When I was born, the community of Page, Arizona did not exist. In 1957, seventeen square miles of land were purchased from the Navajo Nation to build a housing community for the construction workers who built Glen Canyon Dam-the second of the great dams on the Colorado River. When this dam was completed Glen Canyon was flooded and created Lake Powell, the second biggest man made lake in US. This is the dam that was the target of Edward Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang.
From this vantage point, when you turn your body 180 degrees, your vista changes dramatically. You go from one that speaks to man's imprint on the landscape to nature's untamed version. This is a sunrise view as the light begins to show the canyon wall's colors. It is the eastern boundary of the Grand Canyon.
Standing here, watching canyon wrens from above, it brought back many memories of my first adventure down this mighty river some thirty years ago. Twenty one days floating and learning to navigate rapids in oar boats, touching the oldest exposed rocks on this planet that have been tumbled for eons, seeing the green created by Havasu Falls. The Grand Canyon will always be a place of magic and mystery for me and it was good to see it again.
