Visiting the Grand Canyon

At 3:00am on October 18th, Susie and I left for the airport on the first leg of our "bucket list" trip to the Grand Canyon. We left DTW for DFW to catch a commuter to Flagstaff, AZ. Arriving around noon, we picked up our rental car and began the three hour trek north to our destination, the El Tovar Lodge on the trim of the Canyon.

Check-in was easy and after quickly unpacking our bags, we stepped out the back door for our first view. 

Breathtaking is too small a word to describe the expanse. The Canyon is 18 miles wide at this point and a mile deep. 

A two dimensional image can never hope to capture the depth and the reach, but that didn't stop us from trying. We soon began to see some of the challenges of capturing digital images of the place.

One of the biggest difficulties is overcoming the haze that fills the canyon. The winds pick up dust that creates something like a thin smog. It was hard to get crisp images. Thankfully, Photoshop has a dehaze filter that helps but the freshest image would have to be captured immediately after a rainstorm. 

The South Rim of the Canyon is serviced by free shuttles that stop every fifteen  minutes and offer rides to the South Rim Village, the Market and the Visitor center. They also have a route that provides the only motorized transportation to viewpoints west of the village. 

Tuesday evening, we grabbed one of those shuttles which took us to Maricopa Point for the sunset. Since the skies were clear, the sunset itself was nothing spectacular. But the afterglow was amazing!

While I was taking pictures, Susie was spellbound and soaked up the views. She took some images with her iPhone but mostly absorbed the memories. The colors were amazing and changing. When darkness closed in, we caught the return shuttle to the Village and then made the trek along the rim to our room. Since we were three hours later than GC (Grand Canyon) time (they remain on Mountain Standard Time), we turned in around 8:30pm (11:30pm our time) and fell instantly asleep. 

We had nothing planned for the next morning because we knew we would need to catch up. Tuesday had been a long day.