The plan was to participate in a workshop and spend a long weekend around the Mono Lake California area to shoot Milky Way. September is one of my favorite months to spend on hwy 395. Daytime temps are warm and cold overnight temps but don’t need to bring the arctic gear. One of the nights would have been a late-night shoot at Bodie State Park. Bodie typically closes around 6 pm so an opportunity to shoot the park at night would have been awesome. Also, I have never participated in a workshop before. I was really curious about the process, teaching styles, how to handle a small group, etc. Also, I am sure I would have learned a few things. Everything was good to go until labor day happened. As of writing this, Bishop California has experienced 156 days without any measurable rain. The west coast is a matchbox waiting to go off. Over labor day weekend, several fires kicked up on top of existing fires. The creek fire being the largest south of Yosemite National Park and the now infamous El Dorado Fire outside San Bernadino that was started with pyrotechnics at a gender reveal party. So the entire state of California is on fire and the apacolypse 2020 tour continues on. I’ve been checking smoke maps and webcams in hopes we would have some hazy but clear skies, and the final nail in the coffin was California department of foresty has decided to close all national forest so any opportunity to get above the smoke was gone. So 2 days before I was scheduled to leave, my trip was cancelled. Now I fully understand there are bigger problems in the world and a canceled vacation isn’t something I should cry over.

I decided to just find another place. Now pretty much the entire western US, from the pacific ocean to the Rockies is under a cloud of smoke. I did my research and I decided to head on over to Northern Arizona. The smoke at the time didnt seem too bad down there. Hotels are cheap and not a lot of people are traveling at the moment. I didn’t want to go camping because I really want to limit my exposure to COVID. Shared bathrooms, showers, and other common spaces, I really wanted to avoid. I packed up my Dometic Fridge with 5 days worth of groceries so I would not have to worry about food. The only public place I would be stopping at was a gas station. I was able to score a hotel room for $35 a night in Williams, AZ. About the price of a campsite so all was good. Left on a Thursday and made the 3.5 hr drive. Thursday seemed fine. The smoke was way to the south and only a little bit of haze so I thought I lucked out. Went to bed early since I knew I had a 3am alarm to head to the grand canyon for sunrise. 4 am Friday morning, I was on the road to the Grand Canyon. When I left the hotel, I could see a dark black sky and plenty of stars. I arrived at Mather Point at around 5:20 and the most amazing thing was happening. I was the only person there. People were filing into the parking lot, but they were making their way down the Rim Trail. You could see a steady stream of headlamps. I am all set up, I am at the overlook and I had the place to myself for almost an hour. I just got to see the sunrise and there was no one around coughing on me. I have never experienced that before at the Grand Canyon. Just quiet, no talking, no footsteps, coughing, sneezing, farting, yelling at kids. Nothing, total peace and quiet. About 5 minutes before the scheduled sunrise, people started walking in, but there were maybe 30 people? Any normal day, that overlook would be filled to the brim with people. Not this time. I was probably able to take my best photo of the Grand Canyon to date. While the skies were clear, there was enough smoke in the canyon and air to add some texture. Unfortunately by 10 am Friday, the winds shifted and the smoke came. The skies were “overcast” during the duration of my stay, however, I did my best to use the smoke to my advantage.

During my weekend, I went to Wupatki, Sunset Crater, Montezuma Castle, almost died on the stairs at Walnut Canyon, Jerome, Tuzigoot, and visited several tourist traps like Bearizona. Look I am not above photographing wildlife in a zoo. I think I came home from that trip with a few photos that turned out good.I was happy about that since my trip down here was unplanned and last minute. I am currently going through my photos and I even filmed a couple youtube videos. So stayed tuned for all that. I’ll be adding to my gallery as I finish a photo.