Everyone has heard of the Grand Canyon.  Something many do not know is that it is not called `grand' because it is so big, but rather because the river at the bottom was called the Grand River.  It was only later, during Powell's expedition I think (I would check on the NPS site but it is down right now), that they figured out that it was the Colorado River after all.

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Grand Canyon (South Rim, view towards north)

Monday, 15 March 1999 (trip with parents).  We had planned to go from Tucson to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, but because it was such a dry year and there were no flowers to be seen, we went up to the Grand Canyon instead. We stayed overnight (the Sunday night) in Williams, which is about half an hour east of Flagstaff and an hour south of the Grand Canyon itself.

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Sunset in Williams

(The sunset was actually even prettier earlier, but it was not until I got off the highway that I could pull out the camera.)

Most of these pictures are from the rim, but at least the one with the mule in it is from Bright Angel Trail.  I did not have my hiking boots, and my parents were not up to climbing paths anyway, so I just went a slight ways down the trail.

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Another view towards the north, with a bit more canyon showing

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Looking slightly northeast, I think

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Part of the south rim, towards the west end of the canyon, if I remember right

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View from Bright Angel Trail, with a mule coming up

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View of the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon

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Another view; the Colorado shows up here again, towards the left

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Fairly decent view of the south rim climbing down

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Probably my best daylight shot (probably mid to late afternoon)

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Same as #8, but slightly different angle

Not all my pictures were from the rim; I took one of the Hopi House:

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Hopi House

Eventually, the sun started to go down, and I got some pictures I really like.  Well, except for the date-stamp feature that somehow got turned on, with the date wildly wrong; luckily it barely shows up in most of these.

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Ravens perch on the rim

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Sunset adds shadows, which bring profiles into relief

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The sunlight turns orange-red and brings out more color

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(If you have a 35mm camera, you can use color filters to get a similar effect...)

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(But real sunset is just as good, or maybe better, anyway!)

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Sunset

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All contents are copyright © 2001 Chris Torek.