Grand Canyon - Dusk and Dawn

Over the years,  I've never had much of an interest in going to the Grand Canyon.  It always seemed more urgent that I get to Europe and experience different cultures.  After all, it's just a bunch of rocks.

I guess I wasn't ready to appreciate the Grand Canyon yet. 

Now, at the age of 56, I felt that same yearning that I once felt for Europe.

When my husband told me he had a business trip to Arizona

and asked if I'd like to accompany him,  I suggested we go a few days early and see some sights.

That's how this amazing trip came to be. 

(click on photos to view larger) 

We flew to Phoenix and made our way north.  The landscape changed a lot during that 4 hour drive.  We had booked a motel for the night 5 miles from the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  We pulled into town a few minutes before sunset and drove right to the park.

THIS was our first view of the canyon.  The sun was high enough to light the top layer of stone.  It's almost impossible to grasp its beauty and size in pictures.   

We were at the Mather Point viewing area.
It was off season, so it wasn't very crowded - which was very nice.

The colors of the rock changed depending on which direction
you were looking.

Everyone had an iPhone or a camera.

After the sun disappeared, the colors became very pastel. Then it was too dark to really see anything.

The next morning,  we got up at 5:30AM, which wasn't hard to do since we were still on east coast time.  We dressed warmly and went back to Mather Point for sunrise.

Silhouettes were all we could see at first.  The sky was a brilliant orange.

But minute by minute, the painting began to reveal itself.

The increasing light painted highlights on peaks

 giving depth to the scene.

The sky itself was spectacular (The little specks on the bottom center of the picture are the people at the next viewing point).

As sunrise got even closer,
a part of the sky looked like molten lava.

As is usual for sunrise,  the color pretty much disappears
from the sky the moment the sun appears on the horizon.

Then it becomes almost impossible to look in the direction of the sun, which is a good thing because the show now begins in back of you.

It was amazing to see stripes of
orange, red, and purple on the rocks.

This is how we left the scene to go inside to eat breakfast. 

We had to fuel up for our hike into the canyon!