Day 7 - Early Morning Adventures

View from watchtower viewpoint

Today we started very early, at 1:45 AM, so I could attempt some astrophotography.  When we got up Jim went outside real quick to check for clouds, there didn’t seem to be any, so we got ready and started our hike to the location.  It didn’t feel too cold at first then the wind kicked in, making it very cold.  By the time we got to the trailview overlook I was cold, even though we were hiking uphill, and the several thin clouds were starting to creep in.  We toughed it out for a little bit, and I got a few not so great night sky photos.  At least I made the attempt.  For being a dark skies park I really was expecting to see more stars, maybe I was in the wrong location or needed to wait longer for my eyes to adjust.  I wasn’t as awed as I was hoping to be.  The original plan was to stay in that location all the way through till sunrise, but after 30 minutes of standing still my thin hoodie couldn’t handle the wind anymore and I was really cold so we hiked back to the hotel.  

Very bad milkyway/star photo

We spent about an hour in the room before heading back out, this time with a thicker hoodie and my raincoat to act as a windbreak, to hike back up to the location where we were looking at the stars. Originally we were going to cheat and take the bus up to trailview overlook, but I got the time wrong, so we had to hike up the hill again.  Once there I set up my camera and tripod and pointed it towards sunrise.  While I was doing that Jim set up the tiny enclosed camp stove to boil water for our granola/oatmeal instant breakfast.  We didn’t have cups, nor tea so we couldn’t make tea.  With the raincoat and hoodie I stayed warmer, but it was still chilly with the wind.  The wind was strong, so I had to keep my tripod down low and in a stable position or it would have been easily knocked over.   I did get several sunrise photos, several I bracketed so I can combine them later to get the whole dynamic range.  After the sun was above the horizon and colors faded out, we hopped the bus to go back to the hotel, the bus was warm.  We spent some time at the hotel rearranging items, before leaving again to drive out I-64 East to the Watchtower Lookout Point.  This is one of the few locations you can’t get to by park bus. 

First rays of light

Middle of sunrise

Sun is up

The views from the Watchtower area are better from the Canyon Village area. It also helped that we had good light for photos, and the canyon wasn’t hazy like it has been over the past few days.  I thought the Watchtower was historic, but it isn’t, it is just a modern structure built to look old.   It still makes for some nice photos.  After driving to the Watchtower and stopping at some viewpoints along the way we headed back to Canyon Village for second breakfast.  We had another breakfast at El Tovar in the historic dining room.  Jim and I split some huevos ranchero.  After that we came back to the hotel room to pack things up as we are planning on leaving tomorrow to start our journey home. 

View from stop along watchtower route

View from the watchtower

View of watchtower from view point