The best laid plans of mice and men…

My trip to northern Arizona was a bust as far as the backpacking trips were concerned. Some problems with my left foot had me having to bail out on both trips. The first one never even got started and I had to abort the second one after traveling only about a mile down the trail. So, no new Milky Way photos from inside the Grand Canyon. In between the first and second trip I got in a couple of nice day hikes down into the Canyon which had me optimistic that I might be able to do the second backpacking trip. The weight of the backpack for a six-day backpacking trip was a lot heavier then just a day pack and the foot was not happy with the extra weight at all.

I did manage to get some nice Milky Way shots at Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah on the way out to Arizona. I was out there in October of last year, when the Milky Way had been an early evening object, and mostly vertical, and I had been looking forward to getting back in the springtime when it would be more diagonal. I was back at the same bridge, the Owachomo Bridge, which is the only one that is possible with the Milky Way. I had a nice night out there and got several nice captures.

Because of the cancellation of the second backpacking trip I had some free time and decided to head down to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona. The night sky in northern Arizona was not cooperating and the weather forecast for southern Arizona looked to be a lot more favorable. The park was on my bucket list anyway and I was looking forward to finally getting to see it. I ended up staying in the campground down there for one night and going out very early in the morning to do some Milky Way shooting. I got several nice shots using the cacti and other desert plants for foregrounds.

New Milky Way shots from this trip may be found in my Milky Way Gallery.

A much more detailed trip report may also be found on my Grand Canyon Explorer web site.