The Architect of Zion
Zion National Park
You spend so much time in the Zion Narrows looking down, watching your footing in the river, that you can forget to look up. I stopped for a break, leaning against a cool, damp section of the canyon wall, and this scene just opened up above me. The light was perfect, catching the inside of this huge alcove and making the sandstone glow with an intense, warm orange. It felt like looking into a furnace. Down where I was standing, everything was in deep, cool shadow. The contrast was what got me. Those dark, vertical streaks against the bright rock looked like they were painted on. It was so quiet in that spot, just the immense scale of the rock and that pocket of brilliant light.