© gary ladd / Courtesy of Grand Canyon Association

More Photos (6):

Other articles by Doug Kreutz:

Beautiful bywayDakota offers satisfying fare, modern flairVault Mine Trail: If you climb it, there's a rewardHike: Madera Canyon's Vault Mine Trail is steep, rewarding Reid Park's rose garden proves its sweet scent Streamside trail is aflutter with birdsButterfly Trail: Beauty and the Butterfly The wonder of wood Biking: Old Spanish Trail round trip ideal for cyclistsBirding: Get early start on Birding Trail

Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Construction
West-Press
Printing Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor

Most of us think of the Grand Canyon as a great, gorgeous gash in the Earth — but it's also a powerful magnet. • The Canyon's magnificence attracts a steady stream of professional photographers and writers — each of them drawn to the brink of the abyss as if pulled in by magnetic forces. • Among the willingly magnetized were the photographers and authors who produced three recently published books about the Canyon. • Gary Ladd — who has visited the Grand Canyon and trekked its trails for nearly four decades — took photos and wrote the text for "Grand Canyon: Views Beyond the Beauty" (Grand Canyon Association, $14.95). • Stewart Aitchison — a writer, photographer and naturalist who has written previous books about the Canyon — recently released "Grand Canyon's North Rim and Beyond: A Guide to the North Rim and the Arizona Strip" (Grand Canyon Association, $12.95). • Jack Dykinga — a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer whose work has appeared in National Geographic magazine and many other publications — presents more than 100 large-format photos in "Images: Jack Dykinga's Grand Canyon" (Arizona Highways, $39.95). • Today, we bring you a sampling of photos and information from the books — along with observations from the authors and photographers. — Doug Kreutz

This book owes its origins to a question that photographer and writer Gary Ladd heard from a visitor to the Grand Canyon: "What's down there?"

Ladd was more than prepared to provide an answer.

Over the past 39 years, he has made about 80 backpacking trips into the Canyon and spent more than 500 days on the Colorado River, which slices through the gorge.

"I wanted to show people what was down there — with photographs showing big views from the rim" and many additional shots from those treks into the spectacular chasm," Ladd said.

He and editors devised a format in which his expansive photos from vista points on the Canyon rim were overlaid with markers identifying prominent sites. Accompanying blocks of text describe the nature and significance of the sites.

Shooting the photos and gathering the data was not a quick project.

"It took about four and a half years," Ladd said. "I drove 4,000 miles — to the North Rim, the South Rim and many points along the rims."

The photographs and accompanying text blocks offer a convenient guide for visitors driving to overlooks along the North and South rims.

But the book also includes detailed sections on topics ranging from geology to trails and photography techniques.

In a section called "Grand Canyon Basics," Ladd notes that "The Grand Canyon is 277 river miles long and averages 10 miles wide and about a mile deep. Because the rim of the Canyon is highly convoluted, it's been estimated that the number of miles of rim totals more than 2,750 miles."

A section on geology puts the age of the Canyon into perspective.

"Exactly how old is the Grand Canyon?" Ladd writes. "Not all geologists agree but most believe that a figure around six million years is about right. On Earth's geologic time scale, which reaches almost 4.6 billion years into the past, six million years is only yesterday. . . . Grand Canyon is just a child, and we are fortunate to be here to witness its formative years."

In a section on photography techniques, Ladd offers some tips on getting good photos at the Canyon. Among them:

● Shoot early or late in the day to get the best light. "The hour before and during sunset, and the hour during and after sunrise, are often the most visually dramatic," Ladd writes. "The warm colors and low-angle light of sunrise and sunset flatter the canyon's multicolored topography."

● "Often a photo of Grand Canyon is improved when a foreground feature is included in the frame. A tree, a group of people or a projecting rimrock can lend depth, interest, and a fresh palette of colors to the photograph."

● Be patient. Waiting for improved light, looking for an interesting foreground and setting up a tripod take time — but your patience might be rewarded with an excellent photo.

Finally, Ladd adds this observation: "Relax. This is the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon! Don't spend all of your time tinkering with your camera; look around and enjoy the atmosphere."

— Doug Kreutz

Naturalist, field biologist and author Stewart Aitchison says he loves the North Rim of the Canyon because it's the "quiet side of the great chasm" — and sublimely beautiful to boot.

His new guide, which also describes sites on the so-called Arizona Strip north of the Canyon, notes that only about 10 percent of visitors to Grand Canyon National Park make their way to the North Rim. That's partly because the North Rim of the Canyon is farther from big cities and major highways than the busy South Rim, and partly because access to the North Rim is closed in winter months because of snowfall.

That snowfall is much heavier than levels on the South Rim — owing in part to the fact that the North Rim is about 1,000 feet higher.

Aitchison pointed out that the elevation difference also brings differences in vegetation.

Along the North Rim, at altitudes above 8,000 feet, "you'll see Douglas firs, white firs, spruce and aspen," Aitchison said. The South Rim is known for smaller trees such as piñon pines and junipers.

"As you're approaching the North Rim (from the town of Jacob Lake), you are going through forest that is incredibly beautiful," Aitchison said. "There's a feeling of relative remoteness, and it's a lot quieter."

The book, with photos by Aitchison and many other photographers, offers detailed descriptions of roads, scenic points and lodging on the North Rim. Short sections on wildlife and colorful Canyon figures such as Colorado River explorer John Wesley Powell round out a portrait of the area.

Does Aitchison have a favorite spot on the North Rim?

"If I had to name one, it would be Point Sublime," he said. "It sticks out far into the Canyon, so you have about a 280-degree panorama."

In a section called "Approaching Grand Canyon's North Rim," Aitchison's book describes sites near the community of Jacob Lake and a back-road drive to the remote Toroweap Overlook.

Also included are other attractions in the Arizona Strip area — including the Shivwits Plateau, Pipe Spring National Monument, the Mount Trumbull Schoolhouse and a site with ancient rock etchings known as petroglyphs.

"There's so much to see in this beautiful area," Aitchison said. "I think people who go to the North Rim tend to spend more time at the Canyon. I see a lot of people at the South Rim who just drive up, take a picture and leave. At the North Rim, people tend to stay awhile and explore."

— Doug Kreutz

He says he's not a four-wheel drive kind of guy, but in his "Images: Jack Dykinga's Grand Canyon," the photographer sure spotlights some hard-to-reach vantage points.

Dykinga confessed in a recent interview that his truck "snagged" a tree a couple times trying to get to remote areas around the Grand Canyon.

"You always have this nagging feeling that if I get out there, am I going to be able to get back?" he joked.

The result is his latest book, published by Arizona Highways.

If you've ever marveled at the vastness of America's largest hole in the ground from the vantage point of your car, the local Pulitzer-winning photographer says you didn't get a good enough view.

His most recent photography is both stunning and humbling — to the viewer, that is.

In trying to explain his own work philosophy, Dykinga said he thinks of something Ansel Adams once said: "You're not just taking a photo of a place, you're passing on the feeling that you felt when you shot it."

He recalls the cover image to the book, an ominous scene of deep blues, purples and oranges with the dark silhouette of a barren tree leaning out from a rock. The viewer can feel the power of Mother Nature just as Dykinga said he felt the cold, blustery wind whipping his face as he struggled to balance his camera to get the shot.

"There's several images in the book where you feel sorta privileged to have been there when it happened," he said. He said he enjoyed those moments when "hard work and tenacity made it all come together."

Dykinga describes his work as landscape photography with a journalistic mission, setting out to tell a story.

"You can't just shoot every photograph from the Grand Vista," he said. "You have to incorporate the details so people can feel like they can touch and smell something."

That effort to deliver an intimate exchange between the viewer and the view drove Dykinga to seek out unusual vantage points, often driving in in his four-wheel-drive truck and sometimes hiking to even more remote locations. Detail maps are included in the book so the reader can travel along with Dykinga as he circled the Grand Canyon.

"My goal was to show the diversity of the place, both scenical and biological," he said. "While people have done countless trips to the Grand Canyon, nobody actually went around the darn thing."

— Jennifer Sterba