Winter in the Southwest

The Sunny Snowy Southwest. When my family planned this vacation back in the heat of July, I was hopeful that we might get one day of snowfall at the Grand Canyon. What I didn’t realize was that I should’ve been more careful what I wished for. Not only did we experience a major snowstorm at the Grand Canyon, but back to back major snowstorms for the entire region. It was probably one of the snowiest weeks in decades, well that’s at least how the locals were talking about it.

Ponderosa pine forest of the Kaibab Plateau in the snow

Snowy vistas of the Grand Canyon

A snowstorm clears in the early morning light.

Elk at Grand Canyon. While not native to Grand Canyon, elk are perfectly adapted to this kind of cold weather.

This to me was great, as after all I love winter weather. It also meant that the 4×4 pickup truck that I’d reserved months before ended up being the perfect rental choice.

Me with Monument valley in the background

Blazing fresh trails through the snow in Valley of the Gods, Utah.

Now onto the photography, as afterall this is a photo blog. It turned out that I probably should’ve wished for a little lot less snow as most of my planned shoots had to be scrapped. That coupled with heavy cloud banks and fog really did cut down on the sightseeing. The silver lining was that the shots that I did get were incredible! The storm clouds made for beautiful lighting when the sun was able to shine through. That and I got to shoot winter scenes of places (like Zion) that rarely get snow. The snowfall in Zion National Park was so rare that I met a fellow photographer who had driven 3+ hours from Salt Lake City just to capture it. That coupled with low visitation volumes (and really cheap hotel rooms!) made for a truly memorable trip. I can’t wait to come back again in winter!