Back to the Slickrock
When I checked the sky to decide if I wanted to get up to shoot sunrise, it was filled with clouds. I could see no reason to get
up if there wasn't going to be a sunrise. When we got up at 9:00, white fluffy clouds were scattered across the sky. We drove up to
the slickrock area above the tunnel to shoot a golden cottonwood in Pine Creek
that we saw yesterday.
It was a gorgeous morning with clouds blowing in over the sandstone temples behind the cottonwood. It was one of only a few cottonwoods in the slickrock area that still had its golden leaves, so it drew lots of attention from cars on the road. We shot the tree from nearly every angle because each view presented a different background. The image below is one of my favorite of the trip.
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Just as we reached the Explorer, we looked up and saw three bighorn sheep on the slickrock slope ahead. It was probably the same three ewes we saw last night. They posed for us for a few minutes, and then slowly ambled up Lower Keyhole Canyon.
We drove back to camp for lunch and our afternoon nap. We woke up just in time to drive back up into the slickrock to look for bighorn at sunset. I wanted to photograph sunset from the Watchman Bridge because the clouds promised a great sunset, but the entire bridge was packed with photographers--three deep in some places. We have shot from the bridge many times, but I've never seen it as crazy as tonight. We drove right on by and back up into the slickrock. We stopped before we reached the tunnel to shoot the clouds over East Temple.
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It took a couple of passes, but we eventually found our three ewes again. This time, they were accompanied by a large ram. Unfortunately, they were in a dark canyon, and we couldn't get very close. We have shots to prove we saw them, but they aren't good shots at all.
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As we were finishing up shooting the bighorn, we looked toward the main canyon of Zion and saw the clouds turn to gold. The pines on the side of the mesa stood in silhouette against the golden sky. All those people packed on Watchman Bridge must have gotten amazing images.
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