Zion - full trip

So here is the full report from my recent trip to Zion National Park with Paul and Adam McKean.  We went to go hike the Subway with the Ashby family. Due to rain our plans changed. 

I got there monday mid afternoon and it was raining on and off, I arrived in the main canyon and took a few shots. This is the Watchman over the Virgin river. 

I then drove to Lava Point campground which is on the west side of the park off of Kolob Terrace road.  It was overcast and ok light. 

I also saw a llama. 

The next morning we woke up to tons of rain and low clouds in the distance. This photo shows the main Zion canyon full of clouds. 

So instead of hiking the Subway we hiked Angel's Landing. This shot is from the trail head. 

 This is partially up the hike, the light and the clouds was great

Me on the summit.  

Adam on the summit. 

After the hike we ate dinner in Springdale and then went back up to camp, the same way as before. we caught a gorgeous sunset along the road, with a double rainbow and perfect light on the cliffs. I love how the road leads into the frame and gives depth to these shots. We only took 10 or so frames before the wall of water hit us. This was the first of a few perfect moments of light. 

This is further up the road towards camp. 

The next morning we woke up to rain, and decided not to hike our other planned canyon, Pine Creek. Instead we spent the morning taking photos.  These are macro shots near camp. 

We stopped quite a few times to photograph cliffs and clouds.  

 Second instance of perfect light, the sun peaked through the clouds for about 3 minutes.

Third instance of perfect light, a 1/4 mile or so down the road from the above photo. The sun again peaked through the clouds on another set of cliffs. 

Further down the road there were open fields and red cliffs. 

We then went back to the main canyon and took a few more shots of the low clouds. 

We said good by and went our separate ways. I went east and Paul and Adam went west.  The rain picked up and water falls appeared all over the place. 

The east side of Zion is mostly sandstone slabs, which acted like funnels driving the water into Pine Creek.  This is one of many raging waterfalls that fed into Pine Creek. I think we made the right choice not to go down Pine Creek Canyon. 

We had a blast and even though we did not do either of our planned hikes, the trip was a success. Thanks Paul and Adam for a great time.