Ray wrote:
Jay Honeck wrote:
I'd bet there are 1000 people whose only exposure to the grandeur of
the canyon is from the awesome view of an aerial tour, for every 1
person who is able to hike to the bottom of the canyon.

I think this is a bit of an exaggeration. The canyon has been made
extremely accessible - anyone can make it down (and back up), I've even
heard of people doing it in wheelchairs. Plus there's always the option
of getting to the bottom of the canyon on horseback or accessing it by boat.

True. I've seen people at the bottom who were so overweight and out of
shape that they wouldn't have been able to squeeze into a 152. It
requires some dedication and persistence to make it to the bottom, but
not a tremendous amount of fitness. I first did it myself when I was
nine years old and had my broken arm in a plaster cast. And during
those years, even without a broken arm, I was always in the bottom 5%
or 10% in everything we did in PE class at school.

You don't have to go all the way to the river to experience the canyon
-- Plateau Point, halfway down, is more accessible, less hot, and has
much better views. Most of the people who are able to walk all the way
across a shopping mall parking lot in the summer could walk to Plateau
Point if they wanted to. And most of the rest could take a mule train.

Obesity epidemic notwithstanding, the majority of Americans are healthy
enough to hike to the bottom of the canyon. It's ridiculous to suggest
that there are more air tourists than those who are ABLE to hike the
canyon, though it's true that the number who actually take the time and
effort to hike is a small fraction of those who are able to do so.

--Rich