Southwest Road trip - Grand Canyon

We arrived at the Grand Canyon east entrance just in time for the golden hour but missed the sunset as we were busy checking in at the lodge.  

Panorama from the east rim

These ravens were very active in the canyon

The watchtower at Desert View near the East Entrance

A long stretch of cliff wall seen from Desert View

You can see the colours intensify as the golden hour started

The Colorado River can be seen from this viewpoint

The rocks turned purple as the sun set behind us

Moonrise over the Canyon

The following day, we woke up to a snowy, windy morning so I took a break to regroup my senses .  My friends braved the weather and took the shuttle to the Upper rim trail.  After seeing their photos, I wish I had gone even though I enjoyed the mid-trip break.  Well, one can't have everything even though I should know by now bad weather is often the photographer's friend!  Thanks to my friend FT for this photo which gives us a picture of the Grand Canyon in bad weather - still beautiful.

We were lucky that it was just half a day of bad weather, things cleared up in the afternoon and we enjoyed a brilliant golden hour and sunset on the same day.  

The golden hour captured the different colours on the west facing canyon walls

I wish I could remember the names of all these buttes and points but there are so many it was almost impossible to track.  But these are familiar forms that we saw every day we were there, at sunrise and sunsets in different colours as the light changed.  This is the same perspective of Chuar Butte and Temple Butte but at golden hour and then the blue hour that followed sunset.

Looking west at sunset