0:00 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a scene in the show Madman that shook me up the first time I saw it. 0:04 [SPEAKER_00]: It's probably not the one you think. 0:07 [SPEAKER_00]: In the very first episode, the Draper family picnics along the inner state. 0:11 [SPEAKER_00]: The grass is green, the birds are out, and a small portable radio placed softly on a red and white checkered blanket. 0:18 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a deeply nostalgic picture of 1960s America. 0:33 [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't understand. 0:35 [SPEAKER_01]: You'd rather play checkers than I look at the clouds game. 0:39 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd rather play with Phil and Coddy. 0:41 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to jam between my seats. 0:44 [SPEAKER_00]: You know what, Sally? 0:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Go play with Coddy. 0:50 [SPEAKER_00]: We should do this more often. 0:53 [SPEAKER_01]: We should only do this. 0:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Betty picks up the thermos and starts together the kids for the car. 0:59 [SPEAKER_01]: We should probably get going if we don't want to hit traffic. 1:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Check their hands. 1:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Don takes one last wave from a small white can of lone starbeer, but we're throwing it as far as it came into the field. 1:33 [SPEAKER_00]: Betty grabs the blanket, full of plastic and paper, shakes it off into the grass, and then they just walk away. 1:40 [SPEAKER_00]: When this first aired on television, I remember just sitting there and disbelief. 1:45 [SPEAKER_00]: I was used to seeing explosions of all kinds of violence on screen, but this littering was jarring. 1:51 [SPEAKER_00]: It was so hideous, and yet so ordinary and casual. 1:54 [SPEAKER_00]: You realize seeing things like this, but this is why all of your teachers made such a big deal out of earth day in elementary school. 2:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Something really bad happened in the 19th and 20th centuries. 2:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Up to that point, nature had been mostly immune to our appetite for destruction. 2:10 [SPEAKER_00]: It used to be difficult to litter, as in, if you tried to do it on purpose, you would be hard pressed to succeed in hurting nature and a meaningful way. 2:20 [SPEAKER_00]: We could never destroy our planet with discarded clay jars, wooden spoons, or stone manufacturing, even glass and gunpowder and mining were relatively clean. 2:30 [SPEAKER_00]: We could never ruin our native planet with catapults. 2:33 [SPEAKER_00]: but we can bury it six feet deep in a mountain of plastic. 2:37 [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like nature's set on us for the first few million years, then very suddenly we got the upper hand, and we did not know our strength. 2:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Once we got this upper hand, we never let up. 2:48 [SPEAKER_00]: Nature was merciless, and so were we. 2:51 [SPEAKER_00]: We shredded it with bombing campaigns, and poisoned it with Agent Orange. 2:56 [SPEAKER_00]: We filled it with garbage, crushed every rock, and cut every green thing that can make us money. 3:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Nature was simply fuel for our factories, fireplaces, and the latest fashion. 3:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Remember the 19th century trend of wearing beaver skin hats, nearly drove beavers to extinction, but to be fair, even today, we're not bigger boys than people of the pre-modern world, we're just bigger, period. 3:22 [SPEAKER_00]: science and industry have made us more dangerous than we once realized. 3:27 [SPEAKER_00]: The problem wasn't really that people suddenly lost their love of nature. 3:31 [SPEAKER_00]: It was that we as a species suddenly gained the power to destroy it, with our indifference. 3:36 [SPEAKER_00]: And toward the end of the 19th century, American cities were simply spinning out of control. 3:41 [SPEAKER_00]: According to Martin Malose, in his book Garbage in the Cities, 3:45 [SPEAKER_00]: A polling stories of overcrowding, like the one with 33 Serbian workers and their boss lived in a five-room house, or the common practice of keeping farm animals and basements and even slaughtering them there, were all too familiar. 3:59 [SPEAKER_00]: City dumps were open landfills, were food waste, human waste, and dead animals stood in the sun. 4:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Streets were covered in the black mud of well-traught horse poop and work horses often died in the harness, leaving a trail of huge, bloated bodies throughout every American city. 4:18 [SPEAKER_00]: The smell by all accounts was horrific. 4:22 [SPEAKER_00]: This is Melocie again. 4:23 [SPEAKER_00]: Since the life expectancy of a city horse was only about four years, to an large measure to overwork an abuse. 4:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Carcasses were plentiful, New York City scavengers removed 15,000 dead horses from the street to an 1880. 4:37 [SPEAKER_00]: As late as 1916, when motor vehicles dominated the streets, Chicago scavengers still had to remove 9,200 and two carcasses. 4:47 [SPEAKER_00]: On top of all that, pollution. 4:50 [SPEAKER_00]: About 80% of urban waste went right into the nearest body of water, downriver for major cities, public and private beaches looked like cesspools, and it was not uncommon for swimmers to be suddenly nudged by mattresses and old shoes. 5:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Black flakes of sweat snowed down year-round from factory smoke stacks. 5:09 [SPEAKER_00]: And pretty much everything you could see, touch, smell or taste, was covered in a thick film of grime. 5:16 [SPEAKER_00]: One historian summed up the situation by suggesting, industrialism produced the most degraded urban environment the world had ever seen, for even the quarters of the ruling class were be fooled and overcrowded. 5:29 [SPEAKER_00]: And this degraded urban environment helped promote the growth and preservation of the national park system, and part just because everyone wanted to get out of them. 5:39 [SPEAKER_00]: City of Life had become so gross and inhospitable that it had people dreaming again of wide open spaces. 5:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Arguably, the greatest of all American open spaces is the Grand Canyon, and Northwestern Arizona. 5:52 [SPEAKER_00]: The same industrialization that was ruining American cities in the late 19th century, covered the country with railroads, and made coast to coast travel more convenient than ever before. 6:02 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, the more people that were able to visit the Grand Canyon in person, the more it's a legend grew. 6:09 [SPEAKER_00]: Concerned that the crisis of industrialized pollution might soon spoil the world's largest canyon. 6:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Teddy Roosevelt said in 1903, the Grand Canyon fills me with awe. 6:20 [SPEAKER_00]: It is beyond comparison, beyond description. 6:23 [SPEAKER_00]: absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world. 6:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Let this grand wander of nature remain as it is now. 6:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Do nothing tomorrow, it's grander, sublimity, and loveliness. 6:33 [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot improve on it, but what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you as the one great site which every American should see. 6:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Fortunately, America listened. 6:48 [SPEAKER_00]: The Grand Canyon today remains more or less identical to the marvel that Roosevelt visited, though it did not become an official national park until 1919, 16 years later. 6:59 [SPEAKER_00]: I called up our Ranger friend, Jim Burnett, to learn more. 7:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Well thanks for the chance to be here today. 7:06 [SPEAKER_01]: It's probably a rare American who hasn't seen least pictures of the Grand Canyon, but there's sure nothing like seen it in person. 7:13 [SPEAKER_01]: I had the 7:15 [SPEAKER_01]: early in my career as a ranger and have been there several other times since as a booster. 7:19 [SPEAKER_01]: So I've got a few tips and suggestions that hope will be useful. 7:23 [SPEAKER_01]: The first one is to get the information about the park in advance. 7:26 [SPEAKER_01]: If you Google the terms plan your visit, Grand Canyon National Park, you should find a link to the plan your visit page on the park's official website. 7:35 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you go there, you'll find details about shuttle buses in a word of park in which few points to go to because all of those things can be a bit overwhelming. 7:44 [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't have some idea of what to expect before you get there. 7:47 [SPEAKER_00]: I can speak to this point from firsthand experience, but you go to a place like the Grand Canyon, what you are actually visiting is a handful of very small, very specific points within an area of the size of a small state. 7:59 [SPEAKER_00]: With that in mind, it can be a bit overwhelming to know where exactly to go, what to do, or even where to start. 8:05 [SPEAKER_01]: The Park website has a lot of excellent information that will save you they were time. 8:11 [SPEAKER_01]: if you just take advantage of that before you get to the park. 8:14 [SPEAKER_01]: And there's also a new twist. 8:15 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a new free national park service app that people might want to give a try. 8:21 [SPEAKER_01]: You can download it at Google Play or at the Apple Store and it gives you the option but doesn't require you to download and save information about individual parks to your phone or tablet. 8:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And that lets you access that information like the park shuttle bus stops even if you don't have internet access or a cell signal. 8:39 [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not a perfect app and it's not the only information you need, but it can be useful at times. 8:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you've never been to the Grand Canyon before, be sure you understand there is a south ram and a north ram. 8:51 [SPEAKER_01]: The South Ram is the most heavily VISTAs out of the park where most of the major developments located. 8:57 [SPEAKER_01]: And the North Ram is a great place for a less crowded visit. 9:00 [SPEAKER_01]: It still has about everything you need for a convenient stay, but the two rooms are 220 miles apart by road. 9:06 [SPEAKER_01]: And when I work there, we would occasionally find somebody to show up on the South Ram. 9:09 [SPEAKER_01]: And they wanted a quick 10 minute trip over to the lodge on the North Side, and we had to give them the bad news. 9:14 [SPEAKER_01]: So if you're playing your visit, be sure you know where they go into the North Side of the South Side. 9:19 [SPEAKER_01]: The South Rim is open all year, the North Rim is only open from about May 15th to October 15th, because it's a thousand feet higher in elevation and they get a lot of winners know. 9:29 [SPEAKER_01]: So just be sure to check the status of the road if you're going to the North Rim. 9:34 [SPEAKER_01]: So since most people go to the South Rim, that's what I'm going to talk about, many for us today, and the first major thing you'll come to is you enter the park on the South Rim is the visitor center, 9:44 [SPEAKER_01]: And the matter point over look and tip number one is when you get there park there before you leave the car it is a really big parking lot. 9:53 [SPEAKER_01]: They got some signs around your in section ABC or the be sure you know which parts you're in and then head into the visitor center. 10:00 [SPEAKER_01]: pick up a map and some health information and then head right out to mouth to point just out the back door and there's your first look at the canyon. 10:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Then when you get ready to go anywhere else in the village area on the south from if you've got a parking place leave your car there just hang on to it. 10:16 [SPEAKER_01]: They have a great free shuttle system that will take to any place you need to be there on the south side of the park at the main part of the village. 10:22 [SPEAKER_01]: If you give up a parking spot at 10 in the morning and come back an hour later, it probably won't be there. 10:27 [SPEAKER_01]: So 10:29 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you look on the park website, there's all the details about the park shuttle system of map and how to navigate the area. 10:37 [SPEAKER_01]: The second tip is, the time of day, rhythm makes a surprising difference in how the canyon looks, and especially how it will be captured if you try to take photos or videos. 10:46 [SPEAKER_01]: The Magnum 6, the canyon is amazing anytime you see it. 10:50 [SPEAKER_01]: But when the sun is really high in the sky, especially if it's a clear day, all that bare rock can really start to look kind of harsh and the colors just won't be as vivid. 10:59 [SPEAKER_01]: So if possible, if you can smithen it right there right there in the park of close by so you can get up and enjoy the can in early morning, late evening I think you really have a much more enjoyable visit and it will really look much more dramatic to you when the sun's lower in the sky on your shadows on the rock formations 11:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you find the canyons even a lot more beautiful than it midday. 11:20 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you get there and it starts to cloud up, you've got clouds in the sky and don't let that give you concern in a lot of ways. 11:26 [SPEAKER_01]: The canyons is really even more beautiful when you have clouds because you get these neat shadow effects on the rock. 11:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you are there for sunset and the sun's coming down behind the clouds, you can already get some dramatic sunsets. 11:38 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not an expert photographer, but I do enjoy that as a hobby. 11:42 [SPEAKER_01]: So I do have a couple of suggestions about that. 11:44 [SPEAKER_01]: particularly if you want to go for a sunset shot and you go now to one of the overlooks give yourself some time to get there because everybody else wants to go to the overlook for sunset as well. 11:53 [SPEAKER_01]: So there's not overlooks along the popular seven mile drive called hermit road used to be called a western drive and from early March until late November the only way you can get there is by riding the shuttle bus and that's probably a good thing because otherwise the traffic jam is with jeep 12:08 [SPEAKER_01]: beach is absolutely gridlocked out there. 12:11 [SPEAKER_01]: So the shuttle bus is great, but allow some time to get on the bus and get to where you want to go. 12:14 [SPEAKER_01]: And there are some additional overlooks right near the village that you can drive to or walk to. 12:20 [SPEAKER_01]: So you don't have to get out and fight for bus if you don't want. 12:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Since that's a lot of people say, well, I want to get out. 12:25 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to shoot right at the side and again, if you have some clouds that's great, but really what you're trying to get is a sunset of the Grand Canyon. 12:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're shooting the 12:33 [SPEAKER_01]: At the sun right at sunset by then the canny is starting to get pretty dark and so it was pretty washed out so I found I had the best shots if I would shoot with the sun in my back for the sun to my slide before the sun got to. 12:46 [SPEAKER_01]: low in the sky and then you have all those red colors in the canyon instead of trying to work properly the sun is itself. 12:51 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a really great site on the Parkway website. 12:54 [SPEAKER_01]: If you google the term photography 101 capturing Grand Canyon, there are some wonderful tips from our pro that really help you in terms of your photography projects there. 13:05 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked Jim if he had any favorite stories from his time as a Ranger in the Grand Canyon. 13:10 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I do have a lot, but one of my favorites since we've been talking about the photography is a situation that told me by a fellow rancher there at the canyon family pulled into a parking spot after them out there overlook, which is now behind the new visitor center. 13:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Back in those days, you could drive right up preclin to the edge of the canyon and you get it right through at the overlook. 13:30 [SPEAKER_01]: And so in this situation, the family station wagon pulled in and you can tell this is a somewhat overstory with the station wagon instead of the minivan. 13:37 [SPEAKER_01]: The doors flew open and the wife and the three kids jumped out and they are rest over to the safety rail edge of the canyon and they were pressed and they were excited and pointed and oohing in. 13:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile, Dad was busy with his cameras. 13:50 [SPEAKER_01]: This was before the days of digitals and videos. 13:53 [SPEAKER_01]: So we had an 8mm movie camera and a 35mm still camera, and he walked over the edge of the overlook, and he grabbed the movie camera, and he paned left, and paned right, turned exhausted, his role of film, and the movie camera. 14:06 [SPEAKER_01]: So he dropped that, pulled up his 35mm and fired off a quick role of film, left to right, with the camera down and said, OK, everybody back to the car. 14:15 [SPEAKER_01]: And one of the kids turned around and said, 14:17 [SPEAKER_01]: We just got here, and Dad said, I've got it all on film. 14:20 [SPEAKER_01]: You can sit when we get home. 14:22 [SPEAKER_01]: We got three more parks to get to today. 14:24 [SPEAKER_01]: So it was both humorous and a little sad. 14:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody has their own agenda with the doing when they're on vacation. 14:30 [SPEAKER_01]: But hopefully that's a little extreme and most people have the opportunity to see more of the park than just to own film when they get home. 14:37 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked if he thought access to digital imagery had affected this impulse to come to places 14:46 [SPEAKER_01]: I suspect to some sense it has because it's so much easier now, the digital and that to get your photos and have some confidence that you got now you can get some quick feedback and know you can see it all when you get home back in the old days when I was starting out you had to 15:01 [SPEAKER_01]: pop that roll of film and the co-director and send it off you didn't get it. 15:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Think that heck for a week. 15:05 [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I think perhaps digital maybe does affect that in some of your stands. 15:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody has again their own, takes some people that's going to be their only trip out west in a lifetime. 15:13 [SPEAKER_01]: But they want to squeeze in as much as they can. 15:15 [SPEAKER_01]: But hopefully they can find some balance in there. 15:18 [SPEAKER_01]: have the chance to enjoy a little bit of the area where there are another illustration about us sometimes, work the information down there in the visitor center and people would come in occasionally and say, I just got here, I've only got an hour, what can I see in an hours time with the Grand Canyon? 15:33 [SPEAKER_01]: And we were always polite and try to give them some good suggestions, but that question came up one day and I just finished the conversation with the guy who was a regular visitor to the park and had been there a lot and he had stepped off to one side while talking to the next 15:45 [SPEAKER_01]: Visitor and I had that what can I do in an hour question. 15:48 [SPEAKER_01]: I heard him mumbling under his breath. 15:50 [SPEAKER_01]: You see, if you've just got an hour, just go by some postcards and get the car on going home. 15:54 [SPEAKER_01]: That was kind of to just take on it. 15:55 [SPEAKER_01]: But some people, that's all the hours all they got. 15:57 [SPEAKER_01]: And in fact, almost all the big park websites will have some tips. 16:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what you can do if you have an hour, if you have half a day, if you have a full day, if you have two days. 16:06 [SPEAKER_01]: So look at some of those things, so that can help you manage your time, especially if that's important to you and make the most of your visit. 16:12 [SPEAKER_01]: But I hope that people that have to take in the time experience to get to a place like the Grand Canyon. 16:17 [SPEAKER_01]: If they can spend some time, especially if you have a chance 16:20 [SPEAKER_01]: I think you find a whole different dimension if you get out, you can take a few of the easy walks, and just see the canyon the different taps a day, it'll be a whole different experience for you. 16:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Most people visit the South Rim as opposed to the North, but I wanted to know the difference between the sides, and whether it was worth making the long trip around to see the canyon from both sides. 16:40 [SPEAKER_01]: The great question is so forward to the five-hour drive to drive around for one side of the other, and 16:46 [SPEAKER_01]: The canyon is really impressive for both sides of the Northream, but there's a much slower paste kind of experience because there's not near as much development. 16:53 [SPEAKER_01]: But I think if I had only the two days, I would choose one or more of the other and spend the time here and go look at it from different viewpoints, get out and take some short walks and intermediate walks and really enjoy it more in depth rather than just spend a big chunk of your time driving with one of the other. 17:08 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't look dramatically different from one side of the other. 17:10 [SPEAKER_01]: So I think I would pick one and focus on it. 17:12 [SPEAKER_01]: That'd be my suggestion. 17:13 [SPEAKER_00]: I ask for any other tips he might have for saving visitors time and trouble. 17:18 [SPEAKER_01]: The South Ram is at 7,000 feet, and the North Ram over 8,000 feet. 17:22 [SPEAKER_01]: So unless you live at a high elevation, if you jump into something a little too vigorously in terms of height, you're going to be wondering who stole all the oxygenality air, just have to pay yourself a little bit to get used to the altitude. 17:34 [SPEAKER_01]: It's also a lot drier than the people expect. 17:37 [SPEAKER_01]: There's trees. 17:38 [SPEAKER_01]: close to the canyon on the south from the north for him but he might remember as you drove in you for basically driving through a desert and so there is dry so you really have to be careful to stay hydrated or the combination of the altitude and the humidity can catch up with you and if you want to why you're not feeding well it's probably because you're going too fast or because you need to catch up on your hydration and there are some great walks there's a trail called rim trail that runs for 13 miles along the canyon rim 18:05 [SPEAKER_01]: but you can take it in short segments, half mile or a mile a time. 18:08 [SPEAKER_01]: They're spots you can get on or off, service places, you can take a short half mile and then get on the shuttle bus and go back to where you're left to car, that kind of thing. 18:17 [SPEAKER_01]: So I was just people try to, again, find something that fits there to your situation. 18:22 [SPEAKER_01]: One thing, the park really costs us people about it and I saw a lot of folks get into difficulty. 18:27 [SPEAKER_01]: People deciding what to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. 18:30 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're in really good physical shape and you're prepared for that, 18:35 [SPEAKER_01]: really go and then that's fine. 18:36 [SPEAKER_01]: The main thing is to please don't try to hike to the bottom that can't go to the river and come back up the same day. 18:42 [SPEAKER_01]: The park has some really vigorous language trying to discourage people from that on the website. 18:47 [SPEAKER_01]: People would ask me sometimes, well how far is it down the bottom us? 18:50 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's basically seven miles through the shortest trail and I kind of size them up and if it looks like they could take a little bit here and I say, well, it's seven miles down, but it's 77 miles back and it would feel that way a lot of times. 19:01 [SPEAKER_01]: And that people get themselves into trouble, especially in the summertime, it's they had a heat warning today at the Grand Canyon, it was a hundred and seven degrees. 19:09 [SPEAKER_01]: At the bottom, even though it feels great at 7,000 feet up top, it is really hot down at the bottom. 19:14 [SPEAKER_01]: And it looks like they may break a record this year, they're currently paying for the number of rescues in the canyon. 19:19 [SPEAKER_01]: They average about 250 a year and they're way ahead of that. 19:22 [SPEAKER_01]: And the majority of those, so people who start off, they can make it get to the bottom and they can't get back out. 19:27 [SPEAKER_01]: And so there's one device to pace yourself and figure out what you're ready to do. 19:31 [SPEAKER_01]: So you can have an enjoyable visit and don't do over things in terms of trying to actually the bottom we're not ready for. 19:36 [SPEAKER_01]: good real thumb on any hike, especially one there with the canning is allowed, twice the amount of time to come back as you have going down. 19:44 [SPEAKER_01]: So if you've got four hours for a hike, don't hike down two hours and figure it's going to take you two hours to get back to the top because you need to learn more time to get out. 19:51 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're not in good enough shape for a full hike, there's great hikes along the realm. 19:56 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you wanted to get down and feel like you just won't experience some of the feel of being down in the canyon, I would sometimes tell folks just get on the trail and walk 15, 20, 30 minutes until you feel comfortable and then just turn around and come back at an easy pace. 20:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Once you get below the ramp, even just the short way it is a totally different perspective. 20:16 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's certainly a good approach rather than try to do a marathon thing. 20:20 [SPEAKER_01]: It typically 20:21 [SPEAKER_01]: somewhere to my surprise, the typical profile of someone who has to be rescued because they can't make it out of the canyon. 20:26 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a manual between 18 and 30 years of age. 20:30 [SPEAKER_01]: And we guys get that module thing. 20:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, I'm a good shape. 20:33 [SPEAKER_01]: I can do that. 20:34 [SPEAKER_01]: But it's a lot more to it than than you think in the canyon. 20:37 [SPEAKER_01]: So, see what you're really capable of and do something you'd enjoy instead of just trying to check off the box on your experience list. 20:43 [SPEAKER_00]: The best times to visit I learned are in May and September. 20:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and if you come, it's getting pointy as hard to find a time where it's not busy with the grand canyon, but certainly during the summer time, if people can avoid if their schedule allows them to avoid going during the summer, things will be less crowded to be a lot more fun. 21:01 [SPEAKER_01]: May and September are a great times to go if that's an option for you. 21:04 [SPEAKER_01]: It's still busy, but now it's quite as jammed in the summer, but if you're there during the summer, the park suggests you try to arrive either before nine 21:12 [SPEAKER_01]: or four in the afternoon because if you get there during those peak hours, there's times you could have a weight at the south entrance in where between 45 minutes and two hours, just to get into the park. 21:22 [SPEAKER_01]: So there are some alternatives to that. 21:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Just outside the park, the south entrance, which is the come through Flagstaff, Arizona, which is the main gateway community in drive up 21:31 [SPEAKER_01]: you come in the south-th entrance and there's a small community called Tuzian. 21:35 [SPEAKER_01]: T-U-S-A-Y-A-N, Tuzian, right outside the park. 21:38 [SPEAKER_01]: And there are a number of places in town you can park for free in Tuzian. 21:41 [SPEAKER_01]: And then there's a free shuttle bus from late May to early September that you can get on right into the park. 21:47 [SPEAKER_01]: The buses have a priority lane to get right on through. 21:49 [SPEAKER_01]: So you missed that big weight. 21:51 [SPEAKER_01]: So there's one option. 21:52 [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to drive into the park, another thing that will save you some time, you've got to have an entrance pass either in annual passes, good for all the parks, or you can buy a park specific pass or bring canyon. 22:02 [SPEAKER_01]: If you have that in hand, when you get to the gate, there is also a priority lane at the entrance. 22:08 [SPEAKER_01]: If you already have your pass. 22:09 [SPEAKER_01]: You can buy those at Dending Machines, they're in 200, you can buy them online before you go to the park that will save you some time. 22:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Another option is there is, another way into this algorithm is called the East entrance. 22:22 [SPEAKER_01]: If you drive north on U.S. 89 up to the town of Cameron, Arizona, then turn left or west on state highway 64. 22:30 [SPEAKER_01]: That brings you into what's called the desert view entrance to the park, the East entrance. 22:34 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you go that way, it adds about 25 miles to your drive and about 30 minutes to drive. 22:39 [SPEAKER_01]: But for the next 30 minutes, it saves you a 45 minutes to a two-hour 22:43 [SPEAKER_01]: delay at the south ram. 22:45 [SPEAKER_01]: I say that's a pretty good trade-off. 22:46 [SPEAKER_01]: And you have some extra deep points you can look at along the extreme drive. 22:50 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's certainly another option that you can do. 22:52 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you can get an internet signal, there is a webcam on the park website that shows you what the traffic looks like at the south gate. 23:00 [SPEAKER_01]: So I'll give you a size up if you're in Flagstaff and say, well, we've got nine minutes before we get to the gate, but it's going to be the end. 23:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Give us a serious thought to use in the alternative and coming in from the south. 23:10 [SPEAKER_01]: And another option there is a private railroad called the Grand Canyon Railway that operates from the town of Weems, which is a little way as west of Flagstaff where you can take a great steam train excursion up to the park. 23:22 [SPEAKER_01]: Get off you have about three hours there midday and didn't take you back to Weems unless you've arranged to get off it's been a night there. 23:28 [SPEAKER_01]: That's the list of the other options that people might enjoy at the big downside of that I'll see the data unless you have an overnight reservation that you have a pretty narrow window at the spend time in the park right there at the middle part of the day. 23:39 [SPEAKER_01]: But no matter when you go, the main thing is if you have a chance to go to the Grand Canyon, it certainly takes advantage of it. 23:45 [SPEAKER_01]: If you can only be there for an hour, ball means go and take advantage of it. 23:48 [SPEAKER_01]: If you could stay longer than not, thank you. 23:49 [SPEAKER_01]: It should be worth your while. 23:51 [SPEAKER_00]: We weren't able to spend the night on our recent visit. 23:53 [SPEAKER_00]: So I wanted to know where we should stay on our next trip to the Grand Canyon. 23:57 [SPEAKER_01]: There are some lodges and more motel type of establishments located in the park itself and the town of Tuseanne right outside has got a number of places. 24:07 [SPEAKER_01]: If you can stagger reservation and if you if your budget will stand in if you can be one of the lucky ones. 24:13 [SPEAKER_01]: The classic places to stay in the park is called the El Tavor Hotel. 24:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Since front on the rim of the canyon has built in 1905 is the oldest. 24:22 [SPEAKER_01]: operating hotels till they're in the park and it's a national historic landmark. 24:26 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a, if you try to visualize what a stereotype and national park lodge, so like that would be the ultimate goal to on. 24:33 [SPEAKER_01]: If you can get a room there, that's certainly a fantastic experience. 24:37 [SPEAKER_01]: And another way to at least kind of experience that obvious a little bit, even if you're not staying there, they've got a dining room. 24:44 [SPEAKER_01]: If you window tables actually have a view of the canyon right from your, 24:46 [SPEAKER_01]: take one of the dining room, and of course those are hard to get to. 24:49 [SPEAKER_01]: But just get in there for a lot, or breakfast. 24:52 [SPEAKER_01]: If they ought to borrow, get in and walk around the lobby if you don't have a meal there. 24:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Just get in kind of water look at that wonderful architecture from over a hundred years ago. 25:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Just something that you don't see a lot of places in the country anymore, and just give you a maybe a sense of life back at in a slower time when people got all the training came from New York and spent a week at the Grand Canyon. 25:10 [SPEAKER_01]: You can maybe get a little of that flavor if you just 25:16 [SPEAKER_00]: I've since looked up pictures of this lodge, and we're definitely stopping here the next time through, and for more than just a few minutes. 25:24 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to thank Jim Burnett for joining us again, and for all his insight on the Grand Canyon, I'll leave you with a few quick facts. 25:32 [SPEAKER_00]: The Grand Canyon National Park is not only one of the largest holdings in the National Park system, it is 50% bigger than the state of Rhode Island, measuring 1,904 square miles. 25:44 [SPEAKER_00]: There are roughly 1,000 different caves hidden within the canyon, though only 335 have ever been mapped or recorded. 25:52 [SPEAKER_00]: But if you would like to explore these caves legally, only one of them is currently open to the public. 25:58 [SPEAKER_00]: The cave of the domes, on the eastern side of the canyon, in Horshumessa. 26:03 [SPEAKER_00]: You might think of the Grand Canyon purely as a tourist destination, but there is a Native American tribe who lives inside of it. 26:10 [SPEAKER_00]: The Havasupai Indian Reservation, home to the Havasupai people, has a population of 208 and is the most remote human settlement in the lower 48. 26:20 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it's so off the grid that the male has to be delivered by packed fuel. 26:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Lastly, the canyon is frequently included on-lice of the so-called seven wonders of the natural world. 26:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Harley-Esteck, however, with her one-star review, was not impressed. 26:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Quote, honestly I don't get it, it's just a big hole in the ground. 26:44 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it does have a beautiful view, but people are overhyping about a big hole in the ground. 26:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Hours and hours of just walking around this hole, sorry to sound so harsh. 26:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Self-certified loophole guide, fire fist, was similarly disappointed. 27:00 [SPEAKER_00]: I've been to the green canyon once before when I was a kid. 27:03 [SPEAKER_00]: I took an opportunity to go there again, as an adult. 27:06 [SPEAKER_00]: When I got there the whole canyon was covered in clouds and mist so you couldn't see anything. 27:11 [SPEAKER_00]: I brought my dog who barked everyone. 27:13 [SPEAKER_00]: The people at the canyon were rude, as all the people on the state of Arizona are. 27:17 [SPEAKER_00]: I found I couldn't take my dog anywhere, and it didn't matter because I couldn't see anything. 27:22 [SPEAKER_00]: And from Whitney Scott, I visited the bland canyon in June of 2018. 27:26 [SPEAKER_00]: I was very excited to take my inner tube down the cottonwood river. 27:31 [SPEAKER_00]: It was awful. 27:32 [SPEAKER_00]: It was super rocky. 27:34 [SPEAKER_00]: I kept my foot on a rock, and my inner tube popped. 27:37 [SPEAKER_00]: The water was moving a little too fast 27:42 [SPEAKER_00]: I had an incredibly difficult time getting out of the canyon. 27:46 [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't find a ladder anywhere, sad face, will never return. 27:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Among the one stars review, you will find for the Grand Canyon online. 27:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Is this weird trend of people claiming to have lost their pants on their visit? 27:58 [SPEAKER_00]: As soon when they go to the Grand Canyon, their pants fall down or disappear. 28:03 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't get it either, but this is from Cheetah Puff. 28:06 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a very fun trip. 28:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Except when me and my husband went up to get a close of you, we were knocked down on the ground when we stood up our pants were gone Please fix this in the next patch. 28:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks. 28:19 [SPEAKER_00]: DJ the DJ Crock claimed to have seen more of his grandparents than he bargained for. 28:24 [SPEAKER_00]: I was visiting with my grandparents and my brothers, we were having a great time, or a horse swarrow, as New York grandma would say. 28:32 [SPEAKER_00]: We walked up to the edge of the cliff. 28:34 [SPEAKER_00]: I looked down and felt a weird sensation. 28:36 [SPEAKER_00]: I looked back up, and my family were in their skivies. 28:40 [SPEAKER_00]: My grandma had my pink underwear on. 28:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Would come again. 28:44 [SPEAKER_00]: And so on, there are hundreds and hundreds of these vanishing underwear reviews that are clearly not actual critics of the park, but rather just some kind of viral, non-sensical joke. 28:55 [SPEAKER_00]: If anyone out there listening knows the funny part, reach out, and let me know. 29:00 [SPEAKER_00]: In the meantime, in the next episode, we'll be visiting Death Valley.
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