Taking three grandchildren — and their parents — along for a tour of the Grand Canyon can cause some unexpected moments.

WE LOST GRANDMA

Oh, she didn't fall into the 5,000-foot canyon, nothing so dramatic, but she did disappear while I was hiking along a trail on the rim of the canyon with my 12-year-old granddaughter. We were walking along at a vigorous pace. Grandma stopped to look at the plant and animal life. She was doing a bit of meditating too, admiring the canyon — one of the most awesome sights on the planet.

Before long, we were half a mile ahead of Grandma. We turned back to look for her, but she had already started back. By chance, we all met up in the parking lot. The other grandchildren, aged 7 and 10, had gone on a more ambitious hike with Mom and Dad.

Now, you may ask, why didn't we use some modern technology — cell phones for example — when Grandma became lost. Well, they might work in most places; however, reception around the canyon is chancy. Much of the time you can't make contact. It might be the mountains or the lack of transmitting towers. Whatever it is, the prehistoric Indians who roamed the area probably did better with smoke signals.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Anticipate the unpreditable when the family goes off on a trip. Yet three-generation gatherings are rewarding experiences. We have done them before, but to the beach. That's a bit less exciting than the canyon where we walked along rocks that were more than 200 million years old. We could look down into the canyon to the tiny ribbon of blue that is the Colorado River and see rocks more than 1 billion years old.

As one sage put it, man's visit to the canyon is just "a whisper in time." The Grand Canyon National Park, one of the most spectacular examples of the power of erosion (by the river and other water runoff), covers 277 miles of the river and adjacent uplands. It is crowded most of the year; reservations for camping or hotels on the rim are essential months in advance. You can drive into the park, but cars are banned from most of the roads and you travel from lookout to lookout by free shuttle bus.

Things can be chilly at the South Rim as late as mid-April. It snowed slightly when we visited in mid-April and temperatures went down to the 20s at night. It was in the 50s and 60s during the day. The North Rim, 1,000 feet higher, doesn't open until May.

KID STUFF

Here are some aspects that appeal to the kids:

Children can become junior rangers. All programs, guided by National Park Service rangers, are free. The South Rim — where Grand Canyon Village, a cluster of hotels, restaurants and gift shops are located — has a number of ranger tours. There is the Fossil Walk, for example, where the kids see fossils of marine creatures, which thrived in a tropical sea that covered the canyon 260 million years ago. Other tours delve into how the Grand Canyon was formed and look for the endangered condor with its giant 9-foot wingspan.

The kids delighted in seeing a couple of adult condors soaring above Grand Canyon Village leading their young in flying lessons.

We also visited the remains of a 1,200-year-old Indian village that was once occupied by the ancestors of the current Hopi tribe.

WHAT WE LEARNED ABOUT THE GRANDKIDS

Besides finding out a lot about geology, plants and animals, we discovered a bit about how to travel with grandchildren and their parents. First of all, we did not have to keep up with the energetic parents who were 25 years younger than us. We built in some downtime for Grandma and Grandpa.

Dad and Mom were indefatigable and led the kids a mile into the canyon on Bright Angel Trail and back. We ignored that adventure and stayed on the level trails at the top. Mom and Dad decided that the next time they come they might try to descend to the bottom.

The most energetic people hiked all the way down to the bottom; remember you have to climb back up the next day after camping out at the bottom or staying at the Phantom Ranch there. The only way to get to the bottom is to walk or take donkeys. Park Service officials brag that a mule carrying a rider has never tumbled into the abyss, although some of the supply mules have fallen.

How far you travel into the canyon depends on your desire and your condition. Park officials suggest that hikers planning a long descent start training several months before going to the canyon.

SPLASHDOWN

Our grandkids didn't seem to mind if we didn't do everything. Don't tell Daddy, who wants to make the most out of every new experience, but those kids seemed to like splashing around the hotel's indoor pool as much as anything. And so did I.

If you want to get an idea of what the canyon is like close up, an IMAX theater, just outside the park entrance, offers a huge movie that puts you in a raft bounding down the rapids of the river and in a plane skimming 20 feet off the bottom of the canyon. I actually felt slightly dizzy on that movie trip.

I also learned that kids liked to do activities, not listen to long lectures. So looking for small animals was fun. The kids saw tiny lizards and woodpeckers; plants and sunsets were less exciting.

But playing football in the hotel's parking lot wasn't that bad.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Grand Canyon National Park: http://www.nps.gov/grca

American Park Network, Grand Canyon: http://www.ohranger.com/grand-canyon

BOOKS

Find these books online at Barnes and Noble's website (www.barnesandnoble.com):

"Frommer's Grand Canyon National Park, 3rd Edition" — Alex Wells, Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated, April 2002

"Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon" — Michael P. Ghiglieri, Thomas M. Myers, Puma Press, January 2001

"Grand Canyon: The Great Abyss" — Page Stegner, Jeff Garton, Advanced Global Distribution, January 2006

E-mail Joe Volz at volzjoe2003@yahoo.com or write to 2528 Five Shillings Rd, Frederick, MD 21701. To find out more about Joe Volz and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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