Video Editing and A Whole Lot of Hiking

Last week, my family and I went on a trip to Arizona, my birth place, and as with all of our holidays we tried to make it as active as possible. For me, this trip had a 'theme', which was canyons. We managed to visit 6 different canyons all over the state including: the Grand Canyon, Sycamore Canyon, Madera Canyon and Antelope Canyon. To add to this we also visited places such as 'Horseshoe Bend' and various lookout points.

Looking over Horseshoe Bend

For me, this holiday was a fun way to get some exercise in as we did a lot of hiking - in the canyons, to get to the canyons, to get to the lookout point and to find the perfect spots to take pictures and shoot video clips. On an average day, we were walking over 15km, with some days going up to around 20-25km. This also included a lot of climbing up and down, which made it a whole lot more tiring.

A creative shot of part in Antelope Canyon

On the third day, we visited the Grand Canyon, which I've already seen a few times, but never hiked to the bottom. I still can't officially say that I have as we only went part of the way, but we did more than more people would and what is recommended for one day. We hiked 4 miles down along the @@@ trail and then the same route back up. On the way down, the hike seemed almost too easy, but the walk back up definitely made up for it. I was panting and had to keep stopping to catch my breath.

The most unexpected was Sycamore Canyon, which we found by accident and discovered that it wasn't very well known after searching the internet for it. None of us had any idea why it wasn't popular, until we started driving down the 19 mile road that took us to the lookout point. There were no cars. Anywhere. That should have been a sign. The first half of the road was fine - dusty, but fine. Then came the not-so-fine part. The road had miniature canyons embedded in it from previous drivers that must have been about 40cm deep. This made the drive much harder that anticipated. I guess that also explains why it isn't such a popular destination, considering that this it the only route to get there. Nevertheless, when we arrived there none of us could even remember the road. The view was incredible.

Climbing rocks in the canyons

We stayed there for a while and just as we were leaving, I knelt down to snap a few pictures at a different angle and fell leaned straight onto a cactus with my leg. I was pulling out the needles for the rest of the car journey back.

Quick word of advice: don't get anywhere near cacti - their thorns are there for one sole purpose: to hurt you and (laugh at your stupidity)

After we got back, I had some time at home, which is when I started compiling the 200 video clips I had into a video. I don't have any fancy editing software, currently I'm using iMovie, which means that to get the same effect as in other ones, I have to take a long and complicated route. In the end, I'm really happy about the final product as it definitely is a nice way to document our adventures in a fun and different way and I got to have fun editing the video.