Dude, It's Just a Rock

Behind the Scenery

A small piece of Vishnu Shist nestled near the Colorado River for perhaps millions of years. Until it caught the eye of one 17 year old with an impressive rock collection. His story begins with carrying his rocky burden out of the canyon and follows his rocky path to the edge of redemption. It’s the story of a young man becoming a ranger. It's everyone's story of redemption. How do you touch renewal at the rocky bottom?

---

TRANSCRIPT:

---

Transcription: DUDE, ITS JUST A ROCK

(Guitar strumming music) Doug: “… kind of like the Blues Brothers. I was “on a mission from God.” I was going git this rock somehow back into the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Because I had rock remorse. I had rock regret. And I figured by returning the rock I could gain a little bit of rock redemption. And maybe even a little bit of rock renewal.

Jesse: Grand Canyon is defined by rock. The colorful layers, stacked on top of each other, tell the story of how the earth has changed. I’m Jesse, a park ranger on the North Rim and today, on the podcast, we bring you the story of one of those rocks. A small piece of Vishnu Shist nestled near the Colorado River for perhaps millions of years. Until it caught the eye of one 17 year old. It a story of a rock leaving, then returning to the Grand Canyon. It’s the story of a young man becoming a ranger. It’s the story of redemption. It’s another story from ranger Doug Crispin. His story begins here.

(Soft guitar strumming music)

Our family did a vacation to the Grand Canyon where I fell in love with the canyon. I asked my parents to drop me off and leave me, which they did. And that started a park career. Between my Junior and Senior year in high school I worked as a bus boy at the El Tovar Hotel right on the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park. And during my time there that summer I was able to make four backpack trips all the way to the bottom of the canyon.

On one of those backpack trips I had my eye on picking up a souvenir … a rock from Vishnu Shist formation. I knew enough of the Grand Canyon, that I knew that was the oldest rock available in the canyon, or layers exposed. And I thought if I could pick up a Vishnu Shist rock, that would be pretty cool to add to my rock collection.

In the seventh grade, I had a science teacher who inspired me to learn about earth sciences, geology and rocks. And that’s how I got interested in collecting rocks. My parents encouraged me to start a rock collection, which I did. My mother was a librarian at a local high school. She had connections with the public library in town. And she was able to arrange for me to display my rock collection in the local public library. In a glass case. The newspaper reporter and photographer came out and took a picture of sitting right in front of the glass case. I was age 13. It was pretty heady stuff to have my picture taken when I was just in the seventh grade … a picture in the newspaper.

I picked up that pink rock … its about the size of an egg, I packed it out of the canyon, and I just kind of hung to it over the years. I kind of lost interest in collecting rocks in High School. Became more interested in body surfing and auto mechanics and backpacking and other interests. But for some reason, I hung onto this rock as I got rid of all the rest of my rocks in my rock collection.

Song (based on the Beatles song “Get Back”): Once there was a lad who Went to the Grand Canyon Where he found a special stone Picked it up and put it in his back pocket Then he took the rock back home Back ………

Doug’s summer working at the El Tovar started him on the path to becoming a career park ranger. The rock from the bottom of the Grand Canyon followed him as he moved from park to park, first as a summer seasonal, then as a permanent ranger. It travelled with him to 13 different national parks, before he and his wife settled down in Oregon.

Twenty years after I worked at the Grand Canyon, I was living in Oregon. I married a former park ranger. We moved to Oregon, started a family and our son was a year and one-half years old. And I decided to create a time capsule for his second birthday. For Christmas, I sent out empty envelopes to all four of his grandparents who were still alive, my wife and I had an empty envelope each. We had a couple months to decide what treasures and items we wanted to put into our personal envelopes which would be locked into our son’s time capsule, on the occasion of his second birthday. I remember a few things I put in there: my college ponytail that I cut off, my draft card from the Vietnam War era, a marathon medal, and I had also put that Grand Canyon rock in there.

We sealed up the time capsule. It sat on the shelve of our son’s bedroom for the next 16 years. And when he graduated from High School, and turned 18, we called for a gathering of the clan. And we were going to open up our son’s time capsule. Which we did. It was a grand occasion. I notified the television and the print press. And people came from 6/7 different states and we had a great time opening up the time capsule.

I took custody of all of the contents of the time capsule as my son went away to college, and later became a world traveler, living twice in Thailand, Germany and currently living in Japan.

The rock, accompanied by Doug’s college ponytail, and the other contents of the time capsule, sat on a shelf in the garage. It wasn’t until the spring of 2021, that Doug was organizing his things, and getting ready to return to the North Rim for the summer, that he rediscovered the time capsule. He was immediately drawn to the small pink rock. As he picked it up, the memories came flooding back. There was also something new.

And then as I held that Grand Canyon rock in my hand, I thought back to my career, as a career park ranger. Thinking about the many times that I have experienced kids, primarily, that would walk into my ranger station or my visitor center, and proudly showing me their treasure that they have found in the park. Treasures like a freshly picked flower, a pinecone, a live lizard, a shiny rock, things like that. And it was my job as the attendant park ranger to somehow give them an educational message: “yes that’s a beautiful flower that you have there young lady, but really you shouldn’t pick up rocks, shouldn’t pick up the flowers, you shouldn’t pick up the pine cones and what not, those are all protected items. That’s a very pretty flower you have there but please put it back where you found it.”

It was difficult, but it was a duty that park ranger across America have to do regularly. In fact yesterday, in my duties, I saw a woman picking flowers in a meadow and I had to go remind her “those are nice flowers, take all the photographs you want, but please don’t pick the flowers and put them back where you found them.”

So here I am, a career park ranger, with a rock from the bottom of the Grand Canyon. And I started to develop a little bit of guilt and remorse over having that rock. But it wasn’t my rock. I did have to contact my son in Japan and ask permission … if I could return that rock to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I explained “that I gave it to you as the second generation, it was part of my really cool rock collection when I was a kid, but, it was good intentions, but a bad idea and illegal. And I would like to return it.”

And so he was on board with that. He said “sure, go ahead. I think that’s a good cause.”

So then I developed a mission. I was on a mission … kind of like the Blues Brothers. I was “on a mission from God.” I was going git this rock somehow back into the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Because I had rock remorse. I had rock regret. And I figured by returning the rock I could gain a little bit of rock redemption. And maybe even a little bit of rock renewal.

(song) Back Put it back Put it back to where it once belonged “Put the rock back, son!”

Doug brought the rock with him when he returned to the North Rim for the summer. At the beginning of each season, rangers sit down with their supervisors and discuss their long term and short term goals.

Typically, young up and coming rangers say “I want to be Chief Ranger someday. I want to be park superintendent in ten years, I would like to be Park Director in 20 years, or something like that. But my goals were a little odd, I guess. I revealed my plan to my boss. I said I have the rock I picked up 52 years ago and I am on a mission to return it back into the bottom of the Grand Canyon. If I can do that, I’ll feel I had a successful season.

And I thought … she probably thought “well that’s kind of a weird goal and objective,” but you know I was just keepin’ it real and being honest with her. So she was one of the few people I shared my plan with.

And my plan was to try and get into shape, and hike that rock back down into the canyon on a long weekend if I could do it. But I kept my plan on the down low for two reasons.

One, I had a friend of mine I know if I shared it with him his reaction would be “Dude, it’s just a rock. Why bother? It’s no big deal, man. Just let it go. Forget about it. You’re making too big a deal out of it.” So I definitely didn’t want to share it with that friend!

And the other thing I had on my mind … it’s not easy, you know, at my age, to make it all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. From the North Rim side it’s even harder. So I didn’t want to announce my plan and not be able to achieve that goal. So I did keep it on the down low.

Hiking in Grand Canyon is hard. To get to the Colorado River from the North Rim and back requires hiking nearly 30 miles with more than 12,000 feet of elevation change. Temperatures can be extreme. For highs near 120 degrees at the river, to lows in the teens on the North Rim. It is extremely important that hikers choose the right season, an itinerary that is suitable for their fitness and experience, and train for their trip.

Fortunately for Doug, the best place to prepare for hiking in the Grand Canyon, is Grand Canyon.

So in the ensuing month working on the job I did some patrols on the job, lots of hiking after work and on weekends. I logged over 80 trail training miles, including four long day hikes into the Grand Canyon. And about a month later I figured I’m in shape, I think I can try this.

I reported to the Backcountry Office, secured a three-day backpacking permit, loaded up my pack, including my Grand Canyon rock and headed down the Canyon.

The first day I hiked 6 ½ miles, down 4200 feet. Set up camp for two nights … a place called Cottonwood Camp halfway between the North Rim and the Colorado River and Phantom Ranch. Day two was the big challenging day of my trip. My plan was to wake up early, with a day pack only, and hike about a 15 mile day hike, all the way to the Colorado River and then back to my Cottonwood Camp. Which I left shortly after 4 in the morning and by 7, I was at Phantom Ranch, which is not on the river. It’s a short distance up stream from the river but there I rested and recovered. I wrote a couple postcards, and then threw my day pack on again.

I said, you know, I have to make it all the way to the Colorado River. And boom, but as soon and I saw and heard the river and smelled the Colorado River it brought me back 52 years to when I was a kid and first hiked to the bottom of the canyon.

I got really excited at that point. I pulled the rock out of my pack. I wondered over towards the Silver Bridge, one of the two footbridges across the river. I pondered the history of the rock, and gave it a big toss, threw it down towards, not into the river, but down towards the river. And I said goodbye to the rock. And, I felt great! It felt wonderful. If it’s possible to have a sweaty pack and hiking in over 100 degree temperatures, I floated all the way back to Cottonwood Campground. I just felt I had done the right thing and it felt great.

I was back in Cottonwood Camp. Hung out in the creek the rest of the day, read a book, hung out in camp, and my mission was partly accomplished so I still had to make it out of the canyon. (song) Fifty-two years later Back at the Grand Canyon With that very special stone Hiked it to the bottom of the Grand Canyon Then he put that rock back home

Back, put it back …

So I spent my final night at Cottonwood Campground, there was no tent. I slept on top of my sleeping bag. I woke at 4 in the morning. The moon was up. I started up-trail with my red headlamp on, but after a short 5 or 10 minutes, I turned that off. I got completely accustomed to the moonlight hiking. Had the whole canyon to myself that early and I was singing Cat Stevens: I’m being followed by a moon shadow all the way up the trail until the sun came up.

I was still floating on air. And I made it back to my cabin by about 9 in the morning. Grabbed a shower. Cooked up the pizza. And I celebrated. Mission Accomplished! (Song) Put it back to where it once belonged Back Put it back Put it back to where it once belonged. “Put the rock back, son!”

Mission accomplished.

The rock that had weighted so heavily on Doug, was back where it belonged. But Doug’s mission was always about more than just the rock.

And then, I started thinking about this. Reflecting on my mission. The rock redemption story. And are there any life lessons to be learned from this? And I can say, from a personal point of view: yes. There are several.

And the most obvious life lesson is: Don’t pick up any natural or cultural items in the national parks. They are all protected by law. Leave everything that you find where it is. And I wouldn’t have gotten in this predicament all these years later.

And the other thing I thought about is: It’s never too late, or you’re never too old to do the right thing in life. If it’s the right thing to do, then do it. Who cares how old you are?

And then the bigger picture understanding I think I gained from this story was: Try to make it through life with a minimum amount of regrets.

You hear stories all the time of people who have a falling out with a family member or a friend and they never have a chance to reconnect with that person. And you have to carry around that weight of that unfulfilled, undone business on your mind for the rest of your life.

So the biggest takeaway from this story for me is: don’t have any undone business.

Do you have a thank you that has been left unsaid?

Is there somebody who has influenced you, an influential person that maybe you haven’t sat down and told them that you appreciated what they did for you? Their inspiration.

You know, is there an apology out there that you need to make?

Then my questions is: What are you waiting for?

I would say:

Write that note. Say I’m sorry. Say I love you. Say thanks.

So basically I’m saying: Throw that rock. Because, dude, it’s more than just a rock in you life.

And I can guarantee you this: if you throw that rock, if you live your life with a minimum amount of regrets, you will feel great inside, for the rest of your life.

My name is ranger Doug. I’m a summertime ranger at the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, and this is my story of rock redemption.

(Soft guitar strumming music) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Doug for sharing his story and writing the parody song Put It Back, with apologies to Paul McCartney.

Behind the scenery is brought to you by the interpretation team at Grand Canyon National Park.

Audio production is by Wayne Hartlerode with music by Doug Crispin, Hannah Veltkamp, Brian Lozano, Mike Bahrmasel, Ana Stevenson and Wayne Harterode.

We gratefully acknowledge the native people who’s on ancestral lands we gather, as well as the diverse and vibrant native communities who make their home here today. (song) Back Put it back Put it back to where it once belonged Back Put it back Put it back to where it once belonged. “Put the rock back, son!”