Phase 3 - Winging It. Part 1

It pretty much rained all night.  Often hard.  We checked the forecast the next morning;  nothing had changed - rain off and on for a couple of days.  Time to implement the plan!  The nice thing about southern Utah is that there is so much to see and visit.  The bad part was that so many of the places we really wanted to go to entailed going off-road, and that just wasn’t an option.  So we decided to make a radical decision, to go to a place we hadn’t even considered going to for this trip (so didn’t even have the paper maps for) - head to Arizona and the north rim of the Grand Canyon! 

You might ask why we didn’t just go to Zion National Park?  Especially since we’d tried to get a campsite a little more than a week ago?  Well, there’s a good answer for that.  The friends we had met for dinner in Boulder during the hurricane texted us a couple of days later, after spending a long while waiting in line to go through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel.  The park had been so packed, they didn’t even stop to photograph.  In other words, it was a zoo.  Plus, given that all of the non-Zion camping locations I’d scouted out had been off-road locations (and some mighty fine ones at that), getting to those locations just wan’t possible.  Ann and I quickly rejected the thought of Zion.

So the Grand Canyon it was.  We went through snow and rain, stopped off at a real German Bakery (I can say it was a real German bakery because folks back in the cooking area were speaking German and there was a big group of German tourists [wearing black leather and doing a Harley trek] seemingly very impressed with the food they were consuming [and yes, everything was delicious!]).  

A couple hours later as we drove from Kanab up onto the Kaibab plateau, this is what greeted us.

We hadn’t really thought that our decision might entail snow, nonetheless aspens.  Maybe we’d gotten lucky.

First stop was to see if there was an available campsite at the National Park campground - no there wasn’t.  But there was a forest service campground just outside of the gate, as well as dispersed campsites as well if we’d want, so we had options.  We decided to check out the North Rim viewpoint and this is what we saw.

Ok, to be honest, we only saw that for about 30 seconds.  In our 20 minute hike around the lodge area we saw about 1-1/2 minutes of landscape.  The rest of the time it was a wall of fog.  It was time to find a campsite.  Fortunately, we found a nice isolated site facing some young aspens at the Demotte Campground that ran us less than $10.00 per night.  We deposited money for three nights (thinking we could always add on a fourth if need be) and got ready for the next day.

During our reconnaissance on the first day, Ann noticed a rock outcropping and some aspens from the main park road, and that is where we started the morning.  It was cold, and wet, but we were out photographing.

You had to take the Point Sublime trail/road to get there, but as it curved there was an open meadow and some lovely trees on three sides.  We took our time photographing, despite the conditions and the fact that Ann’s boots had sprung a leak.  

I made a variety of photographs, to include of course compositions when they were available.

And the weather decided to let us know that we had made the right choice to not try to go on any serious off-road routes in the more treacherous drylands areas of southern Utah.

But we had bundled up and were prepared for weather.  We had to deal with a few squalls while we were there, but waiting through them was worth it (though while standing there and not hunkered down and dry in Beast). 

A morning, by ourselves, photographing is exactly what we’d hoped for.  

We drove a bit down Point Sublime Road, and eventually turned around telling ourselves to inquire about whether it was still open, and whether there were any available permits to camp there.

We then decided to scout out the rest of the paved North Rim area to photograph whatever struck us, and to plan for better weather, which was supposed to be coming in a day or so.  We headed back a bit towards the entrance and then turned east to go up and follow the Cape Royal Road.  As we made our way higher in elevation we passed through a burn area that was starting to recover.  At a pull-out we saw a bunch of aspens and decided to stop and photograph because, hey, snow and aspens are beautiful together.

There weren’t any grand landscapes to be had at this location. The area was generally very open (though with lots of young brush) and evidence of the burn was everywhere on the ground.  But that just allowed us to focus on closer images and the color that was left on the aspens. 

As you can see, there were a few somewhat older aspens that somehow survived the burn, but most of the area was nothing but young growth, and the remnants of the trees that had not survived the fires.

There was an eerie beauty to it.

Otherwise, where to look for photographs was easy.  I meant just looking around, finding a bit of color, and then figuring out how to make an image of it. 

Ann and I photographed there for quite awhile.  As we both pretty much concluded at the same time, we wondered whether we hadn’t spent too long there.  We quickly got an answer to our question, no we hadn’t.

We hit a T in the road and headed north on the Point Imperial Road so we could drive the Point Imperial - Cape Royal Road from top to bottom [ i.e. North to South] as it followed the canyon and check out each stop.  With any luck, we’d get some nice photographs.  At the Point Imperial Picnic Area on the very north this is what awaited us.

And like the previous day it was mostly on, momentarily off, fog.  At every single stop along this several mile road we hit the same.  Ok, to be honest, at several of the sites we didn’t get anything but fog.  So much for scouting for photographs, nonetheless photographing.  So we headed back to the main North Rim headquarters.

We decided to have lunch at the lodge (which was pretty poor compared to some of the National Park lodge meals we’ve had), and were given a lovely display through its windows when the clouds decided to break for about 10 minutes while we were eating. There actually is a South Rim of the Grand Canyon!  It was of course a wall of fog again by the time we were done, but at least we knew something impressive was out there.  

After a bit of this and that we headed over to the backcountry permit office to chat with the ranger.  She said that the roads into the backcountry were drivable with a 4WD - perhaps a bit rutted, with mud puddles here and there, but the roads were mostly gravel and didn’t become impassible like the more desert-like areas to the north.  We asked about Point Sublime and whether there were any back county permits available for camping in the next day or so.  She said that the camp permits (2 sites I think) were taken for the next week or so, but the road was passible.  She recommended an alternative route to get there (“unless you’re really into that serious 4-wheeling should be a challenge thing”) and gave us a map to show us the alternative route.  Both routes took about the same time (3 hours) to drive.

She then said, “You know, my favorite camping location is at Fire Point.  Nobody ever asks for it and while the view isn’t quite the panorama you get from Point Sublime, the views are better than any of the other easier-to-get-to campsites north of there.  Plus, they only issue one permit per night, which means you’re the only one out there.” We asked if a permit was available for any of the next few nights.  She checked and said, yes, one was available  three nights later - the night we were thinking we could always add to our other campsite.  We bought the permit.  Winging it seemed to be working out for us!

The weather worsened again that afternoon so we pretty much checked out information centers and things like that before heading back to camp and having dinner, again planning for an early start time the next morning.

And what a start it was.  The storms had cleared during the night and we had views!  We pulled off on the side of the road on our way back to the Point Imperial Picnic Area to get this early image.

Point Imperial offered its own views as the morning wore on.

And then we started our way back south, the same route we took the day before, but this time seeing much more than just fog. 

The clouds offered ever-changing views at most of the stops.  But by the time we got to the viewpoints at the Cape Royal picnic area, the clouds had lifted and we could easily see the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

At the Angel’s Window viewpoint, I set up for a panorama looking eastward.

And as it would be throughout the trip, several of the images I made were done thinking in black and white.  Some were less successful, others more successful.  But at least we were out again, photographing, despite the change in plans!

We’d had a fairly long day and done a bit of hiking.  And while the images were mostly the same images anyone visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon might take, it was impressive to get a good look at such an amazing geologic formation.

It was late afternoon by the time we were heading back to the campground, but as we approached the rest area on the way out of the park, Ann asked if we could stop to photograph some aspens.  We’d talked about this place a few times as we’d passed by over the days, and because the low lying sunlight was playing so beautifully among the aspens, I had no hesitation in hitting the right turn blinker and pulling into the parking area.

We crossed the street and started exploring the grove.  To be honest, it wasn’t much of a grove with a few moderately aged aspens, quite a few young aspens and even more downfall, but that didn’t matter.  I started with the lit leaves that caught my eye from the road.

I quickly started thinking that I wanted to concentrate on images that played on one of two things, or both.  The extreme side-lighting, and the chaos of the forest.

With that in mind, I approached image-making.

It really became a question of simply wandering around with those two themes in mind, and seeing what the place had to offer - and then composing it into an image.  Sometimes I’d see things in color, and others in black and white.

Sometimes it was both themes, and other times just one.

But having those themes in mind helped me organize my thinking and framing when making the images.

And then sometimes I came across an image that reminded me just how beautiful a simple place like this can be.  If only you take the time to look and listen.

Ann and I photographed until the hillside blocked the sunlight, which didn’t take very long.  

We were content with a good day’s photography and looking forward to the next day’s adventures.