The sky was lightening in the east, sending out delicate rays, burning the tips of the piñon pines until they looked as if they were on fire. The air itself seemed touched with gold. A walk-way arced from the parking lot toward a small building; next to it were more pines, more slices of sky touching distant mountaintops, and yet, with less than a hundred yards to go, the view of the canyon itself eluded him. “I can’t believe we’re this close, and we still can’t see it,” Ashley said, straining onto the tips of her toes. “I read that in some spots you can almost walk right to the edge before you realize you’re on the rim.” Hoisting a backpack bristling with camera equipment onto his shoulders, Steven told her, “Just a little farther. We’ve got to go right past this building and then….” He didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. In front of all of them loomed a vision that Jack could hardly believe, a vast space so incomprehensible it seemed to stretch across time itself.
