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While I'm paying attention to the website, I guess I'll keep on furiously updating the posted photos. We fast forward to December, just after Christmas, when I convinced my family to drive out to Bryce Canyon National Park. This is really out of character, particularly since we're accustomed to driving in dry L.A. weather, and haven't really had a whole lot of experience driving in snow. The park took about six inches of snow just before we got there, so some park roads were closed and much of the main road was still partially plowed.
I've not been to Bryce before, but based on the photos I've seen I suspect that it is beautiful in spring and summer, but even more gorgeous in winter. (1) The snow is a nice contrast to the rock formations, (2) small amounts of snow on ledges serves to highlight to texture of the rock, and (3) reflections off the snow fill in and give a warm glow effect, even when shooting into the sun. I loved it. It was really cold in the mornings though; being mostly arid, the park hits the single digits overnight and near dawn. My strong desire to be present at the instant of dawn resulted in us getting out there about half an hour before, and freezing our asses off waiting for the sun to rise.
By contrast, astrophotos were not so satisfying. We managed to coincide with a waning half moon, so skies were dark (great) but landscape was too. Hopes of getting shots of hoodoos against a rich night sky were not so easy to come by. We probably could have gone down the trail a bit and tried light-painting the rock, but the snowiness of the trail and the steep dropoffs made this seem like a bad idea. Oh well. Perhaps next time.
