Photo Of The Day: Close To The Edge
As anyone who has visited Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park will know, most of the Canyon’s North and South Rims are not fenced off, which means that thrill seekers and foolhardy visitors alike are able to access areas of each Rim that are not exactly safe or necessarily stable.
Clearly it would take an army of National Park Rangers to police the millions of visitors who head to Grand Canyon every year. Given this fact, authorities rely on the common sense of visitors to not indulge in behaviour that puts themselves or others at risk. However, over 250 visitors are rescued from the Canyon each year, many suffering from dehydration, falls, and other accidents.
I don’t know what this couple were thinking when they climbed over railings and edged their way out onto this rocky outcrop overlooking a deep drop along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon – but clearly they were prepared to risk their lives getting as close as possible to the edge of the Canyon in an attempt to get their holiday snaps.
Maybe they hadn’t read about the 600 or so deaths that have occurred in the Grand Canyon since the 1870s, and therefore didn’t know that some of those deaths occurred as the result of the same over-zealous photographic endeavours this couple were indulging in.
It might be too, they have no knowledge or understanding of the forces that have shaped Grand Canyon, and simply assumed that the outcrop of rock they were standing on was perfectly stable and safe – despite the obvious rifts and cracks to be seen in the above image – and certainly in spite of the fact that Grand Canyon continues to be eroded and shaped by the forces of nature.
