Grand Canyon Sunset & Sunrise

I live about an hour and a half from the Grand Canyon, and I have probably visited it less than ten times in the eight years I’ve lived in Flagstaff. I know, I know, it’s often the case that we ignore the things that are right around us, but that doesn’t make me any less ashamed. So we decided to do a quick trip there yesterday. Didn’t stay too long, but I’m already planning to go back this week.

Cuz this.

And that was only the afternoon. Look what started happening to the sky as it got closer to sunset.

This was very very exciting because those kinds of clouds do pretty amazing things at sunset. But sadly, sunset was a bit of a dud, at least in terms of the sky. The light in the canyon was lovely.

But.

Sunrise was around 5:15, and we were camping outside of the park. I woke up at 4:30 am, crawled into the jeep, and drove to the park. On the way, I almost hit an elk, got lost trying to find the Grand Canyon (yeah, that almost-300-mile gash in the ground), missed the bus that I wanted to take to the awesome sunrise location I had all planned out, and then had to run to another sunrise spot, startling all sorts of lovely early morning risers who were enjoying a leisurely sunrise stroll along the rim.

Still.

Not too shabby.

And now it was all of 5:45, and I didn’t miss the bus this time and instead got to check out the early morning sun lighting things up MOSTLY BY MYSELF. Yeah, I was the only person at Maricopa Point,

and one of four at Hopi and Mojave.

Next time, plan is to camp inside the park, grab the 4:30 shuttle, and get out to one of these spots.