on the edge of the cliff, and when our association was having it restored to use as a book store and art gallery, the architect told them the first thing on the agenda was to actually tether the house to the hill somehow. Seems the thing was just perched atop the rocks, but hey, it lasted more than a hundred years, so I guess someone knew what they were doing.

Kolb Studio from the one side:

Kolb Studio from the Bright Angel Trail side:

The best thing about working there is I get to go down to their living quarters, way down below the store and the art gallery. That’s a rare treat because that part of the house is not open to the public, and tours aren’t given all that often. I want to move in. They have a sunroom, off their living room, that is sticking right over the canyon. I can sit in a rocking chair, eat my lunch, and look out that window, getting a view hardly anyone else gets. Jealous yet? I’ll take some pictures later on.

I guess I’ll end this one here. I’m tired and can’t concentrate, but I’ll leave you with an early-morning shot of the canyon that I took on my way to work the other day, and I will get out there with my camera and keep them coming.