Basking in the warm glow of the setting Sun as temperatures plummet around us, we keep an eye downvalley, at the rainfall that may or may not sweep over us. Photographed March 2022.
Trees perch precariously in this hanging valley in Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park.
As my son Tadeh and I walked into the Narrows and took our first steps in the Virgin River, I could not help but remember a much colder day in October, eight years ago, when I first experienced this hike. I promised then that I would bring Tadeh here one day, to see the glow of the walls hemming us in, to feel the might of the river against each footstep as we plodded upstream, and the thrill of sinking in, often to the waist, in the calmer sections. A microcosm of rounded rocks cleaving the flow greeted us in every corner, every turn of the river, and no two steps were ever the same, nor will they ever be again. Photographed March 2022.