Just got back from a trip to the Grand Canyon and the scale is messing with my head

I stood at the South Rim for like an hour trying to wrap my mind around the layers. You can see the Kaibab Limestone on top, then the Toroweap, then the Coconino Sandstone... it's a mile down. The park sign said it took over 2 billion years to form, but looking at it, my brain just can't process that amount of time. It feels like a painting, not a real place. How do you even start to understand geology when the numbers are that big?

3 comments

3 Comments

roberts.aaron1mo ago

Yeah, I mean, the part that gets me is that all that time is just sitting there, stacked up and quiet. It makes our whole deal feel pretty small.

blair_gibson781mo ago

Does it make you feel small in a bad way, or does that quiet stack of time give you a weird kind of relief? Like maybe the pressure's off because none of it was ever about us to begin with.

kai_knight118d ago

Three billion years of life just doing its thing before we showed up. @blair_gibson78 that quiet stack puts things in perspective when you see how birds don't give a damn about our deadlines or bills, they just keep being birds. Makes me think we're just borrowing time while the real clock keeps ticking.