I woke up at 4:30 a.m. on the third day, eager to get to the Grand Canyon by sunrise to take some photos. Twenty-five minutes later I walked out the door and my hopes of capturing a beautiful sunrise were already dashed. Sunrise was probably less than twenty minutes away, and I was a good sixty to ninety minutes from my destination.
Still, I was up and awake, so I decide to see if I could still catch some good light. Prior to arriving at the Grand Canyon entrance, I stopped and took a few photos of some deer along the side of the road.
I arrived at the entrance to the Grand Canyon at about 5:40 a.m.. The entrance consists of a small kiosk sized building in between the two lanes of the road. There was no-one working at the booth to collect the twenty-five dollar fee (good for a week), so I followed the instructions of the sign that read to go on through.
I followed the signs to Point Imperial, the highest point on the North Rim (8,033 feet) and one of the three places I wanted to see. When I finally arrived, it was well after six o'clock, and the beautiful light of the morning had already fled. There were two people already there, one with a camera and the other with a dog on a leash. They were chatting away, the guy with the dog mentioning to the other that he was on disability due to a heart condition. I mentioned that I had hoped to make it by sunrise, and the guy with the camera told me that I had missed it. It took a bit will power to not make a smart alack retort like "oh, that big yellow ball is the sun, I never would have guessed."
I took a few photos then headed for my second destination, Cape Royal. When I arrived, I ran into the dog guy again. He saw the California license plate on my rental and asked me where I lived in California. I tried to keep this conversation short, but he managed to mention his disability. My guess is that he tells anyone that will listen, and some who won't, about his ailment.
There was a sign about a wedding area, so I headed down a short trail there and took some photos. I wandered around for a while, took some photos. I was really hungry by this point, I got in my car to leave. Just before I pulled out of the parking lot, I saw the actual sign for Cape Royal. I shook my head, I thought that I had been taking pictures at Cape Royal, but in fact it was on a trail adjacent to the parking lot. So I parked the car, gathered my gear and went to take some more photos. I spent another hour or two at Cape Royal, then headed back to the hotel. My plan was to head back to the hotel, grab some food, take a nap and come back closer to sunrise.
Four hours later, after some sleep and food, I got back in my rental car to head back to the Grand Canyon. At this point, I noticed that my parking lights were on. I gave it only a brief thought, but I must have left it on since morning. When I turned the lights off when arriving at Imperial Point, I must not have turned it all the way off. On my way back to the Grand Canyon I stopped a couple of times to take some photos of the scenery. The second stop was to catch a beam of light streaming from the heavens.
When I got back in the car, it wouldn't start. After a few tries, it was clear the batter wasn't going to turn over. I was a thirty minute drive from my hotel and about an equal distance to the Grand Canyon entrance. I looked at my cell phone, and it indicated that I was out of service range. I started waving down passing cars. Almost every motorist I waved down stopped to see what was wrong. Unfortunately, the were almost all tourists whose cars were not equipped with jumper cables. A local did stop, but he did not have cables in the car. He indicated that he had jumper cables in his car, but he was driving his wife's minivan.
Finally, after thirty minutes, a U.S. Forest Service employee stopped. He had jumper cables and was able to get me started. This good Samaritan friend told me that there was a service station in the park, and that they could probably charge or replace the battery. After thanking him for his help, I was on my way again.
This time when I approached the park entrance, there was a line of cars about ten deep. I paid my twenty-five dollars, and then drove to the park visitor's center. Bright Angel Point, the third of my destinations, is located on a trail behind the Grand Canyon lodge next to the visitor's center. I found a parking spot and backed in.
I turned off the car and then immediately tried to restart it. Nothing happened. I tried again, hoping, but not expecting a different result. The engine remained silent so I headed to the visitor's center to get help. I asked if I could get a jump start in a few hours (after photographing the sunset), but I was told that after 6:00 p.m. park rangers were available on an emergency basis. After a twenty minute wait, a park ranger was giving me a jump start. She told me that the service station in the park would provide no help with my battery problem. My "closest" option was the town of Kanab, Utah, a forty minute drive from my hotel, and a little less than two hours from my current location. The bad news continued as she told me that it would be closed by the time I got there tonight, so I would have to go in the morning.
As I left the Grand Canyon, I was a little disappointed. I had missed both sunrise and sunset this day, and there was no way I would hit sunrise the next day since the shop wouldn't open until 8:00 or 9:00. My plan was to leave the Grand Canyon the next afternoon, so I was going to miss all the good photo shooting time. I pulled into the service station next to the hotel to get some gas. They had a garage attached, so I had the mechanic check the battery. He told me the battery needed replacement, and gave me the same story as the park ranger. He told me that they could give me a jump in the morning if necessary.
The car actually started up after his test, so I parked it in the front of the hotel. I had some dinner at the hotel wondering what to do.
As I was getting ready for bed, a thought came to me. I set my alarm clock for 3:00 a.m. When I woke up, I would go and try to start the car. If it started, I would go and take photos of sunrise. Even if it wouldn't start back up after I got there, I was confident that I could get a jump in the morning. If it didn't turn over, then I would sleep for a few more hours, and then go get the battery looked after.
What happened? Well, that's tomorrow's story.
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