The Canyon After Hours

The Canyon is a beautiful, amazing place by day, but like most other places, darkness changes the feel of it. Now, let me start by saying that I totally scored Doug a great Father's Day gift on accident. While most of you know he is a huge space, star, all things celestial fan. The Grand Canyon Park Service was hosting a Star Party, the week we were there complete with tons of amateur astronomers with telescopes set up and Constellation Tours, etc.

I am not a huge fan of all this, but as a good sport I agreed to go with Doug and the boys, well that and Doug can't drive the car. The Constellation Tour was really interesting; our guide was a retired teacher from Florida who was amazing. On our way back to the parking lot we were surprised by a loud rustling in the bushes. They don't allow white light in the star gazing area because it ruins your night vision, so we had very little light to see anything. As it turns out, an elk walked right out of the shrubs and into the star party. The funniest thing was that no one even noticed him except us because it was so dark they couldn't see it.
 

Early shot of the moon, Venus,  Jupiter and Arcturus

On the way out I decided to ask a park ranger where Doug could do some celestial photography since he has been practicing with my camera. As it turns out, she was the Star Party organizer, and while we were talking, the International Space Station flew overhead. I don't know if she was just really touched by that or if she was having a good day or what, but she offered to give us a special access pass to parts of the park that are not normally accessible to private transportation so that Doug could get shots without light pollution. Holy Cow what a SCORE!

A couple of nights later we drove up to Pima Point which is about 7,000 feet above sea level and started to set up there for night photography because it was the furthest point from civilization basically. Let me just say this, the Grand Canyon at night, with absolutely NO light, when not another soul is around, and you cannot hear anything except the wind HOWLING is the creepiest feeling ever.

We ended up moving because of the wind to a less creepy area, but still, it was unsettling. I know Doug would say it was worth it, and I would probably agree. It was the first time I had ever seen the Milky Way with my naked eyes. It is so dark and clear it is really very easily visible.