Grand Canyon Tours

Fly to Phoenix by an early morning flight to reach at around 8am. Pick up a rental car in Phoenix and drive north to Grand Canyon. I wonder if this drive passes through Sedona. In 3.5 to 4 hours, we should be in Grand Canyon National Park. Have lunch. Board the free shuttles to take you to various points. Experience sunset at a recommended point. We did it at Yaki point - a stop in the green shuttle. If time permits, watch the IMAX movie in Tusayan (~7 miles from Grand Canyon visitor center). Sleep the night in Grand Canyon (hope that you get a lodge booking in the canyon itself or in Tusayan). Wake up early to catch sunrise at the canyon. Leave at around 7 or so for Page, AZ for smooth water rafting. This drive may take us via Antelope Canyon - I need to check on that. I wonder if the raft goes through the Horseshoe bend or we need to view it from elsewhere. Summer tours are at 6:30am and 12:30pm. 12:30pm is a more humane time to be there if we aren’t in Page the earlier night itself. Page is 2.5 hours from the south rim. Stay that night in Page. Leave for Las Vegas from Page. Try to get a route that passes through Zion and Bryce Canyon (SR-12).

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There was a lot of debate about whether we should get up early to catch the sunrise (Ashish had asked around and found out that sunrise was to be at 6am). It would take us at least an hour to reach the National Park and we would have to leave around 4:30am if we had any hope of catching sunrise. After a lot of discussion, I prevailed and we slept with the idea of waking up at 4am to take some amazing pictures. After we saw the pictures that we had taken that day, there was no contest on whether we should carry on the next day.

Wake up at 4am we did and left for the National Park entrance. After paying our entry fee of $25, we figured out that Mather Point would be our best bet for the right sunrise pictures as the sun came up over the horizon. We were not disappointed. The only thing is, we were there almost 45 minutes ahead of the actual sunrise, mainly because we did not take into account that sunrise would be a little later at the Canyon.

I had become so shutter happy that I was clicking pictures every couple of minutes. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that it was extremely cold. And the little wind there was not helping either.

So after setting the camera up on the tripod (yes, I carried a tripod for the trip knowing I would need it for some great pictures), I spent most of my time alternating between keeping myself warm and clicking pictures.

It was all worth it when the sun peeked above the Canyon top and I caught the first light of the day at the Grand Canyon's South Rim. It was a great sight and the light that it threw on the Canyon walls and the shadows it created was an amazing site. A photographer's dream! Suddenly, standing in all that cold and waking up early to get to sunrise felt like a small price to pay after being treated with such a glorious display of light and colours.

In the first light of the morning, you could see all the reds and yellows that made the Canyon walls. You could see the rock formations and the abrasions made by wind and water from the Colorado river as it chiseled it's was through rock over millenia. And standing there appreciating the scale of this gigantic structure made me realize why it is called the Grand Canyon. The scale truly makes it grand.

I want to end this post with a picture of the Canyon wall at sunrise. This is just one of the more-than-hundred photos I have clicked during this most amazing trip (and there is no reason to pick this particular one). But it is one of the most breathtaking picture sets I have taken in a long time.

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