We had another incredible trip to the US Southwest in October experiencing many great new sights and revisiting a couple of ones we had been to before.
One memorable location was Horseshoe Bend, which is a horseshoe-shaped feature on the Colorado River about five miles south of Glen Canyon Dam near the town of Page, Arizona.
This location is one of the most photographed areas in Arizona, and is well-known by photographers across the world. At this point in the age of photography, it is hard to capture something new at this place, but it is definitely worth the visit.
We had planned to go here from the start of our Southwestern trip and wanted to have opportunities to photograph it at sunset as well as late-morning light. Arriving about an hour before sunset, we had to circle the dusty parking lot several times, proudly collecting layers of dust on our car like a badge of honor, amidst a throng of dusty vehicles and people.
Following the ‘herd’ to Horseshoe Bend
From the parking lot, it was a true madhouse swarm of people hiking, running, and limping up and down the trail to the canyons edge. All ages, nationalities, shapes and sizes of folk, along with all varieties of their kids running all about, as well as their dogs who also came in all shapes and sizes. The sun was on its way to setting, so everyone was in a hurry to see where the heck it was going.
All lined up at the edge
It bares mentioning at this point, that most all of the kids and dogs were not on leashes. You approach the overlook by hiking a mostly sandy 3/4 mile trail to the edge, which is a shear drop of 1000 feet to the river below – without any guardrails! I got to the edge, which was lined with people, including lots of other photographers who had staked their claim to the edge with their tripods. It was crazy to see all the kids and animals running around unattended so close to a shear 1000 foot drop.
1000 foot drop is not for the faint of heart
Now a word about heights – I have a touch of vertigo, but my wife is so scared of heights she was actually in Vertigo. At Horseshoe Bend, she couldn’t get any closer than the parking lot 3/4 of a mile away – actually, I made that up – she was able to tolerate leaning over to look from about twenty feet from the edge. She had been a trooper thru much of the trip to the ‘Grand Canyon’ region – which, translates from Native American to, ‘Many vantage points to look down into large hole from great height’.
Here’s my GoPro Image
My goal was to get a good black and white image and also something in color using my GoPro, which has a lens so wide angle, it sometimes seems you actually can see ‘behind’ the camera. I made my images by holding my Nikon over the head of the guy sitting next to his tripod with his feet dangling over the edge. My GoPro color shot was made the same way using a selfie stick fully extended over the heads of the ‘edge people’. The closest I could get was four or five feet from the edge, which was close enough for me!
I must say the ‘no guardrail’ thing is probably going to change soon. There is new construction going on that will probably make it safer. In an attempt to limit the amount of people getting uncomfortably close to a thousand foot free-fall, they are designing a viewing platform on the edge to accommodate the masses. Also, to disclaim, fortunately no one fell over the edge and no animals or children where injured in the making of these images. I just wonder how often that does happen!
#HorseshoeBend #Arizona