Milky Way Grand Canyon at Cape Final

I spent the night at the edge of the Grand Canyon with the sole purpose of shooting the Milky Way. The location was the backcountry camping spot at Cape Final. It requires a 2 mile hike in, of which I had to make two trips; one for camping gear and one for photography gear.

It was a moonless night, yet the bright Milky Way provided its own light. I was shocked that I even picked up a smidge of the Colorado River and rapids at the bottom of the canyon, especially since the foreground photo was taken at almost 1 am. In the distance, you can see the San Francisco Peaks and light dome from Flagstaff.

In retrospect, I wish I would have taken more photos during the day and of the Grand Canyon Lodge because the Dragon Bravo fire started just 8 days later. Lesson learned; capture all you can, when you can because there may never be the same opportunity tomorrow.

Six sky shots stacked and tracked with star tracker. Foreground shot at the end of the shoot at almost 1 am. Processed photos in LrC. Used StarryLandscape Stacker to combine the sky photos. Then, I sent everything over to PS to work in layers. Used StarXTerminator to remove the stars for the foreground shot. Used StarXTerminator to separate the stars in the sky shots from the Milky Way. Aligned the sky without stars, sky with stars and foreground in PS.