Bryce Canyon

[Snapper]

[MaggieAllan]

they took my breath away Steve....absolutely stunning

[Snapper]

Last time I was at Bryce I ended up hiking across the top of one of those ridges as a thunder storm was getting closer. The theory is that lightning will always strike the highest point. I'm about 6'2" and the other folks were a couple of inches shorter. There were no trees for one stretch of it. I think it was the fastest we moved all day to get back down to a lower elevation.

It's a completely different place in the snow. It looks really beautiful when the sun is shining but the temperature was about -5 C without windchill. If you include the windchill it was probably down somewhere between -10 and -20. The conditions started off quite nice but started to close in later in the afternoon to the point where I couldn't keep my face into the wind for more than a few seconds. The last but one photo was a case of looking over the edge of the viewpoint, taking the photo, and then being blown backwards in a freezing wind as tiny ice particles stung every bit of exposed skin, which wasn't a lot. I had 4 layers of reasonably technical cold weather gear on and I was still cold. As soon as you step onto the ridge and into the wind you know immediately if you have any bits where your fleece doesn't quite cover up your gloves.

I was hoping to hike round the Navajo trail to get some photos down amongst the hoodoos (and out of the wind) but the trail was closed due to a large landfall. I got chatting to a guy in the visitor center who had been out hiking the trails in the moonlight the night before. I can imagine that this is just absolutely awesome if you have a clear night and full moon. It did sound quite tricky though. He was quite experienced in night hiking and even he fell a couple of times when he slipped on sheet ice.

It's a really really beautiful place to visit in the winter, but if you do head over that way do be prepared for the weather. What started as a few snow flurries in the afternoon at Bryce slowly turned into a full blown snow storm as I was driving over to Moab in the evening. I-70 barely stayed open with all the traffic lining up to follow the snowploughs. It turned into a bit of nightmare drive, although it got better once out of the mountains. Looking back I think it would have been smarter to spend a night a Bryce in front of a log fire with a hot chocolate and then do the drive during the daytime.

[Nostromo]

Great photos Steve. I always have problems getting the correct exposure with lots of snow around. The meter reads off the white stuff and underexposes and I find that I had to overexpose by 1.5 stops to get the desired effect.

[julieanne]

Great photos Steve.

The year I visited Bryce we were there in late April and there was still a little snow around - which made it a lovely sight. Nowhere near as much as this tho.

Brings back some great memories - thanks.

[blott]

Great pics Steve. It looks just like it did when we were there and I suppose we ought to go back sometime and see it all without the snow! There were some flakes coming down but not a blizzard, there was no wind and it was a partly sunny day (just crisp and bright), magic! Your pics brought it all back, thanks!

[E. Cosgrove]

Brilliant photos Steve. Bryce Canyon is the best place I have been to for the night sky. I have never seen so many stars!!

[amy]

Great photos Steve, looks a lot different from when we visited with all that snow.

[SunLover]

Thanks for the excellent photos... there's somewhere else to add to our "to do" list [msnsmile]

[Snapper]

I jpeg'd these two snaps as well to remind myself of what the conditions were like. The shiny bits on the road in the first one are sheet ice under about an inch of snow. Not ideal driving conditions but well worth it.