Rim Shot

The sun rises in a pastel sky above the Painted Desert east of Grand Canyon National Park on the morning of June 3, 1980, as seen in this capture from the canyon's South Rim. Two friends and I had just completed a four-day, three-night backpacking trip in the huge expanse--hiking down the South Kaibob trail from the South Rim, nearly to the North Rim and eventually back up Bright Angel trail on the South Rim--and were preparing to leave northern Arizona at this time for southwestern Utah and Zion National Park.