I’ve been itching to go visit another national park lately.  There’s several around to choose from so I have options.  This time, I wanted to do something new.  I opted for a place which doesn’t get the traffic of its other half.  Where did I go?  I’ll give you a clue: I found my way to a giant hole in the ground.  Keep reading to find out.

This time, I felt like checking out nothing less than the famous Grand Canyon of Arizona.  However, rather than take the 4 to 5 hour drive around to the south rim and the flood of tourists, I decided to check out the north rim instead.  It’s a mere 2.5 hour drive away and receives way fewer visitors than the other half of the canyon does.

The Grand Canyon requires little in the way of introduction as it is one of the best known national parks in the United States.  It was created by the Colorado River carving out the layers of rock over millennia.  At the particular vantage I chose, the canyon is so deep that there was no way to see the river below.  It was completely out of sight.

I had checked out some of the view points on the north rim before taking the trip.  I had a few places in mind to see.  On that list was a location called Bright Angel Point.  It’s just off the lodge on the north rim.  It was well worth the brief stroll out to the point overlooking the canyon to get this shot.

Since I planned to arrive well before sunset, we took some time and scoped out the visitors center and the lodge along with a couple potential locations for my shot.  When sunset was imminent, I returned to Bright Angel Point with camera in tow.  There was not enough room on that outcropping for me to set up my tripod and still leave some room for other tourists to view the canyon below.  This meant I was hand-holding my camera for any and all attempts at this shot.

On the way over to the national park, we learned that there was a managed fire taking place nearby.  While this made for some uncomfortable driving conditions on the way back (smokey and hazy road in the dark), the smoke and particulate in the air lit up with the setting sun and provided some beautiful color in what could have been and otherwise dull sky.

Going and seeing the Grand Canyon has been a goal of mine for this year.  It’s great that I was finally able to achieve that goal for myself.  It’s even better that I could walk away with a landscape photo looking like this.  I hope you enjoyed seeing my take on that giant hole in the ground.

If you want to buy a print copy of this giant hole-in-the-ground, follow this link to our online store where you can order one today.