Gravity. It's real.

I am a little amazed by the number of people who visit the Grand Canyon and completely ignore the availability of railings such as this one. On the other hand, I recall Jeff himself setting out for rocky outcrops on hikes of yore, and sneaking careful peeks over a few precipices myself...but the GC is special. In the sense that there aren't too many other cliffsides where you have the opportunity to achieve terminal velocity before you reach the bottom. But here it's the norm.

After getting "home" to Flagstaff yesterday, I did a little online research into Canyon fatalities. Sources differ a bit, but it seems that no more than a person or so tumbles off each year, whether accidentally or on purpose. A more typical cause of death in the park is deciding you can hike to the bottom on your liter of Deer Creek bottled water. In point of fact, you probably can. What you can't do is get back up, and--without having carefully provisioned yourself with fuel, water, and proper clothing, you stand a decent chance of meeting your end due to heat stroke or other unfortunate system failure. Consequently, posters highlighting the dangers of hiking unprepared, the surprising rigor of the area, and demises of otherwise healthy individuals are prominent and ubiquitous.

Nevertheless, I'm surprised more silly people don't fall in. At our very first overlook yesterday we saw plenty of humans casually strolling the edge, including one who appeared to be about 6 years old (while his mother stood calmly on a rock nearby. I don't know...maybe they had other children and didn't need that one.)

Now I remember a time when Jeff and I hiked with friends in the woods of Pennsylvania. We came upon an overlook which had been carefully and responsibly railed, so as to give hikers a good safe look. A couple had climbed over, for no apparent reason. You could see just as well from inside the railing. The man held out his hand thinking surely I would want to join them on the other side. Here's the thing: I had a nine month old baby in a backpack on my back, and this couple thought I'd want to climb--already unwieldy and top-heavy--over the safety of the railing. I said no thank you.

I guess most humans are as agile and dextrous as they think they are. I just like to err on the side of caution.