Postcard from the Grand Canyon

I remember this day pretty well. It was my first day at the Grand Canyon North Rim. I had been to the South Rim 3 times before but never this side. In many ways, the North Rim is quite different. First, it is over 1,000 feet higher.

When you drive to the South Rim, you are in high desert country. But the approach to the North Rim is through lovely forested country. And while the South Rim is almost always open for tourists, the north side is shut down in the winter because of heavy snows. What a difference a thousand feet makes.

And while the actual distance from the South Rim to the North Rim is only a mile or so across, the driving distance from the south to the north is 212 miles. On this day, I drove there from Flagstaff, a distance of 207 miles. So I didn’t arrive until mid-afternoon.

First thing I did was take a walk to orient myself to this new place. It is quite different as there are only a couple of view points on the North Rim, while the South Rim has several places to stop to see different aspects of this magnificent National Park. I should mention there are a couple of long, severe dirt roads leading to other viewpoints on the north side, but I decided not to put my van through that torture. 

Towards sunset I took a hike out to Bright Angel Point. The wind was fierce that day, but the views were well worth it. Beautiful clouds filled the sky while the colors of the canyon were made bright by the late afternoon sun. Sadly, towards sunset, the clouds blocked the sun most of the time…but occasionally it poked through and I got some good photos, some of which have been shown here before.

On the way back, I passed this and a few other amazing trees in sunset light. I think this photo turned out well. One must always remember that even though you may be in one of the most magnificent and majestic places on this planet, always keep your eyes open for the small things, like a solitary tree at sunset. Those photos can be as beautiful as the ones you took of the sweeping vistas.  

(To see a larger version of this image, just click on it)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com…or visit my Flickr Page.