Sunday, September 26, 2010
Rise and Shine at 4:45 am.
Taking down the tent took a little longer than anticipated, but it went relatively smoothly. Considering it is big enough for a kitchen and bathroom, we did ok. We hit the road just around 5:45 with sunrise around 6:15. Our goal was to get to Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River, just south of Page, about 12 miles from where were camping, in time for the sunrise. Unfortunately we didn’t get there THAT early, and this KIND gentleman who was hiking out of there assured us that we were 30 minutes too late. Thanks for the newsflash Dan Rather.
We met a couple from Montana in the parking area and we took the hike in with them. They had just hiked the Wave the day before, which I was, of course, rather jealous of. Winger made sure to mention that I made mention of every ‘Wave’ related stop along the drive from Vegas to Page. “That’s where we would have gotten our permit” …. “that’s the road we would have driven to get to the trailhead”..
As it turned out, the light was actually pretty good, though just hitting the top of the rocks. It’s a rather scary overlook and one wrong step could mean curtains!
We met some guy from Vancouver who was taking 3 weeks on his own to explore and photograph the Southwestern U.S. I asked him where he was off to next and of course he said The Wave. Wings laughed out loud and said how I had ‘Wave’ envy and if one more person there said they had just or were just about to hike to the Wave, I might just toss myself into Horseshoe Bend….
We grabbed breakfast at a Dennys in Page and then snapped a few pix of Glen Canyon Dam from a decent view point near the Dennys..
After that, we hit the road towards Monument Valley where we asked and were able to move our reservation (is that politically incorrect on Navajo land?) from Monday up to Sunday. It was another pretty good campground with full facilities.
After setting up the monster tent, we headed up to Goosenecks State Park in Utah where we had lunch and got some pretty cool shots of the goosenecks on the San Juan River. On the drive back we scoped out the shots of Monument Valley we wanted to take the following morning.
Upon returning to the campground we relaxed for a bit and then headed to the Monument Valley tribal park where we paid the fee and got a map. I snapped a few obligatory shots of the classic 3 formations with the rocks in the foreground with decent light and then we decided to hit the scenic drive…
Unfortunately, the road was extremely rocky and the light was getting low. We had to turn around after a few miles to make it back in time to shoot the sunset.
Instead of the same shots everyone else was getting up from the View parking area, we decided to set up our tripods at the camping area just down the dirt road and the results were rather outstanding.
We were approached by a local Navajo woman who asked us to buy some hand made jewelry for her
son’s upcoming field trip to Albuquerque, and we did. After hanging out for an hour or so, and getting the shots, we headed back and hit the hay.
Winger would like to pass on one message:
“HI MOM”!
Rise and Shine at 4:45 am.
Taking down the tent took a little longer than anticipated, but it went relatively smoothly. Considering it is big enough for a kitchen and bathroom, we did ok. We hit the road just around 5:45 with sunrise around 6:15. Our goal was to get to Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River, just south of Page, about 12 miles from where were camping, in time for the sunrise. Unfortunately we didn’t get there THAT early, and this KIND gentleman who was hiking out of there assured us that we were 30 minutes too late. Thanks for the newsflash Dan Rather.
We met a couple from Montana in the parking area and we took the hike in with them. They had just hiked the Wave the day before, which I was, of course, rather jealous of. Winger made sure to mention that I made mention of every ‘Wave’ related stop along the drive from Vegas to Page. “That’s where we would have gotten our permit” …. “that’s the road we would have driven to get to the trailhead”..
As it turned out, the light was actually pretty good, though just hitting the top of the rocks. It’s a rather scary overlook and one wrong step could mean curtains!
We met some guy from Vancouver who was taking 3 weeks on his own to explore and photograph the Southwestern U.S. I asked him where he was off to next and of course he said The Wave. Wings laughed out loud and said how I had ‘Wave’ envy and if one more person there said they had just or were just about to hike to the Wave, I might just toss myself into Horseshoe Bend….
We grabbed breakfast at a Dennys in Page and then snapped a few pix of Glen Canyon Dam from a decent view point near the Dennys..
After that, we hit the road towards Monument Valley where we asked and were able to move our reservation (is that politically incorrect on Navajo land?) from Monday up to Sunday. It was another pretty good campground with full facilities.
After setting up the monster tent, we headed up to Goosenecks State Park in Utah where we had lunch and got some pretty cool shots of the goosenecks on the San Juan River. On the drive back we scoped out the shots of Monument Valley we wanted to take the following morning.
Upon returning to the campground we relaxed for a bit and then headed to the Monument Valley tribal park where we paid the fee and got a map. I snapped a few obligatory shots of the classic 3 formations with the rocks in the foreground with decent light and then we decided to hit the scenic drive…
Unfortunately, the road was extremely rocky and the light was getting low. We had to turn around after a few miles to make it back in time to shoot the sunset.
Instead of the same shots everyone else was getting up from the View parking area, we decided to set up our tripods at the camping area just down the dirt road and the results were rather outstanding.
We were approached by a local Navajo woman who asked us to buy some hand made jewelry for her
son’s upcoming field trip to Albuquerque, and we did. After hanging out for an hour or so, and getting the shots, we headed back and hit the hay.
Winger would like to pass on one message:
“HI MOM”!
Awesome. I love how in some places there are outstanding photo opps just a few feet from a Dennys. Seriously. But I have to ask..why didn''t you do the Wave? Or maybe I missed the blog post explaining this. I'll check as soon as I'm done with this possibly obnoxious and/or obvious question/comment. In fact I'll do that now before asking subsequent questions that are probobly answered elsewhere. Such as will you be coming to southern Cali? (couldn't help myself)
ReplyDeletenewsflash you are probobly aware of - today was the hottest day on record-EVER- in downtown LA. 113 degrees. Not the hottest day ever for September 27, but actually ever recorded. They started documenting that stuff in the 1800's.
Wow, that's hot! Musta been miserable! Its supposed to be 97 here in Moab today which I believe would break a record.
ReplyDeleteThe Wave is a tough place to get into, they only let 20 people in each day. 10 via an internet lottery 4 months in advance (over 300 apply each day during these months) and 10 in person the day before... we each did the lotto for the end of sept and beginning of oct and were denied (you can select up to 3 dates). I decided to try to do it every month until I am selected.. so far denied thru december :)
I'll get out to socal again sometime, but not this trip..... heck (and don't tell my mom this) I might move here to Moab for a year to explore the area more and in different seasons :)
Your pictures are amazing. Glad everything is going well! I am following and am very jealous of your adventure. Can't wait to hear/see more. Stay safe!
ReplyDelete