Virgin River Zion in Winter

Zion National Park Virgin River in Winter

Zion is one of the National Parks in Utah and one of my favorites to visit. It is a far more intimate experience than the Grand Canyon, and has a range of hikes that are easily accessible.

I took this photo on my first visit to Zion in February of 2006. I have since been back twice, in the spring and summer of 2006. Of course it was a different experience each time because of the different seasons. This first visit was in the winter. The slopes and peaks were covered in snow, and the trees were bare. This photo with the Virgin river in the foreground paints a bleak and wintery picture. It wasn't quite this bleak looking in reality - I actually have deliberately adjusted the image to give it this very wintery feel. The rock at Zion is in fact very red, and if you want to get some idea of what the original image looked like, here it is:

Even this doesn't really show you just how red the rock is as so much color is lost in converting the image file to jpeg and making it small for the web. Believe me, the rock is much redder than appears here.