Zion National Park is a wonderful location to catch the fall colors. Last October I was finally able to work out a trip to shoot this wondrous warm spectrum in Zion. On October 27th, I woke early and left Flagstaff in the dark (2:15 AM) with the plan to shoot from sunrise to sunset. Almost 21 hours later I arrived back home refreshed, inspired and exhausted by what I photographed this wonderful day.

I started this shoot at sunrise in the higher canyons of the east entrance road. This is typically one of my favorite Zion sunset locations, and had never found myself here at sunrise. Here the maples and other trees were in full color; spectacular in presentation, with plenty of leaves on the trees and on the ground to create some interest. Between 6:00 and 7:45 AM I shot the three photos: "Maple Leaf and Mud"; "Fall Foliage #1"; and "Fallen Leaves and Rocks" in this area. While I was hoping to catch some sunrise color on the rocks to accent the fall colors, the day broke cloudy (and stayed that way all day). After exploring some more side canyons without much success, I proceeded down into Zion Canyon with anticipation.

While the colors were spectacular high in the canyon, I was somewhat dissappointed to see that the leaves had not yet turned low on the valley floor. It was at that time that I immediately decided to start at the furthest reach of the canyon (Temple of Sinawava), and then proceed to some of the higher side-canyons to find some good color. Most of the other shots were found in these areas.

Here you'll find that each photo is annotated with the process of finding, executing, and processing each image in the gallery. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email me.

Enjoy.