Nikon D810, 58mm, ISO 200, 1/15 sec, f/13
This was the last sunrise of my trip. I had to get up extra early to make the drive to Moran Point which is near the eastern entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. My plan was to leave the park via the eastern exit on my way to Yuma AZ for business. This would be about a 7 hour drive, but I had a few photography opportunities on the way, so it took much longer than that. The things we do for our hobby.
Moran Point is interesting because it allows you to shoot the length of the canyon, instead of mostly shooting across the canyon as at other scenic vistas within the park. This is another focus-stacked image consisting of four images focused on different ridge lines.
That ends my three day Grand Canyon National Park photography trip. I captured 362 images that I deemed worthy of saving (the original number was way higher) from 10 different locations. Fifteen of those images ended up on this blog. It was a long three days chasing sunrise and sunset, but well worth the effort!
Moran Point: 36.004709° -111.924121°
Grand Canyon Weekend Photography Locations (click to enlarge)
The map above shows the locations where I spent time during my Grand Canyon weekend. By the way, a single weekend is not enough time to photograph the Grand Canyon properly. Unfortunately, I was limited by my work schedule to a late Friday to early Sunday visit. I would have liked more sunrises and sunsets to photograph from different locations.
During summer hours, you must ride shuttles to many of these locations, especially to the west of the main visitors center. No worries tho, the shuttles run early enough to catch sunrise anywhere in the park.
I planned my days around sunrise and sunset so there are lots of pictures taken at several of the points. I started on a Friday at the Grand Canyon Visitor center for sunset at Mather Point. Sunrise Saturday was at Yaki Point, sunset Saturday at Yavapai Point, and finished with Sunday sunrise at Moran Point as I was leaving the park. Each number on the map represents the number of images taken at each point.
Photographing sunrise and sunset, combined with the drive back to Tusayan every night, made for one sleep-deprived photographer.
From left to right, using the numbers as a guide, here are the areas I visited during the weekend.
- 9 – Mohave Point
- 20 – Hopi Point
- 33 – Village Area
- 19 – Verkamp’s Visitor Center
- 136 – Yavapai Point
- 23 – Grand Canyon Visitor Center
- 51 – Yaki Point
- 26 – Moran Point
- 4 – Lipan Point
- 41 – Desert View Watchtower
