Grand Canyon National Park

Trip 2: May 2021

Had a chance to visit the Grand Canyon again with Mary! She makes lots of celebrity appearances in my national park adventures. She was doing a nursing rotation out in Phoenix, so I hopped on a plane and had a long weekend adventure. We started out by driving up to Sedona, where we caught some amazing views of the surrounding landscape.

Saw this little guy crawling around downtown Sedona!

On our way in to the park the next morning we got our first big game wildlife sighting! Lots of elk crossing the road near our car.

We decided to try and hike down into the canyon before it got too hot. Here were the dizzying switchbacks we were going to climb. Good thing we brought plenty of water!

Every angle gave us another cool look down in to the canyon

I was satisfied with our destination of Ooh Ahh Point. I am sure Mary could have gone all the way to the bottom! Despite our earlier stop we still got some great shots and views of the canyon.

We did get a chance to pass some mules! And don’t worry – we followed the guide’s instructions 🙂

As many of you know I am refining my astrophotography skills. Mostly focused on shooting the milky way and the galactic center in all its beauty. Big thanks to Mary for venturing out into the middle of nowhere and spending several hours with me while I took some of these shots! The sky was really day, and the light pollution here was minimal. This is one of the most brilliant shots I have taken to date of the Milky way! Truly incredible. Can’t wait to continue learning and shooting.

The next day we went back to Sedona to catch a Pink Jeep Tour! We had some great scenic views at our pull outs.

Here was the real highlight of the tour though – rock crawling!! The angle of the jeeps going down some of these sections was intense! It was so much fun to have the thrill (without the fear of rolling – these people are professionals!)

Our last day there we did one more hike to check out Bell Rock. There is a smooth flat path up to the bottom, then several ways to climb all over it. We explored the rock and got some even coolers views of the surrounding landscape and canyons.

Here was the heart shaped cactus Mary notices on our climb back down! Had to include it. Great trip!! So glad to see it again, and to do some more hiking.

Trip 1: March 2015

Another national park from my trip with Zippy and Baps. Trip date was March 2015. This one is marked as a must return! My experience was mostly checking out the canyon from the rim, but I cannot wait to go back and do some hiking! The Rim to Rim hike is on my bucket list!

My roommate from college – Kate Collins – actually asked me to take some pictures with flat Stanley for her class. Somehow it seems I didn’t manage to take very many pictures without him in them! So enjoy the pictures with flat Stanley!

I love this picture! It was snowing while we were there, and while the canyon floor seemed sunny and warm the storm was blowing at the edge! Here was some clouds flowing down into the canyon with a tiny tree in the frame!