Canyon de Chelly guide recommendation needed

[Jim MSP]

Jim,

I have a few images on my website about halfway down the landscape gallery if you care to look there. There is one of The Window which is a nice 4 hour adventure out and back, as I remember, passing beyond Spider Rock. Click on the image and there is a little description of getting there. Fall color is usually late October.

Deb Lem was my last guide but I no longer have her number.

Great photos, thanks. I'll try to find Deb.

[Jim MSP]

Spider Rock, from a pretty crappy flatbed scan of a 4X5. Not my best work ever.

Thanks, a fine shot; just enhances my desire to visit.
Jim

[Jim MSP]

Another 4X5 from a few miles down the Canyon from Spider. Not the greatest light that time of day.

It seems quite important for this canyon, perhaps more than many others, to be there when the light is right.

Jim

[Misirlou]

It seems quite important for this canyon, perhaps more than many others, to be there when the light is right.

Jim

Yes, exactly. And you can't get to the canyon floor without paying for a guide, which obviously imposes limits on what you can shoot, and what options you have for using the light to your advantage.

[Jim MSP]

Yes, exactly. And you can't get to the canyon floor without paying for a guide, which obviously imposes limits on what you can shoot, and what options you have for using the light to your advantage.

I am planning to hire a guide.
My current plan : arrive day 1 in time to shoot near sunset.
Day 2- shoot near sunrise from the top roads; hire a guide for an afternoon & sunset trip into the canyon.

[bill proud]

Hi,

There was a trail that you could hike to White House ruin from the rim but you must stay within certain limits while at White House. I haven't been in a few years.

White House gets afternoon sun and can be shot from the rim.

Spider Rock is best also at sunset as are all the overlooks on the Canyon De Chelly side.

[Misirlou]

Thing is, even if thieves abscond with all your camera equipment or something, it's still so worth going there just to see the place that you won't mind very much.

[Ken Doo]

Don Libby and I used Timothy Halwood as our Navajo guide in Canyon de Chelly several years back.  Twin Trail Scenic Tours, (928)349-5560.

http://kendoophotography.wordpress.com/?s=canyon+de+chelley

ken

[Jim MSP]

Don Libby and I used Timothy Halwood as our Navajo guide in Canyon de Chelly several years back.  Twin Trail Scenic Tours, (928)349-5560.

http://kendoophotography.wordpress.com/?s=canyon+de+chelley

ken

Ken - thanks. I'll try to contact them as well, and see who is available. From what I have gathered, there is a large turnover of guides.

Jim

[framah]

I should report you for publishing a photo that makes me drool about being there.
What a super shot. Where were you exactly for this shot (north or south rim drive?)? And dawn or dusk?
I still need to look up sun rise & sunset times for Oct 2 when I plan to be there.

I was at the beginning of the canyon at a pullout. The road in the lower left of the photo is where the tour vehicles enter the canyon.
 I assume that it was the southern side as that is the moon rising. I got there before the day of the full moon, scoped out where the moon rose. On the day before the full moon, I set up in the pullout and waited.

If you shoot on the day BEFORE, you will still have sunlight on the sides of the cliffs as the moon is rising.

Full moon for this October is on the 8th.

[Jim MSP]

I was at the beginning of the canyon at a pullout. The road in the lower left of the photo is where the tour vehicles enter the canyon.
 I assume that it was the southern side as that is the moon rising. I got there before the day of the full moon, scoped out where the moon rose. On the day before the full moon, I set up in the pullout and waited.

If you shoot on the day BEFORE, you will still have sunlight on the sides of the cliffs as the moon is rising.

Full moon for this October is on the 8th.

Thanks for this detail. I will be on Oct 2, probably a few days too early.

JIm