Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Universal Warning, Grand Canyon

Warning signs appear fairly early on, as one descends into the Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail (the most popular and accessible path). The hike is unusually dangerous for the simple fact that it's downhill first, compounded with significant altitude change and hot dry shade-less baking sun. In addition to English, the languages of the warnings presumably reflect the worst offenders of overconfidence (French, German, and Chinese --- the latter two no surprise given that in any US national park one typically finds hearty Germans deep in the outback and busloads of slightly confused Chinese/Taiwanese tourists wandering in all directions). The image, however, is beautifully universal: "If you don't take this canyon seriously, you're going to collapse on the trail all sunburned and puking."

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