Snow Scenes in Bryce Canyon National Park
We paid two short visits to Bryce Canyon National Park last weekend, both during sunset.
Panoramic stitching of 3 horizontal images captured with a wide angle lens
It was in December, it was snowy, it was close to sunset, and it was probably the best time to visit. There were very few people and you could totally have the viewpoint all to yourself. I wasn't sure which viewpoint was the best, Sunset Point or Inspiration Point or others, nor did I have much time to recon and explore.
We simply followed the map and the name “Sunset Point” was obviously a no brainer first choice.
Orion never said this but he said “I’m cold” five times in a roll while we were checking out Sunset Point lookout. He climbed onto the bench enthusiastically as he was excited about the snow scene. Then he tried to jump off the bench but slid down right into the snow. No complaints, no cry. It must be fun! He went back to the bench again, and repeated this several times until realizing landing his butt in the snow wasn’t fun anymore.
It was funny all I wanted was to capture the beautiful scene behind him, which he never even bothered to look. Perhaps one day he will enjoy the scene and say something like “wow this is beautiful”!
Sunset was still 30 minutes so we decided to move onto the 2nd lookout - Inspiration Point.
I thought to myself: if Inspiration Point looked better, I’d just stay for the sunset photo. If I were lucky, we would be able to photograph both - one during the golden hour, one during the blue hour.
ISO100, 23mm, f/13, 3.2sec
Well - the latter was a naive idea.
I totally underestimated the difficulty to trek in the snow. I didn’t have snow boots, nor hiking boots. I was wearing the same basic sneakers that I’ve been wearing for the last three months - from equator to Patagonia, from tropical forest to wintery mountains. It took me sometime to walk up to the top level of Inspiration Point, and the sky color was already fading in the blue hours.
Fortunately, the view was more than stunning.
On our 2nd evening visit, we went straight to Sunset Point. I walked down the Rim Trail connecting Sunset Point and Sunrise Point, trying to soak in more incredible scenes. Unfortunately, the trail was too icy and slippery for my sneakers to handle.
I used my tripod as a walking stick. I didn’t hike very far, but being able to walk closer to the hoodoos brought me some level of satisfaction.
I never thought I would enjoy the snow scene, but a snow scene at Bryce was certainly special and to be adored.
See Additional US Road Trip We’ve Done In The Past
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