This morning I got up and drove out to get a pass to The Wave. They've got a weird lottery system set up where you either have to sign up 3 months in advance or show up at 9am the day before you actually want to go visit and enter the lottery and hopefully get a pass. I was planning on going tomorrow so I went this morning to get my pass. Arizona is weird in that they don't adjust for daylight savings time. It turns out that I crossed the border up into Utah when going to get my pass so it was 9:50 am when I got there, and I thought I was getting there early, so I wound up not getting the pass. Oh well, no biggie. Because of their system, I already had an alternative plan in place...
I'm going to head down to Havasu Falls on the south rim of the Grand Canyon instead. Woohoo! It's like an 8 mile hike each direction so I was planning on spending a night in the lodge they have there. I called them up and it turns out that you have to reserve a place 5-6 months in advance, minimum. I'm a very spontaneous and go where the universe takes me type of traveler so that was definitely out. There's also a campground there too, but that's full as well. It looks like I may wind up taking a helicopter ride both in and out when I get there and not staying the night. We'll see what happens when I get there.
Anyways, coming back to today, this morning I stopped by Horseshoe Bend again. It's great in the morning/midday when the sun's relatively overhead. It comes up in the east. The camera is pointed west in this image. When I first got there, the shadow of the rim was over the beach at the bottom. This was shot just before I left, when the shadow had pulled back away from the horseshoe.
It's really scary being there, at first. You're sooooo close to the edge and the possibility of death. It seems like you grow used to it after a while, walking up closer or even laying down and hanging over the edge to get a shot.
After talking to some fellow photographers in the area, I packed up and headed out to go shoot Antelope Canyon.
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