Columnist Susan Snyder: Canyon speaks for itself

Monday, July 21, 2003 | 8:10 a.m.

One of the biggest draws for moving to Las Vegas was a hole.

A big hole.

A really big hole about 200 miles east of the valley.

That's as the crow flies. It can take up to five hours to drive to the Grand Canyon, depending on the rim. I make the trip twice a year or more.

We first met nine years ago. I was 34 and recovering from an illness that seemed to be something serious, but eventually called for nothing more challenging than six weeks of recovery and sweeping changes in priorities.

It was high time to check off some of those items on the lifelong to-do list. No. 1: The Grand Canyon. My partner and I hiked about five miles that first day, trekking just far enough below the South Rim to arouse what would become a voracious canyon appetite.

It may never be sated.

We will drive three or four hours out of our way to catch 30 minutes at the canyon's edge.

We have marveled at the vast wingspan of a California condor as it caught hold of a thermal updraft off Mather Point.

We have hiked across it from north to south, entering a chasm so deep the outer rims completely disappear from view. There are sounds and colors and smells I have seen nowhere else.

We have stared in slack-jawed wonder at tourists in flip-flops or pumps trotting joyfully down Bright Angel Trail without a care or a water bottle among them.

We have stood in scorching heat to watch a thunderstorm roll across the contours as if gazing upon a giant postcard, then huddled with half a dozen strangers for protection against icy, gale-force winds that whipped us with sleet.

Three winters ago my mother, then 73, laid eyes on it for the first time. Her arthritis and the ice-slicked sidewalks challenged both of us and her wheelchair.

"That was some trip," she still says, even when it has nothing to do with the conversation at hand. She may eventually forget everything else about us, but I am confident the Grand Canyon will remain for her to remember and enjoy.

It is perplexing, then, that members of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Phoenix are concerned that National Park Service officials Wednesday removed plaques quoting biblical psalms the sisterhood placed along the South Rim.

The plaques quoted Psalms 68:4, 66:4 and 104:24, and were affixed to buildings at Hermit's Rest, Lookout Studio and Desertview Tower.

Recent letters of concern prompted an inquiry by the American Civil Liberties Union and resulted in federal officials deciding that supporting a specific religion on federal property violated the First Amendment.

In a prepared statement published by the Associated Press and Arizona Daily Sun, sisterhood members said they were "stunned" by the removal as they believe the plaques "have inspired many of the awestruck beholders to admire and acknowledge the Creator of this majestic landscape."

Bless their hearts for wanting to enhance visitors' sensibilities. But the Grand Canyon experience is undeniably varied and deeply personal.

It creates its own light, its own weather, its own religion.

Go.

You'll never miss the plaques and cannot ignore the greatness of its creation.