Well it was either great fun or rather stupid. Here I was in
a campsite Wednesday night in Williams AZ – the southern route into the Grand
Canyons – saying to myself (maybe you don’t travel alone, but I usually do)
“Self, we’ve missed sunset at the Canyons and the park won’t let you end early
enough for sunrise, so what to do on Thursday”
I not sure which side of the brain (if I have one) won, but off I took
at 9 AM (see I wouldn’t have made sunrise anyway) headed to Lone Pine CA to try
and catch sunset behind Mount Whitney and the portals. Yea it is a long way,
but I have a tendency to get in a vehicle and just drive (a habit I am trying
to break). This little motorhome loves it too, it would seem, so I just made it
into Lone Pine a little after 6 and the sun going down. Turned left for Whitney
Portals and turned into Movie Drive (a lot of movies were shot here in the 30’s
and 40’s (Gunga Din for one) and made it to a spot to camp for the night. Of
course only a handful of small puffy clouds over the Sierras but you can’t have
it all, right? Got a couple of shots and watched the sun go and the stars come
out.
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| Whitney and Stars |
Yeah, very very little light pollution here and I was rewarded with more
stars and planets than I have seen since I was a kids and the plains of Kansas.
The only draw back, a small one but a drawback nonetheless.
The moon was almost a half moon and when there are no lights around, it does
take center stage. There were moon shadows and I got moon flares in the lens.
Got out my Sun Surveyor app and found out that the moon sets at 12:30 and
sunrise was at 6AM. I so wanted to see the Milky Way that I got to bed and went
back out at 2 AM. I should have got my Sky Guide app out before I got up and I
would have discovered the big beautiful colorful Milky Way was over China and
we only got the tail ends. Not knowing my stars well enough, I couldn’t
identify them very well, but I took some shots anyway and will read up on
shooting star shots some more and try again tonight.
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| Lathe Arch, Whitney Portals |
Got up this morning and took a short walk to shoot the Arch
here before the sun got too high and have just finished breakfast (shrimp,
bacon, asparagus, carrot and garlic omelet -
come on you know me well enough by now!)
Now to work on some shots, move to cell service and post
this.
Later
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