I got up early to go photograph before the 6:00-ish sunrise and J stayed in bed. I left by myself in the Jeep around 5:30, and it was 36°F (2°C) outside.

I had Clif Bars for breakfast while driving.

I went to Locust Point around 5:50 and found a fantastic composition looking approximately south towards Steamboat Mountain (far left). The dawn light was exactly what I had been looking to get while at the North Rim. There was a wonderful pastel color in the sky and the diffuse light made the rocks glow — fantastic! After I finished there, I went to the far view point to get a better view to the west. I like the play of light and shadow in the image to the near left. I used a polarizer to cut down the haze. I left around 7:20.

I returned to the RV around 7:35 and pussyfooted around the office while J was dozing. I downloaded the images I took and downselected them in Capture One (C1). Then I worked up a blog entry. After J got up, we talked about our near-term travel plans.
I had lunch around 11:35 and created some waypoints for Bossy, our Garmin nüvi 350 GPS, to help me explore the area futher this afternoon. (Our Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS was still not functioning.) I left in the Jeep around 12:25 by myself.

I went to Swamp Point in the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. The road inside the National Park required a high clearance vehicle and went through a ponderosa pine forest that had burned recently — there were lots of blackened tree trunks and dead needles.

I reached Swamp Point around 1:35 and the view was fantastic! I scouted for a good location for photography, then checked my phone and was pleasantly surprised that I had a Verizon Wireless signal. I checked my voicemail then called my mother. I left around 2:05.

I went to Stina Point in the Kaibab National Forest. I had skipped going to Fire Point because that would have involved a long out and back road, and based on the topo map, the view wouldn't be as good as from Swamp Point. I didn't think the view would be that good from Stina Point either, but it was a much shorter out and back road to get to it. The view wasn't that great and would be terrible for photography because of the highly treed viewpoints.

I returned to the RV around 3:40, got a Mountain House dinner from the RV to take with us, packed up our computers, and left in the Jeep around 4:05.

We went to Swamp Point around 5:10 to spend the evening. We both photographed the view to the south with the sun still illuminating the depths of the Grand Canyon. Then we tried to go online using our USB sticks and the Verizon National Access signal. I couldn't connect with my USB727 stick but J could with her USB760 stick. :( I started to make dinner with my MSR WhisperLite stove.

We had dinner around 6:30 of the Mountain House Chicken Polynesian, and J loved it. I enjoyed it too, and especially liked the view while eating. The tops of the formations down in the canyon started to light up in the last light, so we each stopped eating and photographed for a while from where we had parked and had eaten (below left). We finished eating and then I went down to a rock outcropping to photograph the area at dusk (below right).


After I finished photographing, I cleaned up the "kitchen" (J had done the dishes while I was photographing) and tried to go online again. I still couldn't connect, so J lent me her USB760 stick. I was finally able to get online. The connection was too slow to do much, and I basically only got my email. We left around 8:20.

About a mile down the road (about 1.6km), we came upon a porcupine walking down the road going the same direction as us. We stopped and watched for a while until it headed off into the woods and out of the area illuminated by our headlights.

We returned to the RV around 9:35. I downloaded the images I took and downselected them before going to bed.