Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Three days of the Condor....

....or rather one day!

Out in Page, AZ today and we were messing around Horseshoe Bend and there was no  light....we brought a line a storms in when we came into town, and this morning the clouds still hadn't cleared out, so we thought we would trek south to photography Marble Canyon and other beautiful sights around there.

You know sometimes when you have a picture that appeals to you for one reason or another and you keep it on the icebox door, or bulletin board or desktop to remind you of places you want to go?  Well the Navajo Bridge across the Colorado River reminded me just of that.  So when I took my own picture, I was specific about what I wanted and voila - I got it.

These are the beautiful Vermillion Cliffs just past the Navajo Bridge, and although the bridge is not well lit by the sun, we were just so happy to have any Sun, that the cliffs looked fabulous.

While there on the bridge, we began to notice a large vulture like bird, but it was larger than a vulture and not the right markings.  Suddenly it occured to both of us that the bird is a condor - we had lucked into about 3 California Condors and Walt took some remarkable shots.
 They may not be the most beautiful of birds, but they are fascinating up close and HUGE.
 Frankly, this one looks like a Halloween Costume!

Flying is something they do very gracefully and I love the "fingers" on the edge of their wings.

 All of the Condors are numbered as this is an endangered species, however they are making a comback and one of the places that is normal to see them is over the Colorado River near the Navajo Bridge and the Vermillion Cliffs.

We did return to Horseshoe Bend to get the sunlit shot of the "U" in the river.
It is hugely dramatic....there is probably an 800 to 500 foot drop off (what's a few 100 feet or two on a drop off - anything more than 4 feet and I'm afraid I would be a mess of bones!)  Standing on the edge is very unnerving, but the scenery is really gorgeous especially this time of year.


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