The light gleaming out of different parts of Grand Canyon took me back to the dawn of creation. I celebrate everything that has evolved since. Alyssa Combs photo.
Happiest day, beloved Joy Train Rider! I affirm you are doing well. Bless you. I love you.
The greatest thing so far happened yesterday. My friend Charmaine, with whom I spent many hours on our balcony talking about when we would tour national parks together, came on the Transformational Tour to Grand Canyon last weekend, September 12-14, because one of the key leaders of the tour had an emergency. Speaking with her yesterday, she said
“Audrey, I was crying. I feel like I don’t even know what America is now. I feel embarrassed that a place like this exists in my country where I have lived since I was a child in New Hampshire, and this is the first time I’m seeing it?”
She continued, “Remember I asked you how could you and Frank keep going on this journey for 30 years? I understand now. Because I feel like I want to protect her and bring everybody to see what the Grand Canyon really is. It’s like a heavenly city right here on Earth.”
Exactly.
On Monday’s tour I told you how happy I was to find the Desert View Drive after looking for it without success several times. I saw it years ago when I was driving from Flagstaff by myself to speak at the park’s Black History Month celebration. I was never able to find it since, but the memory of a vast, intense field of light glinting like jewels stayed on my mind.
Oh joy to find it now, in the company of my peers and people newly being introduced to the GRAND Canyon.
The trail started innocuously enough, a quarter of a mile from the parking lot, winding among pinion pine trees. Suddenly, we approach the rim and the entire gushing pristine shining beauty of everything on Earth seems to spread out before our eyes. It fills our view to the left, in the center and to the right, curving the corner. our view to the west blocked only by the only by the Desert Tower, the only human construct on the rim.
Our merry band on the Transformational Tour of National Parks for influencers had no idea the rapture ahead on the 23-mile Desert View Drive.
Oh! My! Goodness!! We stand and sit and drank it in as people come and go, murmuring in awe. A golden light seems to glow from an interior wall spread out like a whole kingdom. The glistening blue green Colorado River meanders through, in places placid, in others churning with foam. WOW!! It feels like looking into the Sanctuary of God.
Influencer and GIS whiz Alyssa highlighted the value of the national parks to all Americans, and BIPOC Americans in particular when she posted:
“Did you know that only about 7% of visitors to national parks identify as African American? This statistic highlights a broader trend where people of color, including Latinx, Asian and Indigenous communities, also visit national parks at significantly lower rates.
“According to the National Park Service, the overall percentage of people of color visiting these spaces is around 22% compared to nearly 78% for white visitors.
“These number magnify the importance of the Diverse Environmental Leaders National Speakers Bureau Transformational Tours Diverse Environmental Leaders National Speakers Bureau impact by creating an experience for an amazing group of leaders and influencers #colorinthecanyon
