I got up before sunrise this morning and went off in search of the perfect place to take a picture. I bundled up since it was supposed to get down to 15 degrees. I started walking the Rim Trail from the hotels back towards the Visitor Center. Taking pictures all the way. .
There was snow and ice in spots. There are a number of places where you can get off the trail and get close to the edge to take pictures. At one point I saw a man kneeling obviously taking a picture. He was at the end of a icy patch and I said to myself -- no way am I going out there. Then I heard him talking to someone. Turns out he had his wife or girl friend further out on the ledge -- I could just see her head -- and he was telling her to move one way or the other to get the canyon in the background. I'm sure he got a great picture, but I thought he was going a bit extreme
After the sunrise I ended up at the Visitor Center (about 3+ miles) and took the shuttle back to the lodge. They have two shuttles running now. The Village Shuttle (blue) which runs from the Visitor Center to the Village and on to the hotels and lodges, and the orange shuttle that runs to several of the lookout points on Desert Drive. I was the only passenger on the shuttle.
I met Teresa back at the lodge cafeteria at the table we staked out last night. We got our computers and had breakfast and Internet. After that we decided to take the Hermit Road. This road is usually only open to shuttles (red), but the red one doesn't run in the winter. We took pictures at a number of viewpoints along the way and took a 2 mile hike from Hermit's Rest to Lomis Point.
When we first started, we noted that the North Rim had clouded up and I made some comment about being glad we were on the South Rim. I think the someone heard me because when we got to Lomis Point it was obvious that the low clouds were coming our way. We were actually above some of the clouds. The wind picked up as we hiked back to our car and clouds covered the canyon in fog. Then on the drive back to the lodge, it started snowing.
We drove to the Visitor Center and it kept snowing. We arrived just in time for the next movie showing about the Grand Canyon and when we left it was still snowing. But by the time we got back to the hotel area, it stopped snowing and there was a sun break. We could see the canyon, but there were a lot of clouds hovering around the higher elevations. It made for some interesting pictures.
About 4:00 pm we started out on our sunset quest. We decided to try the Rim Trail which seemed to have more sun than other possibilities. We hiked and took pictures until about 5:30 when the sunset finally arrived. I about froze waiting for the sunset until Teresa suggested we go into one of the lodges that had a fireplace in the lobby. Teresa called this "waiting for the magic." The colors change minute by minute around sunset time and the clouds added a nice touch by turning pink. So it was worth the wait. We hurried back to the lodge to thaw out.
I now have over 200 pictures of the Grand Canyon -- and that's after culling. This place is just so beautiful. An you can take the same location at a different time and it is completely different, because of the light.
It looks like it will be cold and icy tomorrow, so I may forgo my sunrise pilgrimage -- we'll see.
We will check out of the lodge tomorrow and head to the red rocks of Sedona.
No comments:
Post a Comment