GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — President Barack Obama is hardly the consummate Western outdoorsman.
The Hawaiian native spent his adult life in big cities — New York, Chicago and, now, Washington. Basketball, golf, and beach activities like bodysurfing are how this jock rolls. Indoor daily gym workouts are the norm. Hunting, climbing, rafting — not so much.
Yet there he was on a summer weekend, enthusiastically soaking in America’s vast wilderness. He toured Yellowstone National Park, checking out Old Faithful. He strolled trails along the Grand Canyon’s rim. He cast a fly while fishing in a Montana river and spent a night in a mountainside lodge.
“Pretty nice, eh,” Obama said Sunday as the family took in the breathtaking view from the Grand Canyon’s Hopi Point under a magnificent sky and overlooking a 5,000-foot drop to the Colorado River. “Last time I was here was when I was 11 years old.”
Asked by a ranger if it looked the same, he said, “It does!”
With the wonders of his country at his disposal, Obama did things that might seem a little out of his comfort zone.
But he clearly has a zest for recreation and a curiosity about the diverse nation he governs. He seems game for trying just about any sport or activity. And he appears intent on broadening his kids’ interests and, perhaps, his own.
So it was of little wonder then that he brought his wife, Michelle; daughters Malia and Sasha; and other relatives on a trip that was part family vacation, part policy promotion.
He held a couple of town- hall-style events to plug his efforts to overhaul health care. In Belgrade, Mont., he opened with this comment: “Here in Montana, you’ve got bears and moose and elk. In Washington, you have mostly bull. So this is a nice change of pace!”
Obama, aides say, pressed them for a while to schedule a parks trip. The last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, often vacationed in the West.
As Obama tended to presidential duties this weekend, his wife and daughters spent 90 minutes whitewater rafting in rain and, at times, hail in Montana. They picked peaches in Colorado, bringing some back for people on Air Force One.
“He wants very much to see and share the outdoors and some of the beautiful places in the country with his daughters,” press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
