Light Around the Bend
Caroming its way down towering sandstone walls, light finds it way to the softly flowing Virgin River which has worked for millennia, and often with much greater vigor, to carve and sculpt this wonderous landscape, in the Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah.
With walls often rising more than a thousand feet above the winding river course well less than one hundred feet wide in most places, simple geometry explains why sunlight struggles so to light the depths of the Narrows. But the moments are so very sweet, though fleeting, when it does set the red sandstone ablaze. Time and again, hiking in the Narrows reveals new wonders, even in familiar places, thanks to the ever changing light conditions. A darkened passage, almost ominous in mood, can erupt with color around any bend, and then fade as quickly as it arose--almost before you can compose your shot if you dawdle in wonder for almost any time at all.
The smoke from a forest fire somewhere in the distant vicinity had snuck into the canyon when Josh Krasner and Sky Matthews were there last fall, and it was quite noticeable looking higher up the canyon walls. While that smoke, and the light it scattered, did create some interesting visuals at times, the smoke was only particularly visible just out of the top of the frame here, as this image captures only a small portion of the canyon walls' great height.
Thanks for viewing!
Light Around the Bend
Caroming its way down towering sandstone walls, light finds it way to the softly flowing Virgin River which has worked for millennia, and often with much greater vigor, to carve and sculpt this wonderous landscape, in the Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah.
With walls often rising more than a thousand feet above the winding river course well less than one hundred feet wide in most places, simple geometry explains why sunlight struggles so to light the depths of the Narrows. But the moments are so very sweet, though fleeting, when it does set the red sandstone ablaze. Time and again, hiking in the Narrows reveals new wonders, even in familiar places, thanks to the ever changing light conditions. A darkened passage, almost ominous in mood, can erupt with color around any bend, and then fade as quickly as it arose--almost before you can compose your shot if you dawdle in wonder for almost any time at all.
The smoke from a forest fire somewhere in the distant vicinity had snuck into the canyon when Josh Krasner and Sky Matthews were there last fall, and it was quite noticeable looking higher up the canyon walls. While that smoke, and the light it scattered, did create some interesting visuals at times, the smoke was only particularly visible just out of the top of the frame here, as this image captures only a small portion of the canyon walls' great height.
Thanks for viewing!