We are starting to fall into a routine after being here at the Grand Canyon for a few days – awake a couple hours before sunrise, photograph sunrise for a few hours, get back to the RV and cook breakfast, then edit photos, take a nap then shower, and have lunch. Afternoons are for scouting – then we get to our sunset location a few hours before sunset, come back to the RV in the dark, cook supper, sleep, then start it all over again.

I am writing now just after this morning’s nap. The alarm woke us at 3:45 am and an hour later we were on a 15 minute bus ride to Yaki Point. As you can see in the photo below, when your days are as long as ours are you try to catch some rest whenever the opportunity allows – John wasted no time to rest his eyes on our short bus trip.

We scouted Yaki Point yesterday and as such we each knew exactly where we wanted to set up this morning. Yesterday afternoon and evening the weather did not cooperate with us – heavy afternoon rain storm with light rain most of the afternoon leading up to a cloud-blocking sunset. When you are not able to photograph due to unfavorable weather, the next best thing is to scout a location to be ready the next time the weather allows. The photos of John and I and the one of myself below were taken during our scouting at the spot I returned to this morning.

Sunrise yielded a nice 180 degree panoramic photo for me. I had just a touch of cloud cover above the rising sun – the clouds glowing in a brilliant orange/red color.

This afternoon we plan on scouting another location that we are considering for sunset tonight. We are still waiting for conditions to provide us with that jaw-dropping sunset – maybe it will happen tonight.

Things that have surprised us so far: the many available spaces in the campground, the amount of car alarms that go off throughout the day (9 yesterday, 3 so far today), no cell phone coverage anywhere causing us to purchase phone cards yesterday, and shortly after buying said phone cards finding a cell phone signal in the middle of nowhere at Yaki Point just strong enough to enable us to make a couple quick calls.

Things we have enjoyed so far: the quite at the campground, the couple hours sleep we get, yesterday’s bus driver who recently moved here from Dallas, finding that cell signal, and the many people who come to chat with us while we are photographing or moving form location to location.