“What good is the warmth of summer,
without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Winter in Zion National Park is always spectacular! These photos are from two different days I spent in Zion December 2016. A day after heavy rains and flash flooding, the sun was shining brightly with a brilliant blue sky. Waterfalls that only appear following heavy rainfall can be see in a few of these pictures. The other day was towards the end of the month, a few days after a snowstorm.
“A cold wind was blowing from the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
I watched in awe at this scene for many moments. Notice how the waterfall gently lands onto that blanket of snow!
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Can you spot this waterfall?
My trusty Kia Soul, to show the scale of how massive the cliffs are in Zion.
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“Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too?
When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself,
it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart
and causing it to crumble into ruins.”
― Gustave Flaubert
Check out this phenomenal tree! There is a hole that goes straight through it!
I can just imagine it singing Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”.
Shot through the heart
And you’re to blame
Darling, you give love a bad name…
You can’t quite see them, but there were tons of icicles hanging off the cliffs in this narrow canyon.
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Boulders blocking a small waterfall, so it’s flowing against the side of a cliff, around the blockades, and then down.
Don’t mess with water, it does what it wants!
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Muddy waters. Remnants of previous flooding.
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Waterfall above, and a closer view of the same waterfall below.
“December’s wintery breath is already clouding the pond,
frosting the pane, obscuring summer’s memory…”
― John Geddes
“I’ll fill those canyons in your soul, like a river lead you home.
And I’ll walk a step behind, in the shadows so you shine.
Just ask, it will be done and I will prove my love, until you’re sure that I’m the one.”
– Gary Allan
“There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.”
– Charles Dickens
“Winter then in its early and clear stages, was a purifying engine that ran unhindered over city and country,
alerting the stars to sparkle violently and shower their silver light into the arms of bare upreaching trees.
It was a mad and beautiful thing that scoured raw the souls of animals and man, driving them before it until they loved to run.
And what it did to Northern forests can hardly be described,
considering that it iced the branches of the sycamores on Chrystie Street and swept them back and forth until they rang like ranks of bells.”
― Mark Helprin, Winter’s Tale
“Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.”
― Mary Oliver
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.”
― William Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Sonnets
