Our second morning dawned clear, bright, and cold. We were pretty relieved and couldn’t wait to get out and explore.

After a quick breakfast we headed out and spent the next several hours walking along the rim. Alert: photo overload!

 

As you can tell, I was pretty impressed with this surreal, natural wonder.

If you ever get the chance… no wait! don’t leave it to chance–make it happen–visit the Grand Canyon!!

Just a few more snowy vistas before we move along.

The sun stayed out for about an hour and we were able to enjoy the gorgeousness of the forest…

I didn’t want to stand there with hubby so I offered to take his photo…

Finally, the Grand Canyon. Photos cannot capture it. Words cannot describe it.

But us photographers try.

National Geographic writes “the road to the Grand Canyon from the south crosses a gently rising plateau that gives no hint at what is about to unfold. You wonder if you have made a wrong turn. All at once an immense gorge a mile deep and up to 18 miles wide opens up. The scale is so vast that even from the best vantage point only a fraction of the canyon’s 277 miles can be seen”.

It wasn’t long until the clouds and snow took over once again so we headed to the Yavapai Lodge where we spent the night.

We were travelling with another couple so we enjoyed a lovely dinner at the El Tovar Dining Room. It was warm and cozy, the food was good, and we had a view of the rim of the canyon.

We watched people scurrying around outside with hoods and scarves pulled over their heads. We marveled at the snow blowing around and off the roof and made predictions about what we were going to wake up to. Would it be cold, but clear? Or was there going to be a foot of snow blanketing everything?

 

Shortly after we left the shelter of the gift shop/cafeteria (to escape the blizzard) and began to drive to our hotel, the sun started to peek out and we caught our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon.

We pulled into a viewing area and I just couldn’t get past the trees. They were so absolutely gorgeous with their twisted trunks, rough bark, and snowy branches.

I knew that the lighting was perfect and that the snow was soon going to melt so I slowed down and took dozens of shots, all the while exclaiming how beautiful it was. But the excitement was building as we inched our way closer and closer to the rim…  more photos to come later!

I was using my new Nikon D7100 with the 55-105mm lens for the first time! I’m pretty excited about it! I did a lot of thinking about which camera I wanted. I looked at full sensors but decided the cost was just too prohibitive and not necessary for my needs. The D7100 is a 24.1-MP DX-format CMOS sensor and shoots up to 6 fps. I also bought the 55-105mm lens which will enable me to take a wider range of photos without having to change out the lenses constantly.

I sharpened the photos, adjusted the exposure, then bumped up the blues and greens a wee bit–that’s it…

So far, I’m quite pleased. I cropped the last image to within an inch of it’s life and I think the detail is still pretty amazing.