View from the South Rim looking North. Day one, 7am, headed off to walk across this.
About a mile down on the Bright Angel Trail.
I was really struggling the night before we left for Arizona over which camera/cameras to bring to the Grand Canyon. Read my previous blog post about it here.
When you have so many choices and you're such a nerd about this stuff, it can be a real dilemma. So after much deliberation and an almost sleepless night (not really), I decided to just bring two digital cameras: the Fuji X100t and my Nikon Z7II. Blasphemy, I know–Digital!!! On a vacation! I almost couldn't believe it myself but I really just wanted this to go easy. It was going to be a lot of weight with the camping gear, three days of food, and lots and lots of water. The idea of carrying a brick of film and a heavy camera just seemed stupid. And ultimately I swing both ways as I’m not a film purist.
So the die was cast and the digitals won out. Did I regret it? Well, yes and no. What I regretted was bringing both the Fuji and the Nikon down in the canyon. I ended up only using the Nikon once to do a few night shots. And all that weight was carried for nothing because the shots sucked. I used the Fuji almost exclusively and it performed amazingly. Such a great camera. And it was light enough that I could just keep it around my neck and pop it on and shoot whenever the desire struck. There was no way I was pulling the Nikon out that was buried deep in my pack for the following reason: IT WAS HOT! I mean really hot. Like the hottest temperature I have ever been in. As it turned out, there was a massive heat wave that hit AZ when we were hiking. Day one was averaging 105-107°.
The Devil’s Corkscrew. This is what this section is actually called. It’s one of the more exposed sections of the trail headed to Phantom Ranch. How this section is situated means there is also no airflow. It was 107° as we headed down this switchback.
The Colorado River! Only a little over a mile to get to Phantom Ranch.
Bright Angel Creek. We spent a lot of time sitting in this very cold water trying to cool off. It was around 105° that evening.
Morning of day 2. We hit the trail super early to beat the sun and to get to Ribbon Falls before the heat of the day.
On day two, I felt the highest temperature that I have ever felt. It was somewhere in the range of 122-125°. The Wife had this little digital thermometer hanging from her pack. The thing maxed out in the heat. All it said was HHH. That was about 20 minutes after getting back into the sun after lounging for most of the day by a waterfall in a slot canyon. That thing went from 117° to HHH real quick. I looked up the thermometer brand specs when we got back and it tops out at 122°. It was all we could do to stay cool. So yeah, I wasn't super excited about taking pics.
This is known as The Box. The first 4-5 miles after Phantom Ranch. It was a very pleasant 80° in this section relative to the heat at the Ranch.
Not a bad place to chill for the day. Ribbon Falls, which is a tiny side canyon and doesn’t get much sun. It’s easily 30° cooler here than in the main canyon. We stayed here for most of the day.
What an amazing place. You can climb up behind the falls!
These two ravens knew what was up. They chilled with us most of the day bathing in the pool and playing in the water.
After leaving the paradise that was Ribbon falls we stepped out into this. Taken just before this little thing maxed out. It was a struggle to make it to Cottonwood Campground in this heat.
Susan trying to find some shade in a place where there is none. Luckily there was a little stream soon after this where we could drench our clothes and cool off. Getting drenched was the only way to lower your body temp. When it’s this hot, sweating isn’t enough.
My sub par night shot. It’s pretty cool to get such a good view of the Andromeda Galaxy (lower right hand side). The only images taken with the Nikon.
The morning sun on the third day. We pushed hard to get out before that sun was on us.
Almost there. We had left Cottonwood at 4am to beat the predicted heat of 125° at the bottom of the canyon. Made it out and on the North Rim by 10am. Not too shabby. And it was a cool 78° at 8000 feet elevation.
View from the North rim. We just hiked across this!! If you line up the last cloud on the upper right and draw a line down to the rim, that’s where we started.
In the end, it was a great trip. Three days in one of the most beautiful places I can think of and three days of not worrying about making pics for money. I would absolutely do it again, but maybe not in the summer. And maybe next time I will rent a mule to carry my gear so I don’t have to struggle with one of the toughest decisions that a photo gear nerd has to make.