Older man slipped to death on Guano Point, Grand Canyon

A reminder, poop (aka guano) can be slippery! Pardon my bad joke! My condolences to the survivors!

"Authorities confirmed that a 65-year-old man died on Thursday after slipping and falling over the edge at Guano Point, a scenic overlook on the Grand Canyon’s west rim."

Sunday, November 9, 2025 - Join The Flyover

Man dies after falling more than 100 feet into Grand Canyon

Rescue workers assemble a pulley system at Guano Point on the Grand Canyon's West Rim.

Finally More Commercial Development In Grand Canyon

Posted: 8/13/2014

Trigger

Just read “A Cathedral Under Siege Two Development Projects Threaten the Grand Canyon”.

The Opinion piece published in the New York Times intones “[Grand Canyon area]]confront a challenge that some are calling one of the most serious threats in the 95-year history of Grand Canyon National Park.  … a small group of investors the power to irreparably harm the crown jewel of America’s park system.” (emphasis added) .

In addition, on my daily commute I have heard now twice on NPR radio the same story about one of the two projects mentioned in the article. Guess, it was not positive and opposed to the project.

The Two Projects

Here are relevant excerpts from the article above (emphasis added):

1. “On the South Rim plateau, less than two miles from the park’s entrance, the gateway community of Tusayan, a town just a few blocks long, has approved plans to construct 2,200 homes and three million square feet of commercial space that will include shops and hotels, a spa and a dude ranch.”
2. “Less than 25 miles to the northeast of Tusayan, Navajo leaders are working with developers from Scottsdale to construct a 1.4-mile tramway that would descend about 3,200 feet directly into the heart of the canyon. They call it Grand Canyon Escalade.
   The cable system would take more than 4,000 visitors a day in eight-person gondolas to a spot on the floor of the canyon known as the Confluence, where the turquoise waters of the Little Colorado River merge with the emerald green current of the Colorado. The area … would feature an elevated walkway, a restaurant and an amphitheater.”

Here is the website of the Grand Canyon Escalade project.

My Side Of The Story

It is about high time that there is more commercial development in the Grand Canyon South/North Rim and southern Utah area. Anyone who ever travelled there will probably have noticed that there are e.g. few hotels, often old and expensive, far away from the attractions of nature you want to see.

Moreover many attractions can only be accessed either by a several mile one way hike (sometimes on unmarked trails through wilderness) or only with a high clearance, four wheel drive off road vehicles driving 10s of miles on unpaved roads towards  the attraction (e.g. The Wave in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument).

The extreme preservation and protection applied to federal lands is way overboard. The federal government owns most of the land around the Grand Canyon. Preservation for preservation’s sake is nonsense!

The Grand Canyon is almost 300 miles long thus, these two projects do not really diminish or severely impact the overall natural beauty of the Grand Canyon. As to the religious significance of the Convergence area for native people there appears to be some doubt or controversy about that, even NPR did not fail to mention it.

To give more leisurely or physically challenged tourists more access to the stunning beauty of the Grand Canyon is highly desirable and long overdue! To argue, like the author of the above article, that there are mules, helicopters, trails already available to reach the bottom of the canyon or to get close to the canyon is ludicrous.

Theodore Roosevelt

In my view, he is one of the most controversial U.S. Presidents of the 20th century right next to his relative Franklin D. Roosevelt. To use hyperbole, he was an imperialist (e.g. Panama Canal); a big government advocate; an enemy of big business in the wrong way; responsible for the FDA; responsible for the expansion of National Parks (e.g. at the expense of state parks) and so forth.

The author of the article above does not want to be remiss by quoting Theodore Roosevelt speech of 1903 at the South Rim (emphasis added):

““I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it, in your own interest and in the interest of the country — keep this great wonder of nature as it now is,” Roosevelt declared. “I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.””

Well, this was this man’s opinion! Unfortunately, his opinion has carried the day until now!I I respectfully disagree! Of course, humans can improve on nature’s beauty. How can humans appreciate the beauty, if they cannot access it.

A Gross Violation of FDA

The federal government I would assert is actually one of the worst offenders of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Just check out how many National Parks/Monuments etc. are to what extent accessible to handicapped people.

U.S. National Park Service Hostile To Individual Freedom

Trigger

My recent visit to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park (SR). This is the second of a series of blog posts about the U.S. National Park Service (first one here).

Toll Trail

Nearby are three photos I took from displays at the SR created by the National Park Service. When I read them on location I was stunned. Expressions of hostility towards individual freedom and free enterprise. The propaganda of the NPS here is that thanks to the federal government’s land grab we are now all much better off.

“Imagine if all the park trails were privately owned and every time you wanted to use them you had to pay a toll …”

Well first of all admission per vehicle to the Grand Canyon National Park is $25. Sure there are other options available like $10 lifetime pass for over 62 year old persons. However, most of us pay with our taxes for this as well whether we ever visit this park or not.

Of course Ralph Cameron had a “precarious legal” claim to the Blue Angel Trail and he dared to collect tolls for the trail all the while until finally in 1928 our savior the “National Park Service gained control”.

Unfortunately, I do not have the time to do more research into Ralph Cameron here, but this guy was among other things a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from Arizona.

The above photo was taken inside the Verkamp’s Visitor Center at the South Rim at Grand Canyon Village. I believe, this used to be a private business as well until fairly recently. Perhaps, a story for another time. The official NPS story about Verkamp is here.

I believe, the “Mining For Tourist Dollars” exhibit above talks about the early days of the Grand Canyon Village. To excerpt from this chapter: “No one spent a dime on community services, however, or thought to develop sensible zoning.” This is an incredible hogwash!

The early private entrepreneurs provided a variety of community services to common people: affordable, quality lodging and meals; guided tours; jobs and other services. The NPS said about Verkamp among other things following (emphasis added): “The Verkamps built their business on service to their guests, service to their employees, and service to their community.”

To use hyperbole, because there was no “sensible zoning” the federal government was entitled to grab the land for the Grand Canyon National Park? First of all, I would assume zoning was not yet widely established anywhere in U.S., except perhaps for the Northeast, around the turn of the 20th century when the Grand Canyon began to be developed (See e.g. Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of November 1926 regarding zoning).  I would also argue that government mandated zoning is no blessing and the disadvantages may have well outweighed the benefits (a story for another blog post). Not least it is often a severe interference with private property rights and freedom of contract.

One Of Fred Harvey's Special Girls

Trigger

I recently visited the Grand Canyon Village at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. On the rim SR you find three structures, which were part of Fred Harvey Company, i.e. El Tovar, Blue Angel Lodge, and the Lookout Studio.

It Is Not Judy Garland

Her name is Mary Colter. She is probably among the few early, accomplished female architects of the U.S. She was hired in 1901 by the Fred Harvey as an interior designer, but quickly became one of the main architects for this company completing 21 projects during her over 30 years career with the company.

To excerpt from Wikipedia: “She created a series of landmark hotels and commercial lodges through the southwest, including the La Posada, the 1922 Phantom Ranch buildings at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and five structures on the south rim of the Grand Canyon: the Hopi House (1905), Hermit's Rest (1914), the observatory Lookout Studio (1914), the 70-foot Desert View Watchtower (1932) with its hidden steel structure, and the Bright Angel Lodge [1](1935); Colter decorated, but did not design, the El Tovar Hotel. The four "Mary Jane Colter Buildings", as a group, were listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.”

The Import

Long before big government imposition of Civil Rights, Equal Pay and so on, talented women were making careers in formerly male dominated domains like architecture.

Why Are There Not More Private Hotels At The South Rim Of Grand Canyon?

Posted: 4/19/2014

Committing Heresy

I would suspect that such a question would be considered a heresy by many people without first thinking about it more thoroughly.

However, I have recently visited the South Rim (SR) of the Grand Canyon National Park for the first time.

Current Situation

There are 6-8 lodgings currently available at the SR as part of Grand Canyon Village. Some of them date back to the earliest tourist hotels available around the early 20th century. To keep it short, I will not go into details here about these hotels.

Apparently, staff working at the SR facilities are allowed to live up there in dormitories etc.

Federal Big Government Propaganda

Americans and the rest of the world have been kind of brainwashed for decades that only a powerful big central government could ensure the beauty of nature against private greed and commercialism and U.S. state ignorance.

Consequences

Government run hotels there are:

1. Affordable, but wait times for reservations can be a year perhaps longer unless you are willing to wait for a short-noticed cancellation
2. Prices for rooms do not fluctuate as would be the case if they were run by private businesses
3. Too few rooms are available at the SR to accommodate the 5 million or sor annual tourists
4. Thus, many tourists stay in William, Flagstaff, or Tuba City, which are 50 to 80 miles away from the SR
5. There appear relatively more camping accommodations available at the SR than hotel rooms. This is great for outdoor people and supposedly preserves the beauty more than hotels

When Big Government Builds Hotels At The South Rim

Apparently in the 1970s, big government allowed two more hotels to be built facing the SR close to the SR. I do not know the details of it.

However, these two hotels are so ugly 1970s (see picture nearby) that the old log-wood hotels build by Kolb brothers or Fred Harvey look like marvels compared to these eye sores.

Tune In For More

There is a lot more to say about Federal Big Government and its national parks/forrests etc., which I hope to cover in future blog posts, e.g.

1. Expulsion of private land owners and native americans
2. A land grab and expropriation on a enormous scale
3. Anti free market, anti individual liberty attitude of the National Park Service