Hoodoos in the Snow: Bryce Canyon in Winter
My long-awaited hiatus is coming to an end, but it has been fun.
I needed a break.
Y’all know what I mean, right?
Just gotta get away from the same ol, same ol, and do something different.
I followed the weather reports, and when I saw that Bryce Canyon got some snow, I made my plans to come up to this most magical of places.
The weather app (yeah, what was I thinking?) said it was going to be cloudy, and that was all I needed to book the trip.
And stop looking at the weather app.
So my wife and I packed some winter clothes, booked a room at Ruby’s Inn, and headed up the 89.
Right into another snowstorm.
Which is cool when you live in the desert.
As we arrived at Ruby’s, the dark clouds began unleashing more snow on an already snow-saturated landscape. As we ate dinner, the sky turned dark, and visibilty dwindled down to a few dozen feet.
The snow was thick and the ground was getting slick.
The weather app said it was clearing in the morning.
It didn’t.
This did not deter us in the least, and we headed up the mountain to take advantage of this remarkable event.
Other events happened on this day — see previous post.
The next day we wanted another crack at it and the sky was cloudy, but no snow.
Heading for breakfast, we encountered the phenomenon of black ice.
Both of us achieved a horizontal position on the ground in a split second.
She is good, but I am limping rather badly.
Meh… stuff happens.
Up the mountain we went.
At the first stop, we saw the clouds moving in from the north, and they were dropping tons of snow in their wake.
And it began to snow on us as we were trying to get photos and stay warm.
It was cold, and the wind was fronting the storm.
You can see the snow moving in behind the trees and hoodoos. This is usually a view of about 80 miles of the Grand Staircase. On this day, it is only a couple of miles at best.
In this shot below you can see the entire canyon is covered by dense snow and clouds. In the distance, Powell Point has been exposed to a little break in the clouds. Distance: about 25 miles.
This was a very eerie feeling as the snow and dark covered us while we could see the brightly lit mountains in the distance. It was lovely.
We hung around waiting for the inevitable clearing and were very glad we did. Storms move fast at these altitudes, and within about thirty minutes, it began to turn back to visibility again.
I haven’t processed the images from my Nikons yet, and the film will take a few days to get back.
But I am loving this rare moment in a rare treasure of nature.
I recommend Bryce Canyon in the winter. Fewer people, a lot fewer, gorgeous landscape, and if you can catch those red hoodoos in a carpet of white, you will see what I mean.
Next time, some images from a day trip into the Escalante.
Thanks for coming along.
(All of these photos were made on my iPhone 13, and processed with RNI film emulation: Fuji Velvia.)
Hi, I’m Don Giannatti, a photographer and mentor for up-and-coming photographers. You can find me on my website, Don Giannatti, and at my Substack site, where I also publish for creative people. All subscribers to my Substack have access to a free, long-form workshop on the business of commercial and professional photography.
