On my second day of my stay at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I arose before sunrise and headed back into the park, then east on a narrow road to photograph Point Imperial.
Whereas most of us are used to seeing the Grand Canyon that runs east to west, this viewpoint is of the canyon as it starts to head north. As it faces east, it is best photographed around sunrise, so I was ready. The problem was, the canyon wasn’t. As I soon discovered, it was heavily saturated with smog that often plagues the canyon these days. It ruined the light, making my photographs less than desirable. I have spent some time cleaning them up for display here, but it was a disappointing morning.
Still, Point Imperial is worth seeing. It is the highest view point in the park. The Grand Canyon style cliffs are very close to you, giving you a more intimate feel with the park. The dominate feature in the first photo is Mt. Hayden.
Then, looking east, off in the distance, you look past the Colorado River and see a different view of canyons and desert terrain, as shown in the distance of image #2.
It was sad to have so much smog ruin the photographic possibilities here, but am still glad to have seen it. I had planned to go to nearby Cape Royal, but the light and smog convinced me to cancel that part of the trip.
I headed back to camp after a quick stop at the lodge at Bright Angel Point. I was planning to break camp and head north, but changed my plans at the last minute and stayed in camp for the rest of the day, reading, listening to music, and just plain relaxing.
My revised plan now called for me to leave early next morning and head north into Utah. Stay tuned.
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