Sunday, February 26, 2017

They called for snow, but the sun showed up and it was another memorable day at the Grand Canyon. If I felt speechless yesterday, I felt twice as speechless today! The sun gave the canyon a new life, bringing out the colourful rock layers and shining until the end of the day, leaving us with a glorious sunset.

Today  was another full day in the park. We had lunch at the Market Plaza, then visited Verkamp’s – highlighting the history of the park – and Hopi House. We walked to Kolb Studio and Lookout Studio, where the view was stunning (like ALL the views, but different angle). The rest of the afternoon was spent along Hermit Road, all the way to Hermits Rest. Every stop was just breathtaking and worth a million pictures!

Talking about pictures, some of you will be happy to hear that I have moved from Aperture mode to Manual and finally used a tripod to capture the evening light. I am slowly getting there…

On a practical note, I need to mention that Hermit Road is closed to private vehicles from March 1 to November 30. That means that only the park shuttle (a free service) will be taking visitors from the Village to Hermits Rest and every stop in between (there wouldn’t be enough parking space for high season crowds).

We chose Pima Point – at an elevation of about 6700 feet and with a bird’s eye view of Tonto Platform – to watch the sunset, along with other enthusiast photographers, one lady in particular from Seattle who jumped over the railing to set up her equipment on the rock’s edge. No fear…nice to be young… It was a special moment on the rim, until the skies darkened and my right hand started freezing… that’s when I took comfort in the heat of the car.

It was pitch black when we left the park and I mean PITCH BLACK! You don’t want to get lost in there without a flashlight!!!!

Supper, then catching up with our blog, pictures and, yes… a bit of the Oscars…