Grand Canyon Part III: Desert View

When we visited the Grand Canyon back in 2007, we drove the car up from Flagstaff where we were staying to visit the canyon for a second day. We drove along the rim to the east of Grand Canyon Village and stopped at some of the overlooks. This trip, since we had more time, we drove east all the way to Desert View, which is near the east entrance to the park.

Desert View is located about 27 miles from Grand Canyon Village, and if you have the time, it is well worth the drive. The main part of the Grand Canyon within the national park runs roughly east to west. At Desert View, the canyon takes a turn toward the northeast. This bend in the canyon provides for expansive views. The photo below is looking northeast. You can see the Colorado River just to the left of the center of the photo.

 

The next photo is looking west. They were conducting a controlled burn of dead branches and debris down toward the southern entrance that day, and you can see the smoke drifting out over the canyon.

 

The real gem at Desert View is the Watchtower.

The Watchtower is another building at the canyon designed for the Fred Harvey Company by architect Mary Colter . The Watchtower was designed as a gift shop and rest stop for tourists. The tower, which is designed to mimic an ancient Indian watchtower, was opened in 1933.

There is a gift shop off to the side of the tower on the first floor. From the second floor of the tower, you can step out to an observation deck over the gift shop.

The most impressive part of the tower is the interior. The interior of the tower is open with circular balconies. There are narrow staircases going up to each higher level. The photo below is looking up the central opening with its surrounding balconies.

 

The interior of the tower is decorated with images painted by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie depicting Hopi mythology. In the photo below, Paul is sitting in front of one of those images.

Murals and other images painted on the walls and balconies by artist Fred Greer are copies of prehistoric pictographs and petroglyphs. Margery is standing by some of these images in the next photo. The small windows keep the interior of the tower rather dark to give it a cave-like appearance.

After we left the Watchtower, we drove about three miles from Desert View back toward Grand Canyon Village and stopped at Tusayan Ruin, which is a pueblo from about 800 years ago. We happened to arrive just as a ranger-led tour started. The rangers really know their subjects and are very interesting to listen to. She talked about some of the artifacts in the small museum, then led the group outside to the pueblo where she described what life was like for the pueblo dwellers. The photo below shows the partially reconstructed and stabilized walls of the pueblo.

 

The pueblo was "U" shaped with the sleeping rooms at the base of the "U" and smaller food storage rooms on the two legs of the "U." The photo below shows a scale model of the pueblo that was in the Canyon View Information Center.

Like other pueblos we have seen, entry was through openings in the roof. This would have helped keep animals and wind out of the pueblo. Activities such as grinding corn, weaving baskets, preparing game, and cooking would have taken place on the roof or in the courtyard enclosed by the "U."

The circular structure at the left corner is the kiva, or ceremonial chamber. A larger kiva (in the background to the upper right in the above photo) was constructed a little later. The next photo shows the base of the later kiva.

 

The kivas we have seen at other ruins have been completely or mostly underground. Here, there is only about 18 inches of soil before you hit solid rock, so the kiva was constructed mostly above ground. The ring of stones in the center was for the fire. There was a semi-circular bench around the perimeter on the near side on which ceremonial vessels were placed. The two posts indicate where two of the four roof support posts would have been. The original posts were taller. Logs and branches would have been leaned up against the perimeter of the roof and then the whole thing would have been covered with mud.

While we were listening to the ranger at the pueblo, we also learned  the yellow-green, twiggy balls in the juniper trees were a variety of mistletoe.

From the pueblo, we headed back toward the west and stopped at several of the overlooks along the way. At Grandview Point, Paul hiked a short way down Grandview Trail. Grandview Trail was originally constructed by miners and follows an ancient Indian route down to Horseshoe Mesa where the Grandview Mine, also known as the Last Chance Mine, was operated by Pete Berry from 1892 to 1901. The trial is quite steep and narrow. The photo below was taken from Grandview trail.

 

Pete Berry also operated a hotel at Grandview that had the reputation of being the best accommodations at the canyon. However, in 1901, the railroad arrived at a spot 11 miles to the west and travelers no longer wanted to take the bone-jarring stagecoach ride to Grandview. The El Tovar Hotel was built at the rim of the canyon near the rail terminus by the Fred Harvey Company and opened in 1905.

We had a great visit to the Grand Canyon. We had time to do a lot more than we did on our first visit, and we really enjoyed being able to hike along the rim and down into the canyon. From the Grand Canyon, we continued on our way west toward California.