Dot Nielsen

In this second Grand Canyon post I want to show how the closer surroundings looks when walking around on the South Rim.
As a landscape architect I find it interesting how the edge is landscaped… and I haven’t seen any photos of it! So here are a few.

As a huge tourist destination Grand Canyon needs to accommodate lots of people. I find it interesting how to create a structure that can do that without disturbing the sights.

A growing paradox of the tourist industry, we all want to visit ‘untouched’ or ‘remote’ places.
How to manage that illusion with more and more tourists?


The paths and viewpoints along the rim are made as natural-looking as possible, using natural stone, and often a bit rough and cut into the stone. Pathways are meandering naturally between trees and rocks. It all works beautifully and doesn’t disturb the views.

The Grand Canyon Village is the ‘downtown’ with the most people coming through. There are buildings containing restaurants, hotels, shops and exhibition spaces. It can seem a bit as a circus, overwhelming with activities and people, but it is quite harmonious and well-made and with respect for the place and its beauty.

Going through some photos from last year, I found this sequence from the temporary Køge Kyst project by BOGL, that I have been photographing through the year. These are from the space called Tidsrummet.
More photos from Tidsrummet, from the dirt jump and of the Infostairs, all part of the Køge Kyst project.

Santa Fe feels natural and like home to me from the beginning.

It is one of the first towns that I visit in the US, this being my first trip to the ‘real’ America, the US outside New York City.

When I landed in Atlanta airport for a change of flight I experienced a kind of cultural shock meeting this ‘real’ America. Still wondering what it is about, I have gotten a taste about some cultural differences that seem bigger than I thought, between Europe and USA.

Santa Fe is a beautiful town with great atmosphere and food, one of the oldest towns in the US.  The buildings are in the traditional Adobe building style of New Mexico. Adobe is the Spanish word for mud brick, and these bricks were originally used to make Pueblos – Native American communities.

Enjoy the beauty in these photos, from mostly around the Central Plaza where the Indian market is: