Much like Bryce, I couldn’t get enough of the natural beauty around me.Īt the main lookout, I walked out along the quarter-mile path for a better view. I wouldn’t have minded perhaps a touch more snow, but the thin layer set off the reds wonderfully, and the recent moisture really enhanced the saturation of the colors. As I had hoped, the hills weren’t completely covered in snow, but they did feature some white accents. But the beauty of these hills were well worth the drive. The next morning, we set out for the Painted Hills: the main attraction! It was quite a drive from our hotel in Redmond, and we had to cross two snowy passes. I even espied a blue heron chilling on a rock that likely would have been scared away by larger crowds. I was happy to encounter few others in this popular park. We even tried to catch the bald eagle, but by then it was too dark. We turned back twice, ultimately giving in and racing back to the parking lot to capture a beautiful sunset. However, treacherous patches of ice thwarted in our attempts to hike our standard route around the main rock. Smith Rock was lightly dusted, so it made for good photographs. But we had to book hotels and plan the PTO, so we just had to hope for the best. Snowless, and they’d be no different than during the summer. Too much, and they’d just be nondescript white mounds. Ideally, I wanted a dusting on the hills. It’s quite difficult to plan for weather. Our trusty photo group agreed this was a good destination idea, so we ran with it! Since we were going out there, we decided to tack on Smith Rock State Park, Blue Basin, and Clarno we’d make a long weekend of it. It’s a bit out of the way to get to them, so they really require a dedicated trip. And in the winter? The thought of the reds dusted in white brought back the excitement of Bryce. I’ve seen pictures of these banded hillocks, and I’ve longed to shoot them since. To keep it local, we opted instead for a national monument that I’ve always wanted to check out: the Painted Hills. Olympic was a possibility, but that’s starting to get a bit far, and we thought it unlikely it would look much different this time of year. Rainier is almost entirely closed this season, so that wouldn’t really work. During the winter, it’s just deeper, to the point of being almost impassible. However, we’ve been to Crater Lake many times, and you can often find snow there much of the year. We considered keeping it drivable, which limited us to parks like Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, Olympic, or maybe Redwoods. This year was a bit challenging, mostly because we have another very large trip planned for this summer (I might have mentioned it before, but I’ll talk more about those incredible plans in a later post), so the expense of flying anywhere didn’t make a lot of sense. As a photographer, I was in heaven, and I already can’t wait to go back.Įnter year three. There, we photographed sunrise in the rain, hiked the famed Angels Landing trail, and marveled at the spectacular rust hoodoos dappled in snow. Last year, we flew to Utah for some winter photography, and we learned the hard way that Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks are much closer to Vegas than Salt Lake.
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