I’d had seeing the Grand Canyon on my todo list for a long time and I really made it the center of my trip out west back in June. I took a number of photos, but found myself oddly having a lot of trouble editing them. Right after coming back I simply felt none of the photos really captured what I’d seen. In some ways I think part of the grandness here is something you only see in person. The sheer scale doesn’t come across in a photo or anything other than reality. Still with a little time I got better at working some of the images.
This photo is probably my favorite. It’s a panorama shot taken right at sunset from the North Rim looking back south to the South Rim and beyond. I believe the mountains visible in the distance beyond the other rim are the San Francisco Peaks toward Flagstaff, Arizona. For those who wonder why so many Americans are bad at geography consider the San Francisco Peaks are in Arizona while the city is in California. The photo were taken from Bright Angel Point about the same time as the sunset photo I posted while flying home. A better edit of that photo will be coming soon.
The colors of the night sky were just amazing as and after sunset. The peace, even with probably another dozen people enjoying the views, also stands out. What I remember most though was the wind. Here and later at the lodge while waiting for dinner the wind gusted over 40mph quite often. I was standing on a point out into the canyon for these photos and the wind coming up out of the canyon was an interesting experience. It cooled so much after dark that I actually went back and changed from my shorts into jeans between taking these photos and dinner at the lodge. In my little cabin that night though it felt rather cozy and relaxing lying there listening to the wind gusting outside while warm under a couple blankets. At the same time I knew that I would be in Las Vegas in less than twenty-four hours with a temperature over 100 degrees.
My first outdoor shoot of my desert trip took place near Phoenix, AZ with Jen Phoenix. I’d spent most of the day driving through western Arizona toward Phoenix enjoying some nice quiet time with myself, the western speed limits, and my first real chance to enjoy the terrain. My first lesson was that what in Arizona is a river, I call a creek. My second is that what there is called a lake, I call a pond. I also learned that Arizona does not observe daylight savings time during the summer which in effect means that in spite of being in the Mountain Time Zone (two hours behind Eastern), in the summer they are at the same time as the Pacific Time Zone of nearby Nevada and California where daylight savings time is observed. I’d later also learn the Navaho Nation in Arizona does change their clocks which would cause me to be a bit late later in my trip. I now feel much better about the confusion in Tennessee where two thirds of the state is in Central Time and one third is in Eastern Time.
