Friday 21 October Monument Valley and Grand Canyon

We woke very early, with Paul complaining of sore neck and headaches. However Sue forced him to get up and get moving, with the help of a lot of Tylenol.

We drove to the visitor centre and met Tom who drove us into the valley. He then parked the car (a Chevrolet Suburban 4WD) and we set off through the scrub. Tom bolted ahead, and it was only because of his white hat that we were able to catch glimpses of him in the distance. We used torches to see where we were going, but Tom needed no such aids. Eventually we came to a flat rock ledge with views of several formations. We settled down to wait for the sun - the silence and sense of isolation were awesome. The eastern sky gradually turned grey then yellow, then magnificent shades of red. Some of the formations were silhouetted against the sky, and others gradually became front-lit. Sometimes it's worth the effort to see the sun rise.

Tom then took us to a number of sites, where we got a lot of pictures. Almost before we knew it five hours had passed, and we were finished. We checked out of the motel, paid Tom his fee, and headed off towards the Grand Canyon.

The drive was quite pleasant, through undulating treeless countryside punctuated with the occasional rock formation. We passed through several small towns, and bought some Navajo trinkets from a roadside stall.

Arriving at Grand Canyon, we had a look at Desert View, but the light was poor and the canyon was full of haze, so it was difficult to get good quality pictures. We headed west to the village, found our accommodation at Kachina Lodge and checked in. The room was very comfortable, with two queen-size beds(!) By this time it was quite late, so we managed a couple of sunset shots of the canyon (not particularly good though), and had a cheap but tasty dinner at the cafeteria.

The Grand Canyon is very big, deep wide and long. The rock formations are interesting enough and most people have seen images of it. It's the sort of place that needs a lot of time to get to know, to understand the light and find the best viewpoints. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time and after Monument Valley we were suffering a bit of photo fatigue.