This past November, I accompanied a group from my camera club on our semi-annual photo trip. This time it was my third visit to Zion National Park in Utah.

Our first morning in the park, we were up before sunrise to photograph the Towers of the Virgin. I captured the following image just at the tail end of Blue Hour, just as the sun was starting to lighten up the sky but before it came up over the peaks behind us.

As the sky was getting lighter, I noticed this lone tree. I liked how it was framed by the cliff face.

It had snowed in the park a few days earlier and there was still evidence of snow showing at higher altitudes. As the sun came up and started to warm the face of the Towers, I particularly liked the contrast of the warm, red rock and the snow, with line of evergreen trees outlining a pyramid.

While it was mid-November, the fall colors were still abundant in the park.

The following image I call Fall’s Palette:

At one of the shuttle stops, we noticed a couple of climbers high on a rock face. Using our telephoto lenses we were able to determine that they were two women we had seen early in the morning on the shuttle. One seemed to stay in one spot while the other one climbed up to the peak, then lowered herself back down again, then repeated the process several times during the time we watched. Soon the shuttle came along and we were off, so we never saw what transpired for the rest of the afternoon. My one regret was I didn’t get a photo of the entire rock face to show how small these women were compared to the face they were climbing. However, you can get some idea from the following image. With the naked eye they literally looked like specks on the rock face.

Each time we have been to Zion, I have photographed the iconic Watchman. This time I shot it from a different location. I have to say that this has become my favorite version of The Watchman.

On our final day, three of us hiked The Narrows. This is a section of the Virgin River that flows through some narrow canyons. The hike involves wading through water that, at this time of year, ranged from ankle deep to mid-thigh. While we had waterproof pants and neoprene socks, the boots let water through. Needless to say, the water was very cold and my feet alternated between being comfortably warm and freezing cold. I believe we hiked about 1.5 miles upstream then returned. All-in-all it was an interesting experience, worth doing once anyway. Photographically, with overcast skies, the light was less than desirable. I did come away, though, with the following two images.