Point Imperial

Author's Comments

Most people who come to the Grand Canyon never see this view. The North Rim alone gets a fraction of the South Rim's traffic, and Point Imperial sits at the end of a spur road that asks for a deliberate detour. That is part of what makes it. At nearly nine thousand feet, the air is different here. Thinner, cleaner, with a cool edge even in July. The ponderosas stand right up to the rim, and the canyon does not so much open below you as fall away to the northeast in a long sweep toward Marble Canyon and the Vermilion Cliffs beyond. The Painted Desert lies in the distance like a wash of color held under glass. On a clear morning you can see all of it at once, which is unusual for this canyon. Most overlooks give you a section. Point Imperial gives you a country. Sunrise is the photograph. The view faces east-northeast, and the first light comes across the Marble Platform and catches Mount Hayden, that finned spire just below the rim, before it touches anything else. For maybe ten minutes Hayden glows orange against shadow that has not yet lifted. Then the light spreads down into the Nankoweap drainage and the whole eastern canyon begins to take shape. The road opens in mid-May and closes in mid-October, and within that window I would choose late September. The aspens at this elevation are starting to turn, the summer monsoon haze has cleared, and the mornings are cold enough to keep the casual crowd in bed. Bring a wide lens. Bring a longer one too, for Hayden. Bring something warm.

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