We signed up for this week-long trip with Backcountry Journeys a year ahead of time.  The goal was to travel around Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon to photograph lightning storms during their annual “monsoon season.”  Plenty of storms the week before and the week after our trip.  We had clouds and it reached 114 degrees, but almost no storms our week, and I didn’t get a single lightning picture.    Five of us client photographers, one van, and one guide/driver/professional photographer.  Me, my brothers Andy and Jeff, my friend Dan from high school, and David from Georgia who also signed up.  We were all techies and got along fine.

Every day was packed. Andy, Jeff, Dan and I flew in to Pheonix two days early and rented a minivan to get around.  On our own, we went to Watson Lake (photo with colorful kayaks), the town of Jerome (copper mining town, Skullatorium), Sedona for red-rock landscapes, and Montezuma Castle National Monument to see Native American cliff dwellings. Once we met up with our guide Jon and with David in Flagstaff, we headed out to Pueblo ruins, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon (slotted canyons), Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River, and then three days along the Grand Canyon.  We had Navajo guides for Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon. We would load into the van at 4:30 in the morning so we could get the sunrise shots, and we never missed the golden hour of light before sunset each evening. My main camera tagged the photos with GPS info and I have software that then generated the map.

Really about 20 good shots, the rest are helping to tell the story of the trip. The restroom shot was just to show a contrast (and a guide from a previous trip took similar photos wherever he went). The long road to Monument Valley was made famous by Forrest Gump. Enjoy!

Scroll past these 36 to see additional photos and people photos.