What we won't do for a photo (continued)

What we won't do for a photo - January 26, 2024

My first attempt at Milky Way photos at the Grand Canyon was a night walk along the Rim Trail at the south rim in March of 2021. The Rim Trail is 9 miles long and runs from Grand Canyon Village in the east to Hermit's Rest in the west and about half of it is a paved path and the other half is a dirt trail. There is very little elevation gain along the route which is why I consider it more of a walk than a hike, even though it's 9 miles.

I started this walk from Grand Canyon Village at 11pm and spent most of the evening at it, arriving at Hermit's Rest a little before 4am. The late start was because the light from the Moon was going to be a problem for a while before it finally set at 2am. I did manage to get some shots while the Moon was still in the sky and the moonlight illuminating the south rim cliffs. After the Moon did set I had nice dark skies for a little while until the eastern sky started to take on light from dawn.

I did bring some food with me a took a short break about halfway through the trip to rest a while and take on some nourishment. It was quite the strange evening being alone out there in the dark for so long. The road to Hermit's Rest is closed to traffic and is only used by shuttle busses during the daylight hours. My biggest worry was encountering a mountain lion, which luckily did not happen. All I had for defense was a very heavy tripod.

My second attempt at Milky Way photos from Grand Canyon was night hike down the Bright Angel and Plateau Point trails from Grand Canyon Village to a spot called Plateau Point which overlooks the Colorado River. I consider this a real hike because it was 12 miles round trip and involved a descent of over 3,000 feet on the way down and then an ascent of over 3,000 feet on the way up. I was also carrying a lot more on this trip as I planned to have breakfast down there before starting the hike back up. I brought my camp stove so I could have some hot coffee and also brought a couple of muffins and some other snacks along. I did have a somewhat lighter tripod for this trip luckily.

I started this hike at 1030am and it took about 4 hours to get to Plateau Point, arriving there a little after 2am. I did have a little moonlight for the first part of the hike but the Moon finally set around 1am and was lost behind the cliffs for me well before then. I took a couple of short breaks on the way down. This night was a lot darker than what I had experienced on the Rim Trail as the light from the Moon was blocked by the cliffs and when I turned off my headlamp I could not see much of anything around me or down below and the only light was from the stars up in the sky.

I only spent a little more an hour at Plateau Point before heading to a camping area called Havasupai Garden for a long rest break to eat some breakfast and wait for enough daylight to start hiking again. I was back at the top of the Bright Angel Trail around 9am.