Grand Canyon: Indoors and out during winter

Who goes to the Grand Canyon and writes a blog about the design of the dining room?  Well it is winter: dark, cold.  But pretty wonderful here nevertheless.  Stunning scenery, clear days.  Grand Canyon is more beautiful than the many well-published photos. The photo above is our view from the south rim a week after heavy snowfall.

We have had three full days of sun, geology and mountain scenery at Grand Canyon on top of a full month of stunning Arizona birds and desert scenery in southern Arizona; a casual walk in the Patagonia area and an Elegant Trogon appeared (very rare bird in the U.S.)  All this is to say that our time in Arizona has been well spent.  Relatives--time with my dear sister.  Friends--Jean and Cynthia came from Seattle.  New friends--Margie, Gary, Paul and others in Tubac. A lovely visit with Novie who now has moved from DC to Clarkdale, AZ.  Saguaro cacti everywhere my eye falls. This area is a contrast with Louisiana, our other long-stay upon return to the US. Both are a good introduction to resuming life in this country.

But what I was not expecting is the delightful early 20th C resort on the south rim of the canyon.  We walked into Bright Angel Lodge where we are staying--stone fireplace, log design.  Totally a throwback to the era when tourism was starting here with the Santa Fe Railroad bringing tourists.

Our cabin at Bright Angel Lodge

I grew up in Montana with many family vacations to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks but this is my first adult visit to the Grand Canyon; Nancy's first visit at all.  This is of the same era as my much loved Old Faithful Lodge and Many Glaciers Lodge up north.  But this is the southwest and the Santa Fe RR so the design and presentation fits this locale.  I just love this stuff and am happy to learn about the designer of the many buildings that give me such pleasure.

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter was the architect for the Fred Harvey Corporation beginning in 1901. Fred Harvey was one of the main entrepreneurs of tourism for Grand Canyon, hiring Colter for many buildings and other design efforts. Her 40 years with the company spanned an era of design that I particularly love.  Much in common with Charles Rennie McIntosh in Glasgow, John Ruskin in England and an era of art and design which has largely faded from view except in historic designations. The hotels that Mary Colter designed here are on the Register of Historic Places and are in the "Historic Hotels of America." Fortunately, Bright Angel Lodge is also affordable.

The two buildings shown below are on the south rim of the canyon.  Lookout is directly in front of the building we are staying in and is one of the primo places to watch for California Condors to rise up on thermals out of the canyon.  Right now, too cold for condors, sadly. Desert View Tower is quite far east, near the Navajo lands.  It looks down on the area the Little Colorado River joins the main river. Both of these areas were highlights for early tourists and for us too. I think the buildings are striking.

Lookout, by Mary Coulter

Desert View Watchtower, by Mary Colter

Thomas Moran and early painting of Grand Canyon
A little detour from Mary Colter and architecture to Thomas Moran and painting.  Moran Point, along the south rim is one of the views made famous by Thomas Moran an early 20th C. American painter. Heroic views of scenery, larger than life; some of his work was on view at the Renwick in DC until the recent remodel unfortunately set different priorities.  This famous painting of Grand Canyon is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (More information here.)



And here is another picture of the same scene by Moran. This is Nancy's snapshot of an information panel at Moran Point, which reproduces the picture below. You'll notice how different it is from the painting above.  The panel at Grand Canyon comments, "Moran placed no value on literal transcriptions of nature. Instead, his paintings were idealized landscapes, drawing from the inspirations that surrounded him."  We can hardly imagine that much mist and cloud cover.

Colter
Back to Mary Jane Colter--her philosophy of architecture was to design buildings and accouterments which fit the physical and cultural landscape of their location.  She preferred to use native materials to blend into the landscape,  Since she designed many of the early buildings of the "Village" on the south rim, her influence is widely felt.

The fireplace in Bright Angel Lodge was designed by Colter to mirror a typical cross-section of Grand Canyon Geology.The stones for the fireplace were hauled up from their places in the canyon by mule and put in place where Colter determined they should go.  Stunning.  The room with the fireplace is a history room now and had no fire, sorry to say.

Fireplace at Bright Angel Lodge

The bottom of the fireplace is made of Vishnu schist, the basement rock of the canyon, about 2 billion years old.  It is dark colored and generally has vertical orientation.  In front of the upright schist layers are rounded rocks pulled out of the river itself, carried along from many layers and eroded into roundish shapes. Next from the bottom is what they call here "Grand Canyon Supergroup."  These layers include the bright reds, blue greens which define the canyon visually for most of us.  In the cnyon and here in the fireplace they are at various angles reflecting their uplift and erosion. Then we have Paleozoic layers--also bright reds and yellows--mainly horizontal.  The top is Kaibab limestone--yellowish, buff, white.

Dining in the early 20th C. and today
So to the dining room.  I am particularly charmed by the dining room at El Tovar, the high-end historic hotel also designed by Colter. It touches all my historic, 20 C. art and childhood buttons and had fairly good food as well.

Lobby of El Tovar

El Tovar Dining Room in dim light. I am taken with the light fixtures (detail below).

Light fixtures, furniture, dinnerware were designed by Mary Colter to fit the era and area.

These lights could be in Glasgow at the Glasgow School of Art. The furniture and animal heads are National Park Lodge style.

This dinnerware though, with similar philosophy, could be nowhere else.  Colter took Mimbres designs (Mogollon culture from southern New Mexico, more information here) and created stunning dinnerware which was used by Fred Harvey and the SFRR in their hotels and dining cars.  Although those corporations have demised, the hotel here has carefully had recreations made.  We had our pork chops and bread and butter on these fine plates. What a pleasure.

We are ending our month in Arizona.  Off to Nevada and Death Valley.  So much rain this year has probably created a great wildflower year.  More delights.