Sunrise and Sunset at Hopi Point. It already has been pointed out that
this is the strong scenic point near to El Tovar, for both eastern and
western canyon scenery, though the eastern is not so fully revealed as from
Yavapai Point. Regular conveyances take visitors out to this point both
morning and evening. The scenic effects are heightened in the Canyon a
hundredfold by the presence of the morning and evening shadows. In the
glare of the midday sun, the temples, towers, walls and buttes lose their
distinctiveness, while in the shadows of either early morning or the late
afternoon, they stand forth as vividly as a profile cameo cut in black on a
light ground. As the hours of sunrise and sunset vary, the drives are so
planned as to reach the points at the proper time, so as not to weary the
visitor by too long waiting, or lose the enchanting effects by too late
arrival. As the sun sinks, the shadows lengthen and deepen, bringing out
into bold relief features hitherto unobserved, and giving a sublimity to
the vast scene that it did not possess in the full blaze of the sun. If
clouds obscure the direct rays, all the better, for then other and even
more startling effects of beauty and color are produced. At times the whole
Canyon seems filled with a luminous mist, in which the temples float into
individual prominence in a remarkable manner.

Then, as the vision is turned to the east, one may see the shadows
gradually, and, at the last, rapidly rise and shut off the peach glows, the
vermilions, the absolutely fiery lights, that often blaze in lingering
affection on the peaks they love so well to illumine. No two nights are the
effects the same. One can never grow weary of watching them. Sometimes the
tones are soft and tender. Again the vividness of the flaming colors is as
if the god of color were declaring his power, and demanding special homage.
From the soft tint of rose-ashes to the fiery red of a blinding sun, the
whole gamut of colors and effects is used. The afterglow is by many