Adventures in Canyon De Chelley

I talk a lot about my day job. One of the reasons is that I am proud of what I do. Another reason is that my day job takes me to some wonderfully beautiful places. Being a landscape photographer, that makes it doubly rewarding. A couple of weeks ago I was asked to go Ft. Defiance, Arizona for a particularly difficult job. Of course my camera goes everywhere with me. I expected to be done Thursday night which would give me Friday as a travel and photo day. So during my evenings in the hotel room I used Google Earth to look for a place to go. Canyon De Chelley called my name.

Canyon De Chelley is a National Monument that resides in the Navajo Nation. The National Park Service and the Navajo Nation work together to manage the canyon. People have lived in the canyon for 5,000 years. I can certainly understand why.

I typically get out of bed early but this particular morning I was awake at 2:45 AM. Too excited to sleep I got up and headed toward the canyon. The 90 minute drive gave me even more reason for excitement as I watched a fantastic thunderstorm just to the north of me. The storm appeared right where I imagined the canyon to be. Wet roads closer to the canyon confirmed that the storm had been there. The speed limit was tough to maintain. When I finally reached the park entrance I had to further maintain my patience as I had chosen the last overlook as the location for my sunrise shoot. And based on the lightning it was the right place for the storm as well.

There are 7 overlooks on the south rim of the canyon. The last one is the Spider Rock overlook. When I reached the parking lot I could still see the lightning to the east, but I also saw the moon shining bright. I jumped out of the car prepared to run down the path I had seen. The cold air of the morning shocked me. My desert dweller uniform of shorts and a t-shirt wasn't going to cut it this morning. Searching through my sparsely packed suitcase I quickly put a polo shirt over my t-shirt, stripped off my shorts and threw on a pair of khakis. Then down the path I ran.

If you've never tried to mount a camera to a tripod, in the dark, while shivering violently, then you may not have a point of reference here. But I imagined crowds laughing, full belly laughs, if they were only fortunate enough to see this spectacle. I'm pretty sure the laughing I did hear was only my own. It got pretty quiet when I finally had everything set up properly. But the quiet didn't come until long after I had found myself laughing maniacally while shivering in dark. Trying to put everything together. Photos of the canyon seemed impossible for what seemed liked forever at the time. Looking back it was probably only 30 seconds.

Mentally timing the lightning I decided I wanted an exposure in the 10 to 15 second range. The moon was bright enough to make it possible to get the storm, which by this point was fairly small to the east, and the canyon. Making a couple of adjustments to the exposure and composition this is the result.

The storm moved off as the sun continued to rise. So the great color I had been hoping for never materialized. I took quite a few exposures hoping for better lightning but it was really too far away by the time I reached the park. So now I was looking for light. I grabbed my things and went to the end of the path so I could see the canyon in both directions.

The sun light started streaming into the canyon as I made my way to the end of the cliffs. The light from the sunrise on orange rocks is never disappointing. So I set up on the edge and waited for the light. I'm not sure how my wife knows when I am standing on the edge of a cliff but she always does. With my eye to the viewfinder and my mind concentrating on balance, the stillness is shattered by my ringing phone. I have spent hours training for just this scenario and I know exactly what to do. Unfortunately the lack of sleep and the numbing cold have dulled my senses and slowed my normal cat-like reflexes. So I step toward the edge, one hand reaching for the tripod and one for the phone. My 3 Legged Thing tripod suddenly has 5 legs and I can't figure out which ones belong to me. All 5 of them are leaning the wrong way. Why am I in tennis shoes instead of boots I wonder as my feet slide around the rocks. I can hear the phone echoing from the distant canyon walls and I am sure that all 40 Navajo families living in the canyon are now fully awake. Luckily, gravity temporarily released it's hold on me and I was able to stumble up the rocks while maintaining a bear hug on the tripod.

After a quick good morning to my wife I carefully went back to the edge to chase the light. Looking away from Spider Rock I caught this scene.

A glance back toward Spider Rock gave this.

Once the sun was high enough to change the light I thought I might stop at a few of the other overlooks on my way out of the park. As I got to my last stop I realized that my activities during the sunrise had warmed sufficiently to switch back into my shorts. A quick look around assured me I was still alone. As I pulled on my shorts in the parking lot another car arrived. A man and his two kids got out and started speaking to the lady sitting by the path selling her art.

Wait! What lady?

I surely didn't see her there. And I don't know what she saw. But she didn't strike up a conversation as I walked past her. I wandered around on the rocks for a while then found this quiet place to relax and enjoy the view. In the top center of this photo you can just make out one of the cliff dwellings from the ancient ones that lived here 800 years ago.

Overall a pretty decent morning. I usually like to scout a place before attempting a sunrise shoot. But I have found that Google Earth really does a good job if you can't be there in person. I really look forward to my next trip in this area. For now I am spending a little time at home with my family. I think they are happy to see me.

Oh yeah! On my next trip. I hope to leave the phone in the car.