Trying to get Milky Way shots last night was a bust. There was an incredible amount of air traffic to the south which is the direction I was shooting in. It seems that there are lots of planes flying to southern California that fly across Arizona between 7pm and 9pm. I don't think I have any shots without trails from the lights of planes which could make editing the photos difficult. I should have taken some photos of the same scene at the same f/stop and exposure time, at least then I could have stacked them and filtered out the trails. There were also lots of lights from down below which at first I thought was from someone fly a drone around but it later turned out to be other campers and their headlamps.

This was a freaking long day! I was up at 4am and made myself some breakfast while waiting for it to get light enough to do anything else. I needed to filter some water for the day and I did that by headlamp. Then I had to pack up what I needed for the day.

It was a little before 7am when I finally left camp and start the hike to the Little Colorado. OMG, I had forgotten how much work goes into the Beamer Trail. I mean, I knew I knew, but some aspects must just have been erased from memory. All of the constant ins and outs and ups and downs seem to go on forever while making very slow forward progress toward your destination. At least it was in the shade and nice and cool for the morning hike going north.

I took a wrong turn somehow when approaching The Confluence and ended up descending to the Colorado River instead of the Little Colorado. It was a few hundred yards before The Confluence. There was a beach down there and a trail of sorts leading north along the river but that eventually dissolved and I found myself climbing over rocks and small cliffs to get to the Little Colorado. I am guessing that was a boater's beach to leave people off it they wanted to hike the Beamer Trail to Palisades. Who knows?

I finally got to the Little Colorado but I lost some time in the process. I did get to see lots of the Little Colorado though and it was every bit as beautiful as I had hoped. I lucked out that there had not been enough major rain to turn it brown. I have had good water so far for the entire trip.

I finally got to the Beamer Cabin around noon, had my lunch there, and stayed until around 1pm, when I started my hike back. I met a nice group of four lady hikers that were doing the same day hike from Palisades. We stopped and chatted a bit on the way back and it turns out they were part of the problem with with lights from down below when I was trying to get my Milky Way photos last night. They arrived at Palisades after dark and were wandering all over creation with bright headlamps looking for a place to camp.

I got back to camp around 545pm and it was a mad rush to filter water and make dinner before dark. I ended up eating my dinner in the dark.