Got up at quarter past 4 ... We wanted to see the Sunrise over the Grand Canyon. By 20 past 5 we were near Bright Angel Lodge. There was a shuttle bus waiting to take us out to the west rim. As we were so early that we decided to walk. About half the way Regula discovered that the 2 km walk I had proposed was actually a 4 km walk and that there was no way that we were going to make it to the official sunrise observation point in time.

However, having come to terms with this fact, we still found a nice spot to watch and still a few minutes to prepare our cameras. In good time we stood there all prepared for a beautiful sunrise experience. The sky around the designated sunrise area was becoming all red and shiny. But then ... oh *?@&!! there was this cloud which covered everything right before the sun managed to rise over the horizon ... (there were some amazing pictures never the less as you can see)

After we had recovered from this early morning knock-out we admired all the other nice vistas in store for non hiking tourists (it was amazing to see the number of people who left the rim for hikes despite the thunderstorms expected for the afternoon).

In the afternoon we drove to Monument Valley, negotiating some massive thunderstorms on the way. It was still raining when we arrived. But the specialist in the visitor center told us that the rain would soon be over (which was true) so we waited out in the restaurant and then setup our tent on the beautiful campground within the Monument Valley Park. As the rain stopped there was even a magnificent sunset which made more than up for the not so great sunrise over the canyon. (Checkout tomorrows picture)