Grand Canyon by Air

The Grand Canyon is quite a place to see. About six million people a year go there to be inspired, amazed, awed and to enjoy the vistas and colors of this natural wonder from the rim or the canyon floor. Wild animals and cracks and crevices and beautiful formations.

Some do this in a pair of hiking boots. Some with walking shoes, some on horses or mules and some by boat. Some by helicopter. Some do rafting trips.

All are likely to get a lot of memories from whatever route they use. Over 20,000 do rafting trips down the Colorado. Most, of course, never see it all as it stretches 277 miles. This is twenty-three miles longer than the State of Georgia.

I am reading a book about two adventurers that attempted the trip by boat in 1928: Glen and Bessie Hyde. (Sunk Without a Sound, by Brad Dimock) Glen was about thirty and she was about twenty-three. Recently married.

They decided to take a trip from Green River, Utah down the Green River over 175 miles upstream from the canyon and on through the over 277 miles of The Grand Canyon on the Colorado. They would gain fame and fortune and Bessie would be the first woman to do the Grand Canyon float. By the way, they would do this in a wooden skow that Glen would build on the banks of the Green River. A home-made boat, referred to as a sweep boat, to tackle the toughest river in the US. And, they would do it in the winter. (The area south from Green River, Utah is now obstructed by Lake Powell and other impoundments like Flaming Gorge.)

Bessie thought of herself as a poet, artist and creative person and weighed about ninety pounds. Glen was a smart, adventurous, and hardworking Idaho farmer. They thought this was an adventure of a lifetime. In fact, it was. Opinions vary of the pair and their dispositions. And, about their actual motivation for the trip.

Now I have never done the Colorado in a raft and I have not done it on the horses or mules. Perhaps the reader may have done one or all. If so, you are ahead of me in the been there done that department. And, I am envious.

I have been through portions of the Canyon by helicopter. It was awesome in itself. The pilot took off from the helipad and gained speed to about seventy miles per hour before we reached the rim of the canyon. He never got over about fifteen feet above the ground.

We reached the rim and it was as if the earth just fell away and we were left instantly suspended in the air as he brought the helicopter to a stop in the air, hovering several thousand feet above the Colorado and the bottom of the canyon. My stomach may have dropped a few feet, too. I think the pilot may have done that before.

Then, we swooped down through the beautiful colors and hues of the canyon walls. An amazing sculpture on the surface of the earth. An amazing flying experience.

We ended up on a sandbar beside the river where motor boats awaited and we then motored up stream for some distance and back. No pulling on the sweeps of a sweep boat or the oars of a canoe, kayak, or raft were required. Speaking as one who has wrapped a canoe around a rock in the Chattooga River section IV. And, by the way, I have also walked the Appalachian Trail, end to end. (I walked about a mile of the beginning in Georgia and a mile of the end in Maine. The miles in between were covered by car and airplane.)

So, many thousands have done what I’ve done at the Grand Canyon and lots more. I hold no special place in history, so far. And, likely, there will be millions more.

But I may have had an experience there at the Grand Canyon that only a select few have enjoyed. The day I was there, there were a couple of hundred people there with me. The day we I saw the entire 277 miles of Grandeur.

Beginning about 1997, I traveled to Las Vegas on business with my company once a year. Our major supplier participated in a national trade show there usually in February. I made that trip to Las Vegas on business ten times. In addition, I traveled there on my own about three times. Four of those business trips were made before 9/11 2001. Travel was less complicated then.

On this particular morning, it was bright, sunny and a perfect day for flying if there is such a thing. No doubt you have seen those days. Looking out the window, with smooth air flowing over the wings and the steady hum of the jet engines, the view is miles and miles. About six miles high. An occasional vapor trail of a passing airliner in the distance. Cars that resemble ants in miniature on highways miles below. An endless sky above. Five hundred miles per hour plus with a good tailwind if you happen to be going in the right direction.

The landscape changes as you leave Atlanta with lots of houses and trees. Roads and cars. Other airplanes in the approach patterns in the distance coming and going. People plugging in earphones to turn on some sound or device or other and to signal to you sitting beside them that they really don’t want to chit chat.

Once you cross the Mississippi River the landscape changes as you move westward toward higher and drier ground. More crop circles marking out an area of crop producing land in an otherwise unhospitable environment. Houses more spread out and ranches and farms of wheat and alfalfa and corn.

Mountains are really mountains of four, five and six thousand feet. Not the Stone Mountain or Kennesaw Mountain variety.

Off in the distance, at some point, you become aware of the approaching spectacle of the Grand Canyon but at 30,000 feet and twenty-five miles in the distance, it just loses something in the vapor of space in between. It is hard to see the 6000 foot walls of the deepest part of the Canyon from this perspective or to experience the eighteen mile width of the widest part. It is impossible to imagine Glen and Bessie Hyde going through there on the Colorado in 1928 in a wooden boat that looked like a mortar box used by brick layers.

You are likely to hear some comment like, “If you look close out this window you can see the Grand Canyon.” The response might be, “Really? We plan to visit there one day.” Not many ooows and aawws are invoked.

On this day, the pilot of the huge 767 airplane came on the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a great day for flying. The visibility and flying conditions are as good as you can ask for. Those of you on the right side of the aircraft will soon be seeing the start of the Grand Canyon in the distance.

I have just contacted flight control and asked for permission to lower our altitude to 14,000 feet and to let me change our route slightly so we can go directly over the canyon. If they allow me to do this, you will see a spectacular view of the canyon.”

In a couple of minutes, he came back on. “We have been cleared to alter our route and altitude. Don’t be alarmed as we start a descent to 14,000 and turn to carry us over the Grand Canyon. Once we are leveled out, I will slightly roll the plane wings up from side to side so that both sides of the plane will get a great view. Don’t be alarmed.”

In a moment the huge plane went almost silent. The power had been reduced and the 767 seemed more like a giant glider with two hundred plus passengers. In fact, it was now a sight-seeing tour bus but at 14,000 feet. Now we started hearing the ooows and aaaws.

Many people on that flight no doubt flew a lot and had seen a lot from their passenger seat. I had not flown extensively but always was on a plane several times a year including European travel and Hawaii. But, I’m certain, few had experienced such a flight as this.

We went the 277 mile length of the canyon and out over Lake Mead and Hoover Dam before the engines were throttled back up and we started our approach into Las Vegas. No doubt this itself was a once in a life time experience for most of us on board. If a pilot requested that today, they would probably scramble F-16 fighters.

Glen and Bessie never made it past the 232 Mile Rapids. Not as far as we know for sure. Their empty boat was found downstream, intact and ready to complete the journey. But they were never seen again. We think. (They had traveled over 400 miles by water)

Many stories have evolved since 1928 about the Hyde’s and what happened to them: Murder or accident. If murder, who murdered whom? If an accident, what kind? Did the boat just get away from them? Did she leave the river and become someone else? Did he? We only know they came short of concluding the trip in the skow. The mystery remains unsolved.

Unlike Glen and Bessie, my group made it down the canyon safely. And, I’d do it again!

So, maybe the horse and mules, kayaks and canoes are not to be for me in the Grand Canyon. Hiking is likely out, too. I guess I will have to settle for the helicopter, power boat and 767 tours. Ooow. Pretty cool! And, I may have one up on a few of you.

HJC 2021