Between work, weather, and the ongoing pandemic, my camera has seen relatively little use the last few months. Here in central Washington, it is inversion season. Atmospheric inversions occur when relatively warm air passing over the Cascade Range traps colder air below in the valleys of the Columbia River Basin. These pools of cold air can persist for weeks, bringing cold temperatures, freezing fog, and poor air quality. Fun, fun, fun! Here’s what things have looked like in recent days:
On many days, getting above the inversion and into the sunshine requires only a short drive or hike to the crest of one of the many low basalt ridges that crawl across central Washington. Here, some pollution and fog lingers in the Upper Yakima Valley below.
Other days, even a 1500 foot climb doesn’t get one above the fog. Here, rime ice coats the sagebrush on Rattlesnake Dance Ridge, Yakima River Canyon, Washington.
Stuck inside, I’ve been working on a project to organize and categorize over a decade’s worth of photos. It’s been fun to come across long forgotten gems and months and months of photos that I never even got around to editing in the first place. I plan to post some of the highlights as I come across them.
While I post only a tiny fraction of the photos that I take here, looking back through the archives, I’ve noticed one especially glaring omission over the past few years: Zion National Park. Zion is one of my favorite landscapes on Earth, and for a little over three years we lived just 20 minutes from the north end of the park. I was surprised to discover that I haven’t shared any images from Zion since I started this website and blog almost a decade ago. In order to rectify that, here’s a look back at some of my favorite photos from Zion National Park:
The Altar of Sacrifice after a February storm, Zion National Park, Utah
An isolated mesa, Zion National Park, Utah
California Sister (Adelpha californica), Zion National Park, Utah
La Verkin Creek, Zion National Park
The night sky from the Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park, Utah. Light pollution from Cedar City, UT is visible on the horizon at left.
Great Basin Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus bicinctores), Zion National Park, Utah
An unidentified lizard hangs out next to a small sandstone arch, Zion National Park, Utah
Vast expanses of sandstone slickrock in Zion National Park, Utah
Zion Canyon from Observation Point
A desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) in Zion National Park, Utah
Clouds build over the White Rim Trail, Zion National Park, Utah
Star trails over the La Verkin Creek drainage, Zion National Park, Utah
A dry wash in the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park, Utah
Zach Schierl Photography 
Thank you for sharing these absolutely beautiful photos.
December 20, 2020 at 12:18 pm
Wonderful pictures, as always! Feel so lucky I got to visit several times with you two!!
December 30, 2020 at 11:30 am