Poor planning on this one! I thought I would do a trip to the southwestern US to avoid the cold of a New York winter. What I didn’t take into consideration was that one needs to go very far south to find warmth. I was also traveling through some mountainous areas in New Mexico and Arizona. Higher elevations mean lower temperatures. At the South Rim the elevation is around 7,000’.

Oh yes, I was car camping for this trip. I think I was the only car in the campground at the Grand Canyon--there were a couple of RVs, but they have heating. I had one cloudy and overcast day, so I couldn’t shoot much. The next morning I woke up to a foot of fresh snow on the ground and clearing skies. I reluctantly got out of my warm sleeping bag and got to work.

It was a beautiful sunrise and the snow gave a unique counterpoint to the red rocks. There were interesting compositions everywhere, so I had a lot of fun running around trying to photograph them. This image is one of my favorites.