I’ve been working hard on reducing my pack weight over the last year and this trip was my best effort to date. Overnight gear, clothes, food, 2 liters of water, and 10lbs of camera gear for a total of 32lbs. Usually I’m pushing the 40′s with all the junk I haul around so my pack felt super light and I blasted up the trail and soon found myself alone in the upper basin. With lightning in the forecast I really wanted a good campsite away from trees and wide open spaces. I couldn’t find any sites like this in the upper basin so I decided to summit with my pack then descend to emerald lake to set up camp later.

I saw one hiker and a few mountain goats between the saddle and summit. I spent about 10min on top getting my shots and watching the goats then started my hike back down. Once I reached the saddle the lightning started to strike off in the west desert. I set up my gear and took a series of photos and captured nearly 50 strikes in just 12min. I made a few phone calls and checked the latest weather animations on my phone and the storm was headed right for me. At that point I had the choice of hiking down to emerald lake to set up camp before to the storm hit or bail. As I pondering this lighting started to fire off over the Heber Valley to the east, then the cottonwoods to the north. At this pointed I caved and decided to give up and get off the mountain. By the time I reached the edge of the upper basin lighting was 360° around me but still a ways off. I picked up the pace and started running down the trail.

About half way down the large switch back and talus slope I came across a group of hikers also descending off the mountain and one of them had a knee injury. They had already contacted Search and Rescue and were slowing making their way down the trail waiting for SAR to come up to them.

The next 2 hours were amazing with pouring rain, lighting, and echoing thunder. At times I felt like I was running in a strobe light. I reached the Timpooneke trail head soaked to the bone and completely exhausted. I spoke with search and rescue and let them know exactly where I had last seen the people they were looking for. They were not headed up the trail until the lighting calmed down.
As I got changed out of my wet clothes lightning was streaking across the sky in every direction and hitting the summit ridges all over the canyon. I got in the car and took one last shot out my window. I used my 11mm lens that has a 110 degree angle and captured an eye level that reached both edges of the frame… time to go home.

day 1 -

On our way down we stopped at Colorado City to get out and hike water canyon. The hike was beautiful and a nice break from the drive, the canyon was nice and cool once you got up there a ways to the nice water channels.

On our way back down to the car there is a small reservoir where we did see several people swimming in their full dress, it was a little strange.

When we got to the north rim it felt great outside and we set up camp literally within 10 yards of the edge of the grand canyon among ponderous pines. We decided to rim walk to the bright angel trail, about three miles round trip from our campsite and made it there right around sunset. We watched among a small crowd the beautiful fading colors. Our walk back was mostly in the dark but so nice. After eating at camp we went back to a bench on the rim near our site and watched a lightning show until late, we didn’t even make a fire, just sat on the bench and had the view to ourselves.

day 2 -

In the morning we drove to the lodge to check it out and decided there wasn’t much else to do without hiking down into the canyon so we opted for the shorter scenic drive to point imperial where the views were amazing. I know it’s been said a million times but there is nothing like seeing it in person.

Then we headed to Page, Arizona where we had a room booked at the Marriott and we wanted to see Antelope canyon. Apparently everyone else in town wanted to see antelope canyon too but after asking around we were able to book a photography tour that started fairly soon. It was really really crowded, but it was an awesome canyon and we did get our fair share of photos.

We were right by Glen Canyon Dam and spotted some people swimming so we pulled off and found an awesome spot to jump right in Lake Powell, the water felt great. After our dip we checked into our motel, showered and went out to eat. For sunset we went to the horseshoe bend then we did some more swimming in the pool later before crashing for the night.

day 3 -

We went for the delicious buffet for breakfast then to the grocery store then headed to Bryce canyon. We planned to hike the fairyland loop which we had heard was a less crowded trail. On our way it was raining pretty good and in red’s canyon not far from Bryce we were stopped by a mudslide across the road. After getting out and actually removing some of the larger rocks we were able to drive across and make it to Bryce. By the time we got started on our hike it was pretty warm outside again. The hike was eight miles and beautiful, took us around three hours. We found some showers and ate our dinner at sunset point where again we were treated to an awesome lightning show. At camp we made a nice fire before settling in.

day 4 -

We woke and packed, anxious to get in a quick hike and see our boys again. We did the navajo loop which was straight down, around a little and straight back up, the switchbacks were getting sun on our way back up and it was already warm but I liked that hike a lot too. It was a long drive home and we stopped at home to clean up before meeting up with our boys in Salt Lake who were very happy to see us.

It was a great trip for just us, usually without the kids we try to do a lot more hiking but this was perfect and we got to see a lot.