Retiree Tour Group, Grand Canyon Inner Gorge, Arizona, 2002

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Retiree Tour Group, Grand Canyon Inner Gorge, Arizona, 2002 — Archive & Atlas

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Retiree Tour Group, Grand Canyon Inner Gorge, Arizona, 2002 — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 2002

AA-2026-289A39

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Every year, a few million people travel to the edge of one of the planet's most spectacular geological formations and spend most of their time talking to the person next to them. This group has descended below the South Rim into the inner canyon — no small feat in winter — and arranged themselves in the loose cluster of people who have not yet decided what to do next, which is a posture familiar to anyone who has ever joined an organized excursion.

The man in the wide-brimmed hat is consulting his camera with the focused attention of someone who has just discovered a setting he does not understand, which in 2002 meant a digital camera purchased six months ago that still had not revealed all its opinions. Behind him, the layered canyon walls drop through roughly two billion years of geology in a direction nobody in the group is currently facing.

Group travel in the early 2000s had perfected the art of delivering people to remarkable places and then letting them form a committee. The Grand Canyon, indifferent to the arrangement, continued being 277 miles long.

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