Petra

We arrived in Petra two days ago. Beautiful ride from the Dead Sea. The landscape here is vastly different from Jordan Valley. Quite rugged. I've attached our first view of Petra, though it may be hard to see. All of the mountains are very sloping with minimal veins of sediment running through them. When you round the corner and see where Petra lies, the mountains are vastly different. Jagged spikes rising up in surreal formations. It's to the left of the photograph below.
After arriving at the hotel, we hit the ground running: scouting the afternoon we arrived, then finishing up with planning Saturday morning. (The view from my room is below...)



This left the afternoon free for us to catch the late afternoon light at the ruins. Due to the distance to our goal, the monastery, we didn't have time to really shoot along the way. In fact, the pathway was pretty unstable a lot of the way so it was hard to look and walk at our frenetic pace at the same time... particularly since we were all loaded down with camera equipment.

I love to hike. My family will attest to this. But this was the most exhausting hike I think I've ever undertaken. But there were two high points: one, finally reaching the top where the monastery sits, and two, walking back through all of the ruins in darkness (no moon, even). The stars were unbelievable. Coming back through this one canyon, we turned the corner and saw the big dipper perfectly, beautifully, awesomely framed by the canyon walls. I will never forget that sight!

I've attached some images which can only give you a hint of the spectacular sights we saw. We will be shooting over the next three days, then we are planning a camping trip to a place called Wadi Rum...