Postcard from Bryce Canyon

I was not supposed to take this picture…but obviously I did. My friend and fellow professional photographer Dave Forster were on our way from Tucson to Escalante, Utah on an eight day photo road trip. To say it was a great trip would be an understatement. But, I digress.

We spent the first night in Flagstaff, AZ, as we had a late start from Phoenix (Dave flew in there from Seattle). In Flagstaff, there was a fair amount of snow on the ground from a storm that morning. It was clear when we arrived in the evening, but temps were down in the low teens. A weird event for a guy like me who was in shorts that morning in Tucson.

Anyway, we drove north on day 2, from Flagstaff to Page, AZ, then across Lake Powell into Utah. A bright sunny day, but still cold. From there we went west, then north on Highway 89, running into snow on the ground here and there. From 89, we took Utah’s most beautiful highway, 12 east heading to Escalante. By now it was sunset. We drove through Red Canyon then climbed up to the turnoff to Bryce Canyon. At this point, there was snow all over the ground.

Originally, we had made the decision to skip Bryce as we both had a ton of sunrise photos.  But, with snow all over the ground, we changed our plans to come back to Bryce before dawn the next morning to see what we could capture with our cameras.

We spent the night in Cannonville, about a 25 minute drive from Bryce. Sure enough, we rose before sunset and headed back west to Bryce Canyon, which is at an elevation of 8,000 feet. It was cold of course, but we set up our cameras and waited for the sun to break the horizon. This was my first trip ever to see Bryce in the snow.

And obviously, I wasn’t disappointed. An as the sun broke the horizon, I took this photo. If you look on the far left, you will see a little lens flair from the first light of the sun. This was one of those five shot fast exposures, all taken a different apertures, then combined into one shot. I think it turned out rather well. I have more photos of Bryce in the snow that I will share with you over time.   

From there we went a couple of miles down to Ruby’s Inn for breakfast, then headed east again for Escalante and the Hole-in-the-Rock Road. Much more to come so stay tuned.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com.