Skip to main content

Day 8 - Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang

Jim standing on point of Ooh Aah Point

Today we left the Grand Canyon and headed to Flagstaff after one last hike.  We actually left the Grand Canyon a day earlier than scheduled because we felt we really did everything we wanted to do, which was hike along the rim, try to see the stars, see the sun rise (I wasn’t going to fight people for a spot for sunset photos), and hike down below the rim.  

Our day started early, because Jim got up at 4:15 AM due to us going to bed super early the night before due to being up since 1:45AM the previous day.  This allowed us to pack the Crosstrek up and check out of the hotel by 5:30 AM, and drive over to the visitors center to catch the shuttle bus over to Kaibab Trailhead. Kaibab Trail is the “fast” way down into the canyon because it is steep and has fewer switchbacks. Most people if they are going down and up will go down Kaibab and up Bright Angel which is long because it has a more gentle climb.  Kaibab Trail is also how you get to Ooh Aah Point, which is 2 miles round trip (there and back) and about a 600 ft elevation change.  For reference the canyon ridge sits at 7,260 ft above sea level.  We did the hike to Ooh Aah Point in about 2 hours, quick down, slow up with stops for water.  It is a nice view from the point and a decent hike.  You just have to be cautious mule poop along the trail as the mules use this trail to go down.  After the hike we hopped the bus back to the visitor center.  We stopped at the gift shop to pick up a last minute item and then it was on the road to Flagstaff.

Ooh Aah Point (yes we went OOOH AAAH when we got there)


View from Ooh Aah Point

We did not eat breakfast before the hike, so we stopped in the town of Tusayan, about 10  minutes from the park entrance for breakfast.  We ate at the Foodie Club, which was decent, and a bit better than the food inside the park.  All the food at the restaurants inside the park seemed to come out lukewarm, not hot.  The breakfast sandwiches and potatoes we had at the Foodie Club were hot and had a good flavor.  From there it was on to Flagstaff, which was only about 2 hours away. 


When we arrived in Flagstaff we couldn’t check into our hotel right away, because it was only 10:30AM.  So we went to the Lowell Observatory and did one of their tours.  The Lowell Observatory was founded by Percival Lowell over 125 years ago.  They still use his original 24-inch Clark Refractor telescope, and that telescope was also used by NASA to help land people on the moon.   This observatory was also chief in discovering the planet Pluto in 1930. Pluto will always be a planet to me, even if the international scientists demoted it to a dwarf planet.  On the tour we got to see the original telescope, which is still in use.   From there it was on to lunch at Freddie’s and checking into the hotel.


Original Clark Refractor Telescope

We decided not to do anything after checking into the hotel. We had to make a Walmart run to pick up some rubbing alcohol to get some goo off the windshield.  We originally thought it was a chip, but no it was just some clear sticky goo that looked like a chip from inside the car.  Since we weren’t going to do anything else I picked up a cheap swimsuit from Walmart and went to the pool for a bit.  I was the only one at the pool so I just floated around and relaxed, while Jim stayed up in the room and read.  

Tomorrow we head back to Albuquerque.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2025 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2026

This year was a bit interesting especially since during the day, I’m a government employee, which resulted in a lot of stress and a 42-day furlough.  I didn’t attend as many cosplay events with the D.C Cosplay group, now Costume and Camera, as I normally would have, due to schedule conflicts.  However, I traveled up to Poughkeepsie, New York for two photo events, one of which I was a featured photographer.  I attended two conventions, one of which didn’t turn out as expected and the other just confirmed my decision to take a break from it.  Though happily I did a lot of studio work this year, which I enjoyed.  But on the other hand, I lost my dear “studio supervisor”, my dog Teddy.  He liked to great clients and then “supervise” while lying/sleeping in his bed. I also started to work on the business side of my photography work, by investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) site to manage bookings, schedules, and payments. No more trying to juggle...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cyber Blue

On October 11 th , I worked with Dayvon on a cyber concept shoot. This shoot was designed around a pair of contact lens with a circuit board pattern. This inspired me to think about things like “Blade Runner”, “Tron” and cyber punk in general.    For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights 2 Phottix strobes 2 Phottix Rectangular Softboxes with a grid 2 C-stands Blue gels Silver garage insulation Backdrop stand Black backdrop Connectable foam workout mats For this shoot I started out using four lights. The first two were small speed lights with blue gels attached placed on the floor aimed at the backdrop.  The backdrop was silver garage insulation, which looks like silver bubble wrap. The backdrop reflected the blue light forward providing a bit of rim light.  My main two lights were the strobes is rectangular soft boxes with grids attached. For this shoot I kept the lighting very low key, styled along that of a photo of Ryan Gosling i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Return to the National Portrait Gallery

On February 28th, I attended the  Costume & Camera  (previously DC Cosplay Photoshoots) event at the National Portrait Gallery in DC.  I have a love/hate relationship with shooting at the National Portrait Gallery; it is a beautiful location due to its architecture, especially on the third floor, and I’m thankful that you are allowed to do portrait photography there as long as you don’t use flash.  What I get frustrated with is the varying colors of light throughout the building and the need to use natural or continuous light.  (I’m a flash girly.)  For this event, I used: Canon R6 24 - 105mm lens Neewer 12-inch LED light Assistant Camera Settings: This shoot was inside the Portrait Gallery, which has a no flash policy, thus I was using a mix of natural and continuous lighting, which affects settings. My ISO ranged from 100 ISO to 3200 ISO with the most common ISO being ISO 1000.  My aperture stayed between F4 and F5, with the most c...
Post a Comment
Read more