Archive All Issues February 1993

The Grand Canyon in Winter

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Winter light transforms this natural wonder into a dream world.

Featured in the February 1993 Issue of Arizona Highways

Looking south from Plateau Point on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, O'Neill Butte, and Yaki Point, loom over Pipe Creek Canyon.
Looking south from Plateau Point on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, O'Neill Butte, and Yaki Point, loom over Pipe Creek Canyon.
BY: Richard L. Danley

WINTER LIGHT makes the Grand Canyon a special place. Even on cloudless days, the Canyon's features are etched sharply by the slanting rays of the winter sun. However, when clouds, fog, and temperature inversions move through the gorge, when a snowstorm blankets the slopes in glaring white, when the sun suddenly breaks through an otherwise opaque sky to illuminate a great natural temple, then the Canyon becomes a living dream world. I obtained my photos by visiting the Grand Canyon for one and sometimes two days each week. Still it gnaws at me when I wonder what I miss on the many days that I'm forced to be elsewhere. Someday I'll be able to rectify the problem. (PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 28 AND 29) Viewed from the South Rim, a snowstorm brews above Deva Temple, center. (LEFT) The Plateau Point Trail can be seen, on the far right center, from O'Neill Butte on the South Kaibab Trail.

A Winter eamscape