Grand Canyon South Rim Part II

It's Thursday and my last full day in the Grand Canyon, I leave for home tomorrow morning after spending 4 full days here.

I've taken the time to explore little out of the way niches one would normally pass by as they go from one scenic overview to the next. Sometimes I won and sometimes I didn't. The great thing about exploring like this was I was able to stay away from the larger crowds. I found one spot late one afternoon where I ended up staying till sunset just because of the tranquility of the place; sometimes it's not what you capture with your camera.

I've used this time to test capturing landscape with "near" infrared using a Singh-Ray I-Ray filter attached to my Canon 1Ds II. While this isn't "true" infrared it nevertheless got me close enough to evaluate whether or not I should take the leap and have the camera permanently converted to shoot infrared. I think it was the end of the first day that I had made my mind up - the camera will be sent to Precision Camera. I'll post a review of the conversion and my thoughts after it's done so stay tuned.

I was looking for out of the way places to shoot and certainly found that with Cedar Mountain. Don't know where Cedar Mountain is? Don't worry it's not on a lot of maps and unless you have a 4-wheel drive high clearance vehicle don't even try and find it. I will give a hint - it's just East of Desert View and North East of the East Entrance and is still in the Grand Canyon National Park. The trail, as there's no way you'd call it a road, is approximately 8 miles long to Cedar Mountain (7053'). At one point you're driving very close to the rim wall and the scenery is beautiful, the rest of the time it's like driving on a goat trail. I'm not giving any more information on finding this place since it could be dangerous. There's a 2-wheel drive stuck out there and so far no one has been able to pull the poor guy out - but then again it's hard to feel sorry for someone who does something like that. Much the same as what I've seen on a couple of the hiking tails here, people walking in sandals or flip-flops, no hat, no water and they wonder why they get in trouble.

I've added more images that have been taken over the past couple days so please enjoy them.






The Grand Canyon much like the rest of the South Western United States is a beautiful area, it can also be desolated and dangerous at the same time. One can feel being transported back in time; no crowds, no electrical polls or wires, sometimes no evidence of anyone else being there before you. Just the vast beauty to take in.

This is certainly a place where you need to slow down and allow all you senses to take in the beauty of the area. You'll see and experience things that will last a lifetime if you open yourself up an allow it to happen.

Thanks for letting me share and as always please feel free to leave a comment.

Don