The Milky Way over Grand Canyon's South Rim from Plateau Point
April 26, 2023 - 2:42am

This hike was planned primarily as an attempt to photograph the Milky Way over the Grand Canyon's south rim. There were a few other locations in Arizona where I made the attempt at this during this same trip: Saguaro National Park in Tucson and Lake Mary in Flagstaff, but this would be the most ambitious by far. My first attempts at Milky Way photography in the Grand Canyon were at hiking trips along the Tonto Trail, just below the south rim, but these were not far enough away from the south rim for anything spectacular. I have managed to get a few pretty good shots of the Milky Way from a campsite at Hermit Creek, looking back up towards the south rim along Hermit Canyon, but it's a pretty narrow window and only works when the Milky Way is vertical. During a backpacking trip in September 2022, I was camping at Havasupai Gardens and had planned to do a night hike out to Plateau Point to photograph the Milky Way, but I was clouded out on both nights I was there. This trip was essentially a make-up attempt for that but would involve a night hike to Plateau Point all the way from the south rim, 6 miles down and 6 miles up with an elevation change of slightly more than 3000'.

I did some planning ahead of time to find the best time to do this and to try and determine how much of the Milky Way would actually be visible from Plateau Point. From northern Arizona the brightest part of the Milky Way does not get very far above the horizon so you need a pretty clear view to the southeast, south or southwest depending on the time of year and time of night. For the early hours of the morning in late April the brightest portion of the Milky Way is visible in the south-southeast between 2 and 3am, and will be about 20 degrees above the horizon. I knew the distance from Plateau Point to the base of the south rim (approx 9,900')and I knew the difference in elevation (approx 3,288') so using some trigonometry I was able to calculate the height of the south rim in degrees at approximately 18 degrees. So the brightest portion of the Milky Way should be just barely visible. So it would work. The plan would be to try and arrive at Plateau Point by 2am which would give me a couple of hours of shooting time to play with before the sky would start to brighten for dawn.

I drove up to the Canyon late afternoon and arrived just after sunset. I picked up some food at the General Store to take along with me for the hike as I was planning to have some breakfast down there before starting the hike out. I started hiking down from the south rim on the Bright Angel Trail at just after 1030pm under mostly dark skies. The moon was just a little past last quarter and was supposed to set around 1am which would be perfect because I did not want any moonlight in the sky while shooting. The moon was actually lost behind the south rim cliffs very early into the hike as I descended into the Canyon. There was a little moonlight along the upper portions of the trail which was nice but once it was lost behind the cliffs it got dark. There was still some glow in the sky from where it was and still some moonlight falling on the trail that led out to Plateau Point but that did not last long either. With the loss of the moon it got dark. Very, very dark. My headlamp did a nice job of lighting up the trail ahead of me and the cliffs next to me as I descended but there was not enough light to reach down into the Canyon and it was just a black abyss beyond a hundred feet or so. I stopped briefly at the Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse and then took a longer break at the Three-Mile Resthouse on the way down. I stopped at a few other places just to enjoy turning off the headlamp and to gaze up at the stars. The night sky at Grand Canyon is glorious. I also took a break once I arrived at Havasupai Gardens before starting the hike out to Plateau Point, which was still a mile and a half away. I was a little surprised to still see a few people wandering around the campground at Havasupai Garden at one o'clock in the morning and figured everyone would be sound asleep by then. The hike out to Plateau Point was a breeze since there was very little elevation change going out there and I arrived at Plateau Point a little after 2am. Total hiking time was just under 4 hours.

The stars from Plateau Point were glorious. I was a little nervous that some light from Grand Canyon Village might cause some glow in the sky above the south rim but that did not seem to be the case. When I tried taking some shots from the north rim last year I was surpised at how much light Tusayan was putting into the sky and was happy not to be dealing with anything like that. I noticed a spot of light up on the South Kaibab Trail that was moving, someone else apparently on a night hike. It was an absolutely perfect night with a nice clear and dak sky. I spent about an hour taking photos and experimenting with the settings on the camera (ISO and shutter speed) and the lenses (f/stops) until I felt I had some images that I could work with. The camera used for this was my Nikon D750, which has been an absolute workhorse for me over the past 9 years. It is very good in low light situations and gives fantastic images at high ISOs. I had two lenses with me: a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4. The images that I ended up using to produce the final result were shot with the 24mm lens. There was one image for the Milky Way itself that was shot at ISO 3200, f/3.2, for 8 seconds, and another image for the Grand Canyon's south rim that was shot at IS0 6400, f/1.4 for 30 seconds. Adjustments were made to both of these images using Adobe Camera Raw and then the two images were blended together using Adobe Photoshop to create the final image.

Sometime around 330am I packed everything up and started the hike back to Havasupai Gardens. It was still quite dark when I started but by the time I arrived at the campground I could already tell that the sky was beginning to brighten. I had a couple of muffins with me for breakfast and I also brought my Jetboil backpacking stove so that I could make myself some hot coffee. I had a nice relaxing breakfast and also had a book with me so I could keep myself occupied while I waited for daybreak.

I forget what time I started the hike out but I think it was between 530 and 600am. I was surprised at how quiet the camping area still was and that I did not meet anyone else hiking out. As I got closer to the top of the trail I started meeting lots of people who were hiking down, mostly day hikers that were probably just going to the resthouses or Havasupai Gardens but also some people who were obviously provisioned to be out for several days. I made a brief stop at the Three-Mile Resthouse and a longer one at the Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse and I was back at the trailhead for the Bright Angel Trail at just after 9am.

I have been having a lot of fun with Milky Way photos and have done a number of locations at home back on the east coast, down at various locations on Cape Cod, and also along the south coast of Rhode Island. I did a previous Grand Canyon night hike back in May 2021 where I just walked along the Rim Trail from Grand Canyon Village to Hermit's Rest and stopped at several places along the way for some Milky Way shots. When I finished the hike I waited for the first run of the shuttle bus to get me from Hermit's Rest back to the village. I also took some shots from the north rim of the Grand Canyon, as well as in Bryce Canyon and Arches National Parks in Utah, as part of that trip. My next adventure is coming up in October of this year (2023) when I will be backpacking along the Colorado River on the Beamer Trail from Tanner Rapids to the Little Colorado River. I am praying for at least one clear night to get some shots of the Milky Way and the Colorado River together.