Exploring the Earth and Sky of the West

Posts tagged “Zion”

From Washington to Zion

Cliffs of white and tan rock are streaked by dark red coloring, and dusted by a light layer of white snow.

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:

A thin layer of fog and pollution sits in broad valley.
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:

Cliffs of white and tan rock are streaked by dark red coloring, and dusted by a light layer of white snow.
The Altar of Sacrifice after a February storm, Zion National Park, Utah
An isolated mesa dotted with trees is perched above cliffs of white sandstone
An isolated mesa, Zion National Park, Utah
An ornate brown, white, and orange butterfly perched on a leaf
California Sister (Adelpha californica), Zion National Park, Utah
A small creek flows through a canopy of green cottonwood trees with cliffs of red rock in the background
La Verkin Creek, Zion National Park
Stars and planets dot the sky over cliffs and canyons of red rock
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.
A tan lizard with brown and yellow spots and a thick black neck stripe rests on some rocks
Great Basin Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus bicinctores), Zion National Park, Utah
A lizard sits on a ledge of orange sandstone with a small arch in the background
An unidentified lizard hangs out next to a small sandstone arch, Zion National Park, Utah
Vast expanses of white and tan rock dotted with small trees and shrubs
Vast expanses of sandstone slickrock in Zion National Park, Utah
A river winds through the bottom of a deep canyon with sheer rock walls
Zion Canyon from Observation Point
A bighorn sheep with short horns peer down from a ledge of rock
A desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) in Zion National Park, Utah
A trail winds through pine trees and vast expanses of white sandstone
Clouds build over the White Rim Trail, Zion National Park, Utah
stars streak across a purple sky, with cliffs of red rock and lots of trees in a canyon below
Star trails over the La Verkin Creek drainage, Zion National Park, Utah
White and red boulders sit in a dry wash with towering orange cliffs above
A dry wash in the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park, Utah

December 19, 2020 | Categories: canyons, National Parks, Nightscapes, photography, Utah, Wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fleeting waterfalls

While Zion National Park may not normally be known for its waterfalls, spring snow runoff and the occasional summer monsoon thunderstorm can turn the park and its stunning red and white sandstone cliffs into a veritable Yosemite of incredible waterfall action.

I made a brief stop in Zion as part of a 1200 mile drive from Washington to Arizona for the holidays.  I had visited Zion in the past during the spring when runoff from the high country surrounding the canyon was at its peak but despite the fact that the entire western United States had been getting hammered by a massive cold front for the past 2 days, I never expected to see the number of waterfalls that I did.  Not only were they more numerous then ever before, even the relatively reliable ephemeral waterfalls, such as the one near the parking area at Temple of Sinwava, flowed with significantly greater gusto that I had ever seen before.

Waterfall at Temple of Sinawava

Dry Waterfall at Temple of Sinawava

For an interesting comparison, here’s a shot taken from almost exactly the same spot (notice the bare tree on the left is the same as the tree on the right in the previous photo) in the summer of 2009.

Perhaps the most spectacular waterfalls were those found in the small alcove that is home to Weeping Rock.  A short but wet hike up the Hidden Canyon Trail provided a vantage point of these falls.  Getting decent photographs was a challenge.  With heavy rain, wind, and nearly 100% humidity, it was next to impossible to keep rain off the camera and keep my lenses from fogging up.

Waterfalls near Weeping Rock

Runoff along the Hidden Canyon Trail

Hazy view out into Zion Canyon from Weeping Rock

The day after these photos were taken, the entire Park was shut down and evacuated due to severe flash flooding, road washouts, and the threat of a dam failure upstream on the Virgin River.

December 27, 2010 | Categories: National Parks, Utah, Waterfalls | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments